Dangerous Bicycle Scenario

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I just ran into (almost literally) a very dangerous bicycle scenario in Davis Square this evening.

I was parked at the (somerville provided) bike parking space between Dover and Day St on Holland/Elm St. I got onto Holland/Elm St and rode southeast through the square right in front of a car on Day St with a green light. The problem is that from my vantage point, I have no stop light or stop sign (they are all behind me where Holland crosses Dover) and from this vantage point, Day St intersecting with Elm St is a completely separate intersection from Holland St intersecting with Dover St. But the traffic signals treat it as one intersection. Without knowing all the details of this intersection (which I should, I just have never dealt with this scenario before), I have no reason to think that I should be concerned about traffic coming from Day St. There really needs to be an additional Holland street light at the corner of Day St.

Comments

You get up to 15mph in 30 feet? Dang.

[komos.livejournal.com]

So you can determine what color the light is from one of the two lights on the island, despite this being a shoddy cameraphone shot that was dredged up from flickr, correct?

I don't need to imagine. I've ridden through this intersection many times and can say with confidence that I've not had the problem you're describing because I actually pay attention to these very same lights... at least enough to know that there are two sets of signals and not one on the island. In the dark, it's actually easier to determine what color the Day Street lights are because they are more noticeable for their brightness.

I have no illusions that riding in Greater Boston is easy, but in theory the difficulty should increase riders' situational awareness. Thing is, I've seen riders be every bit as careless, reckless, and aggressive as drivers.

Why aren't we also complaining about the dangerous merge on Highland? I've seen far more near-accidents involving cyclists there.