Somervile Police issuing tickets to bicylists

[lentower.livejournal.com]

Somerville police will enforcing the laws for bicycles soon:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2012/04/somerville_police_to_focus_on.html

There is a link to the Somerville guide for bicylists there.

Please share this with other lists.

Be safe and considerate of others!

best -len

Comments

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I hope this will deter bikers from riding the wrong way down streets (one way and two way - I saw someone almost get hit by a bus the other day because she was riding down Mass Ave on the wrong side of the road and he was pulling over at a stop) and running red lights. That said, I see so many cars breaking laws and no police presence to stop them, so I don't know how much the bike initiative will really help.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it would be possible (or even useful) for the police to pick a few of the more dangerous intersections in town and set up enforcement for both bikes and motor vehicle traffic for a day here and there.

Speaking of traffic safety - the signalling for traffic heading east on Somerville Ave at the Somerville Ave/Mossland/Oxford/Adelaide intersection is evidently unclear for a lot of folks -- A notable fraction of the times I happen to be on Mossland, I see traffic jump the first (more westerly) light when it's red because the more central light has turned green. I've learned to wait a moment before turning left onto Somerville Ave if I'm the first car at the light on Mossland to make sure nobody jumps the light. (It's sort of understandable - the further set of lights is what a lot of people watch, instead of the ones closer to them, and people tend to assume they'll change at the same time.)

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

That intersection is terribly designed. Switching to an all-ways walk is an improvement in some way, but, like Davis Square itself, it takes so long to come around that you feel like a chump just standing there, so most people just jaywalk. Then, when the walk signal does come, during busy times, all the cyclists turning left off Oxford St. pull the "Poof! I'm a pedestrian on wheels!" thing and turn across the crosswalk, which is obviously not as dangerous as cars running one down, but, c'mon, I waited for the signal to have my ten seconds to cross, and you can too.

Since there is a lot of pedestrian and bike traffic, they should a) have a separate bike signal for that left turn and b) make the walk-request button actually cause a walk cycle to happen within a few seconds of being pressed, not minutes.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this is because of the San Francisco incident where a 71-year-old pedestrian was killed by a cyclist who then went online and eulogised his helmet and "hoped that old guy was okay, too." (http://sfist.com/2012/04/05/cyclist_who_struck_pedestrian_at_ca.php)

His original post, for the linkshy: I wrecked on the way home today from the bi-weekly Headlands Raid today. Short story: I'm fine. The pedestrian I clobbered? Not so much

Around 8 am I was descending Divisidero Street southbound and about to cross Market Street. The light turned yellow as I was approaching the intersection, but I was already way too committed to stop. The light turned red as I was cruising through the middle of the intersection and then, almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions. The intersection very long and the width of Castro Street at that point is very short, so, in a nutshell, blammo.

The quote/unquote 'scene of the crime' was that intersection right by the landmark Castro Theatre. it leads from a really busy MUNI station to that little plaza where The Naked Guy always hangs out. It was commuter hour and it was crowded as all getup. I couldn't see a line through the crowd and I couldn't stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find.

I don't remember the next five minutes but when I came to, I was in a neck brace being loaded into an ambulance. I remember seeing a RIVER of blood on the asphalt, but it wasn't mine. Apparently I hit a 71-year old male pedestrian and he ended up in the ICU with pretty serious head injuries. I really hope he ends up OK.

They asked me a bunch of stupid easy questions that I couldn't answer, so they kept me for a few hours for observation, gave me a tetanus shot and sent me on my way.

Anyway, other than a stiff neck, a sore jaw/TMJ, a few bruises and some raspberries, I'm totally fine. I got discharged from the hospital during the lunch hour. The guy I hit was not as fortunate. I really hope he makes it.

The cops took my bike. Hopefully they'll give it back.

In closing, I want to dedicate this story to my late helmet. She died in heroic fashion today as my head slammed into the tarmac. Like the Secret Service would do for a president, she took some serious pavement today, cracking through-and-through in five places and getting completely mauled by the ragged asphalt. May she die knowing that because she committed the ultimate sacrifice, her rider can live on and ride on. Can I get an amen? Amen.

The moral of this little story is: WYFH

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/05/BA9O1NVHMI.DTL#ixzz1s8Jw6aJe

I think there are going to be a lot of changes for cyclists everywhere because of that incident.

Another link with a video, if you're interested (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2012%2F04%2F10%2FBA8B1O1H44.DTL).

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Gah. It's about freaking time, honestly. As a pedestrian, I've been almost mowed down by bicyclists while in a crosswalk more times than by motorists. The moral of the above story is that the cyclist belongs in jail.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. I was a pedestrian in SF, too, before I moved here (haven't driven since 1997) and I know that intersection - I didn't live near there, but SF is small, and that's a pretty well-known intersection.

