bicycling

No more envious sighs when the subject of the Alewife cage comes up, Boston Biker reports. The new storage room opens Sept. 29, with room for up to 100 bikes.

Nick Bonadies tweets a bicyclist was hit by a car this morning at Beacon and Marion streets, across from the 7-Eleven, possibly by a car that cut her off in an attempt to make a right turn.

That makes at least three bicyclists hit by cars in two weeks in a town that has been busy putting in bicycle lanes. No word on his condition, but cops and EMTs were on scene when Bonadies went by.

Around 7 a.m. at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Mass. Ave., Boston Police tweet. No word on his condition.

Boston Biker posts photos of two Brighton bike racks blocked by planters from a nearby ice-cream shop. He reports he's moved the planters when the need arose, but they then get moved back in front of the racks.

With its wide avenues and actual, dedicated bike lanes. Mike Ball returns from a trip there and is amazed at what you can do with real streets - but also what a little enforcement might do on our non-cow paths:

... I think of the new, narrow bike lanes painted for a short distance on Columbus Avenue here. Eleven days ago, I took it both ways. In that short distance, I counted 22 motor vehicles blocking the lane, 9 one way and 13 back. Of course, there was no enforcement. Bikes had to take the single lane in either direction from cars and trucks to move instead. ...

Sean Roche, meanwhile, is loving the new bike lanes along Beacon Street from Cleveland Circle to the Newton line, but no liking how the just disappear at the line.

Boston Biker recounts a near run-in with a Masshole on Sunday.

Wicked Local Brookline reports a woman hit by a car on Sept. 10 at Longwood Avenue has died.

A BU student who failed to check for oncoming trolleys was "clipped" by one near BU Central around 5 p.m. Saturday, the Daily Free Press reports.

DotBike will be out in force tomorrow afternoon measuring paths in Franklin Park to help convince the Parks Department to allow bikes back in.

Boston Biker reports there's a meeting at 6 p.m. today (yes, today) at the BPL main branch in Copley Square - and that, as you might expect, Back Bay doyens and doyennes will oppose the plan.

Somebody's had enough with Massholes parking in the bicycle lane on North Harvard Avenue and has taken to leaving "tickets" on the windshields of offending cars - some of which also had actual city-of-Boston parking violations. Offenses range from "parking like a jack-ass" and "too stupid to drive a car" to "driving a Kia or Hyundai."

Via Boston Biker.

When Charlotte woke up this morning, she found a brand new bike lane down Columbus Avenue:

... Thank you Boston! It's beautiful. It's just what I always wanted!!!

There was little fanfare a few weeks ago when the Mayor and City Council passed a new ordinance prohibiting parking and standing in bike lanes or marked shared lanes. The fine: $100. This puts it on par with blocking a bus stop, fire lane, fire hydrant, or handicap ramp.

via BU Bikes.

Rather than trying to get bicyclists, or motorists, or pedestrians to obey the law, Dave Atkins wonders if maybe the answer to traffic chaos around here is to accept human behavior and deal with that:

... We need to change the road, not the rules. We need to stop believing that education and common sense are enough to protect us as a society from the tragedy of accidents. We need to say, OK, drivers and cyclists alike are breaking the law and endangering each other, so what can we do to make it less likely they will do that? ...

Ride to make the streets safe for bicyclists, especially women, Aug. 22, starting at 7 p.m. at the stony Brook T stop.

Joel Brown is on hand, camera at the ready, when a pre-built bridge is put in place as part of a new bicycling/walking path in Newburyport.

That recent Globe piece on unruly bike riders featured a photo of a bicyclist going the wrong way on Charles Street. Sean Roche explains why the bicyclists had no choice: There is no legal way for a bicyclist to head north from Beacon between the Storrow entrance and Bowdoin Street, because all the roads are one way towards Beacon.

... The picture of supposed biker carelessness is more damning of a city that doesn't provide any accommodation on a stretch that really needs it. But, it's not just bikers who are shortchanged by the configuration of Charles St.

Quite obviously, allocating all the space between the curbs to either parking or auto travel doesn't serve the needs of those on two wheels. Less obviously, the three lanes of one-way travel ill-serve the neighborhood. Three lanes of one-way traffic serve one principal purpose: moving traffic. Local merchants don't benefit from through traffic. Nor do the folks who live in the area. ...

Ed. oldtimer note/question: I seem to recall Charles used to go the other way, but one night, DPW crews reversed the direction on orders of Kevin White, who wanted to limit the flow of hoi polloi on the street. Do I remember correctly?

Metropolitan Area Planning Council selects a vendor to build bike-rental kiosks, the Globe reports.

Boston Biker posts Globe reporter David Filipov's response to his criticism of Filipovs' recent article on discourteous bicyclists.

Wicked Local Cambridge has today's best headline:

Drunken Somerville bicyclist fights cars in Cambridge.

Paul Keleher photographed riders in Dover in this weekend's Pan-Mass Challenge for the Jimmy Fund.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Boston Police report a bicyclist is expected to survive a midnight crash at Centre and Lamartine streets:

Officers spoke to the motorist who stated that he never saw the man on the bike. According to the motorist, he was attempting to make a turn onto Lamartine when he felt and heard something strike the passenger side of his car. Officers observed and did take note of damage to the motorist’s passenger side door and window. After being struck, the motorist states that he stopped his car and pulled over to see what had happened. Upon exiting his car, the motorist stated that he observed an individual lying on the ground unconscious with a bicycle lying in close proximity.

Ed. note: Chanel 7, which had the first report up on the incident, said the bicyclist had died.

The Globe today pitches Boston's upcoming bike-sharing program, with bike-rental kiosks every 300 or 400 yards.

Mike Mennonno, who's been biking the streets of Boston for years, writes he'd like to have a bowl of what city officials are smoking, because Boston barely has enough space for today's bicyclists, what with its glacial pace of adding five miles or so a year of bike lanes:

... The idea of plowing ahead with a full-blown bike-sharing program when the infrastructure can't handle cyclists period, much less more cyclists, is counterproductive. (If you think a traffic jam in your car is bad, you have obviously never experienced bicycle rush hour in Boston.) ...

MBTA Transit Police tweet thefts of bicycles and bike parts are up, especially at Davis and Alewife. Buy those heavy locks and record those serial numbers now, police say.

Doug discusses the way Green Line driver Aiden Quinn was charged under a law dealing with railroads rather than trolleys and says that, unlike state trolley law, state railroad law requires train operators to let riders bring bicycles onboard:

... [U]ltimately if the District Attorney succeeds in sending Quinn to prison for three years (instead of to jail for 2 1/2) for crashing a railroad train (and not a trolley), then the T should get ready to welcome bicycles and their riders on that same line. Because that's the law!