bicycling

Boston Biker reports on the sudden disappearance of new bike lanes on Main Street just four weeks after the road was striped for them. Seems the Charlestown Neighborhood Council told the city Main Street doesn't need bike lanes:

The Neighborhood Council had a meeting on November 30 about the 4-week-old bike lanes. I was unable to attend.

The next morning, the bike lanes were gone. I'm going to write this again: The next morning, the bike lanes were gone.

The Boston Cyclists Union's Interactive Crash Map maps bicycle crashes between May and October of this year.

Via Boston Reddit.

The 16-year-old Jamaica Plain girl, allegedly driving her mom's mini-van without permission, was arraigned this morning in West Roxbury District Court on a variety of charges related to an Oct. 8 incident that sent a 65-year-old man to the hospital for three weeks with severe injuries that required surgery and skin grafts, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Judge Terry Craven released the teen, not named because of her age, on personal recognizance after she pleaded not delinquent to charges of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury, using a motor vehicle without authority and operating a motor vehicle without a license, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, which did not name her because of her age.

Craven also ordered her to stay away from the wheel.

In a statement, the DA's office described its case:

Dave Daniels reports on a recent incident in Kenmore Square - and posts a photo of the bowlegged bicyclist who nearly hit him:

He was weaving back and forth from one side of the sidewalk to the other. I don't know if he had "issues", was on some sort of mind-altering substance, or just an idiot.

A rich money manager driving his Mercedes hits a cyclist, a surgeon, and keeps going. He pulls over a few miles down the road to phone in a report of damage to his vehicle and asks that his car be towed. He does not ask for law enforcement assistance or emergency medical care for cyclist.

The police arrest the driver later but the District Attorney refuses to charge him with felony hit and run because, ...wait for it, a conviction could cost him his job.

What the driver is accused of doing is clearly criminal, but dropping felony charges will set a message to drivers that the penalties for neglecting the welfare of others on the road, causing life-altering injury, and showing no concern for the victim might not be as serious as the law indicates.

Sign the petition to the District Attorney to charge the driver with violations of the applicable law here.

Yes, the entire neighborhood.

Wicked Local reports on a a bike-vs-pedestrian crash near BC in Newton the other day, adds:

Bicyclists lose a lot of credibility for their deserved gripes about cars not sharing the road when they are running people down in crosswalks.

Brookline Patch reports that after the bicyclist became disengaged, the driver sped off. Victim sustained serious injuries in the 1 p.m. incident

One possible outbound Longfellow realignmentA state task force meets Wednesday to consider possible options for re-aligning the venerable bridge as part of the state's $255-million repair program.

The session to consider three options begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Shriners Hospital auditorium, 51 Blossom St.

Options range from keeping the current two car lanes in both directions to shrinking car lanes to one in each direction - and reducing their widths. According to a draft report, most task-force members would prefer to go down to one car lane outbound from Boston to allow for wider bike and pedestrian lanes.

The task force rejected a proposal for "flexible" lanes that would be restricted to bicyclists only at certain hours, in part because task force members realize Massholes would attempt to drive in the lane during those hours.

Regardless of road configuration on the bridge, the task force agrees the state needs to reconfigure the approaches for cars, pedestrians and bicyclists at Charles Circle, and that the state finally build the missing 500 feet of a walkway under the bridge on the Cambridge side. One proposal calls for construction of a new pedestrian bridge linking the Longfellow to the Esplanade.

• Longfellow Task Force documents and discussions

John Tammaro photographed some of the women racers in the Mayor's Cup on Sunday.

Copyright John Tammaro. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Jeff Cutler reports from City Hall Plaza this morning:

Dan Kennedy shows off what he has to wear around his arm for the next week or so following surgery for the shattered elbow he got in a bicycle accident (no, no cars were involved). The Percocets help immensely, he types with his one good arm.

Boston Police report a 46-year-old man was taken away with "life-threatening injuries" following a collision around 4:30 p.m. at Melnea Cass. Boulevard and Mass. Ave. - about a block away from Boston Medical Center.

The Globe reports on the parking-lot incident at the South Shore Plaza.

A review of Montreal's Bixi bike-sharing program - similar to the one we were originally promised for this past spring - shows most users turn to bikes to replace walking or trips on public transit, rather than car rides, the Montreal Gazette reports.

Via TransitWire.com.

Wicked Local Cambridge fills in the blanks on an Aug. 30 incident that stretched along Mass. Ave.

Wicked Local Newton reports a 13-year-old boy was crossing with the light at Waltham and Washington streets around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday when a car plowed through the intersection and hit him. He went to the hospital as a precaution; the driver fled after first checking on him.

Cambridge Police report:

On 08/30/10 at 11:04 PM, Ibrahim Zaoui, 34, of 449 Broadway in Everett was arrested after he used his motor vehicle as a weapon to strike a bicyclist on Mass Ave after an argument.

Charge: Armed assault with intent to murder.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Biker relays a report on an incident during Friday evening's Critical Mass ride through Central Square.

Boston Critical Mass discussion of the incident.

Neal Simpson, editor of the Brookline Patch hyperlocal site, scoops the major media sites (apparently) with a story about a driver who was so pissed off with a bicyclist (who he accused of damaging his car) that he tried to run him down by driving through part of the Olmsted Park.

Police say Robert Nicosia, 66, sped through the park from the Jamaicaway to Pond Avenue, driving over grass and flower beds and weaving through trees at a time when the park was filled with people enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon.

A witness estimated the driver's speed at "30 to 40 miles per hour".

The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Photo courtesy of Bikeable, Wikimedia.org, used under Creative Commons license

Injuries did not appear life-threatening.

Marly Pineda, who died Monday afternoon in a collision at Kelton Street and Commonwealth Avenue, completed a master's in exercise and sport science this year at Smith College, two years after earning a BA in education and child study there, according to a remembrance posted on the Smith Web site.

Pineda,24 and a native of Bosque Farms, NM, was working as the interim head coach at the Cambridge Master’s Swim Club and was serving as a volunteer coach on the swim team at Harvard. At Smith, she set records as a member of the swimming team.

“This is clearly a great loss for us all," said Kim Bierwert, coach of the Smith swimming and diving team. "Marly was a great force in our lives and lived life to its fullest, giving much more than most people give in a lifetime let alone in 20-some-odd years. We will miss her, and she will live on in us all. Her contributions and ability to give were unmatched."

UPDATE: Boston Police report the victim has died. See the comments below for some first-person accounts.

Kelton Street is closed at Comm. Ave., Kaz and Mike Juergens tweet.

Georgy recaps the highs and lows of a bike trip through the urban wilds instead of her originally planned ride along the Minuteman bike path.

Sean Roche reports from last night's monthly Critical Mass bike ride from Copley Square to Cambridge and back to Boston. Aside from one Masshole doing stupid, annoying stuff on his bike, he says he was greatly impressed by "lots of smart young people, men and women, for the most part asserting their legal right to the road, not looking for trouble."