I haven't been as "afraid" of cyclists in Boston as I was in SF, but I have had my moments in Cambridge and Somerville.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

That dude is one terrible ambassador for the sport. Looks like it didn't even occur to him that he could kill someone with his bicycle when he wrote that (much less when he opted to plow through rather than swerve or at least slow down). Some people just don't deserve to have force multipliers.

[ron_newman]

He should have his bike confiscated permanently, at the very least. And notices sent to all area bike shops strongly suggesting they not sell him another one.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

If he was going so fast he had to push the yellow and run the red, perhaps he was going too fast.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

We need dedicated bike lines and paths that are not shared or accessible by cars. Having a white stripe on the road is not a safe option. It's obviously not safe to be riding on the sidewalks either. There is no safe place for bikes to travel.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

That'd be great, if there were enough space for that. There isn't.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

One of the things being explored by some European cities in their downtown areas is no physical separation between cars and sidewalks--e.g. no curbs at all if that's easy to imagine. It seems to really make cars a little more conscious because there's no assumed separation. I don't know how that would work well in a comparatively large area like Somerville.

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

> There is no safe place for bikes to travel.

That is a very strong assertion, and all the data I have ever seen contradicts it - bicycle riding on the roads is statistically very safe. Commuting to work by bike extends your life expectancy considerably.

How come cyclists have to get off your road, and not anyone else? What about pedestrians? Are we to create a special network of over and underpasses throughout the city to make their journeys 'safe' too?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Not that it's seeing much traffic these days, but bostoncycling is still out there…

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Can we also enforce traffic laws for non-bike, non-pedestrian traffic? I nearly ran into a skateboarder going the wrong direction in the bike lane (on a two-way road with bike lanes on either side, so there was no reason for him to be on my side)?

(Full story: I was on Hampshire crossing Inman Square, which has just enough of a bend in the road that I couldn't clearly see down the bike lane. When I was in my lane, so was a skateboarder, about ten feet away. We both tried to swerve in the same direction, twice, and he wound up jumping off the board. Neither of us (or our vehicles) were damaged, but I was pretty damn shaken...and then fairly angry.)

~Sor

[squirrelitude]

I really don't like the image of my bike tire over a skateboard. Too many degrees of freedom...

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

Better still, enforce traffic laws for everyone equally - bikes, pedestrians, motor vehicles... And while we're at it, make them make some semblance of sense, so people don't feel the need to break the rules all the time.

I'm not holding my breath.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

And Segways! I work downtown, and in the summer tourists who rent Segways and zoom up and down the Greenway are a menace!

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

No kidding! Every time I ride, which is pretty much every day, I see cars "parked" in the bike lane. (They have their blinkers on, so apparently it doesn't count.) I have to swerve around them, into a mass of cars who are also doing unusual things to avoid the double-parked car. That's super-dangerous, but double-parking is an accepted way of life around here.

That said, I'm thrilled to see enforcement being stepped up for cyclists. The more cyclists who follow the rules, the safer it is for everybody.

[ceo]

I've recently started bike commuting down Beacon/Hampshire to Kendall Square, and one thing I noticed very quickly is that nearly all cyclists on that route (of whom there are many) stop for the red lights. Nice to not be the only one for a change. Having seen a cyclist getting written up the very first time I did that commute, I suspect enforcement is a large part of why.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Cambridge has grown increasingly aggressive in ticketing cyclists. They're out maybe 6-10 times a year on that route during rush hour. Sometimes they are even stationed at several places all along that route to get people who think they outsmarted the cops by stopping at that one light. They used to set up shop once a year, maybe. Then it was a few times a year. This year they were out on the very first warm day.

In 8 years of cycling through Somerville I've never seen a cop ticket or even stop a cyclist. I could only chuckle when I read that Somerville police planned to "step up" enforcement. Spending an hour at a single light would qualifying as stepping up.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Curious final paragraph...
"A bicyclist was killed when he was struck by a tractor-trailer truck last December in Cambridge. Another was seriously injured in a collision with a bus in Salem April 9."

Neither linked incident claimed any fault by the cyclist. I don't think the writer was trying to imply it, but if the cyclists weren't at fault it seems insensitive to link their deaths to increased enforcement of bicycle laws.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

As I posted in b0st0n:

Somerville Traffic Regulations section 13-7:
"Except when overtaking a slower bicyclist or to make a left turn maneuver, or to avoid a hazard, bicyclists shall stay within marked bicycle lanes."

Really? Does Somerville have the authority to pass such a law?

I'd deem the door zone to be a hazard. Plus the entire length of the Beacon Street bike lane, because of all the poorly-patched potholes.

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

I'd certainly argue (in court if necessary) that the door zone is a hazard. Most of the bike lanes are such that you need your wheel on the white line of the bike lane to ride clear of doors.

Having been doored once I'm not making that mistake again.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I am not sure, but I think the state law allowing cyclists to take traffic lanes trumps any city law against it.