"HWY XING" on bike path?

[squirrelitude]

I'm really kind of baffled by the new HWY XING sign where the Somerville Community Path crosses a dead-end road near Alewife:

Is this the result of some misguided legislation or city ordinance?

Comments

[ron_newman]

That looks like Harvey Street, which is in Cambridge. But I saw similar marking recently in Somerville near Cedar Street or Willow Ave (I forget which now) -- neither of which I'd really call a "highway".

[squirrelitude]

Yep, Harvey Street: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:42.397577,-71.136914&t=m&z=17

[ron_newman]

I've never, ever, seen that gate at the end of Harvey Street open. I guess it's for delivery access to W R Grace, but is it ever used?

[wardv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are printed at the crossing with Willow, too.

I've been wondering if the HWY is the bike path - it is kind of a people/bicycle highway...

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Perhaps "HWY" isn't an abbreviation for "highway", but rather an acronym of 3 possible bicyclist responses: "Hold up!", "Whoah!", and "Yikes!"

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Or a typo: "Why?"

[notnatalie.livejournal.com]

I noticed that yesterday as I was biking on the path at the intersection of Willow. The "Hwy" part of the message just made me laugh out loud!
It also reminded me of when the bike path was newly paved (remember??!! That's got to be getting close to 15-20 years ago now...) and friends who lived in the the Mixit artist coop building along the path were excited, as we all were, about it....until a few months later when they painted that yellow line down the middle. I have long since grown used to it but really disliked it then, and my friends who overlooked the path were so upset - what had been a path through the woods now looked instead like they were looking out onto a street. Ah well.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

From a cyclist perspective, it kind of is a street, and the yellow line is there for the same reason it is on roads - to keep everyone safe. A lovely walk (or ride) in the woods where everyone keeps right except to pass is still a lovely walk (or ride) in the woods. Head-on collisions, not so lovely.

[squirrelitude]

Hey, interesting question about that -- what if the walkers kept to the left, and cyclists stayed to the right (except to pass.) When someone I was riding with proposed this, I first thought "WTF, are you insane?", but now I wonder if it might be better. Pedestrians would be able to see cyclists coming, and cyclists would not have to keep up a chant of "on your left... on your left..." One downside is that peds might act like squirrels when faced with a cyclist coming head-on.

This is all a thought experiment, of course, since the benefits are entirely swamped by the effort it would take to get everyone to switch over.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

We'd hit each other head-on constantly. That creates essentially four moving lanes in a space that's only really wide enough for 2 + a passing lane.

Really I aspire to a world where people keep right and pay attention to the world around them, which already seems fantastical enough without, as you note, switching up the rules ;)

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

Do you think it should be illegal to go walking or running with head-phones on?

I'm not sure how else we'd get a world where people pay attention. Many, many times while bicycling I've literally yelled "on your left!" *right* behind pedestrians who quite clearly couldn't hear anything.

The other thing that comes to mind is that, given how much faster a bicycle is than a pedestrian, I don't think the number of head-on encounters would be more than double the current frequency of bicyclists needing to come up behind pedestrians...

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I'm really not in general in favor of making things illegal.

I *am* frustrated that there's no point in even attempting to say "on your left" to people with headphones, because I know 100% of the time they won't hear me or react. But if they were wearing headphones and keeping enough to the right that there was space to pass, or wearing them at a reasonable volume which allowed for some awareness of the world outside, or wearing them but being sure to look around occasionally (and especially whenever changing direction), that wouldn't be a problem, right?

[ron_newman]

That's exactly the posted rule on Rhode Island bike paths -- bikes ride on right, people walk on left. People really do that, too. And when I'm riding there and find a pedestrian coming the other way in my lane, I have no idea who's supposed to go where next.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

I believe the idea is that pedestrians can easily step off of the path without too much damage to the grass...

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

Maybe in this case green paint could be used. To look less unnatural. (Double negative seems to be the appropriate language here)

[shaggy-man.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's supposed to be "unnatural" about yellow.

[shaggy-man.livejournal.com]

When you need to warn someone of a falling object while rock climbing, you yell "ROCK," no matter what the object is. Because nobody cares what is about to hit them on the head.

I would mark all road crossing "HWY XING" for exactly analogous reasons. It's not important that it's not a highway. It's important that you instantly recognize the warning if you approach it at an unsafe speed.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

It seems like this territory ought to be well-covered by the stop sign, which bicyclists ought to recognize as meaning "stop," and is familiar from many additional contexts. But I guess this is another instance of fantasy-land...

[squirrelitude]

It occurs to me that you may not be familiar with this crossing. The road ends about 20 feet beyond the crossing, and I've never seen those gates open.

However, your point about "ROCK" is well taken.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

We yelled "HEADS!" because it told everyone to look out for something coming at their head, without any relevance as to what it was. Same idea.

In that way "TRAFFIC!" would work, but "XING" seems like a short version of it. XING should have been sufficient b/c it covers "PED XING:" be careful not to hit pedestrians, and "HWY XING:" be careful not to /be/ hit.

Boy, you type xing enough and it start looking like an alternate spelling to Zing!, which might be the problem.