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Bicyclist hit by trolley on Comm. Ave.
By adamg on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 6:39pm
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.
The paper, which talked to the student, said he suffered minor injuries in the incident.
Katherine Rose reports she was on the second car of the outbound trolley:
[W]e came to a halt that lasted about ten minutes. I was in the second car. Finally the conductor announced, "everyone off the train, move quickly, I need you out of here as fast as possible, and don't go looking under any trains, it's not worth it." Ice dagger to the heart.
I didn't intend to look at anything, but we were walking alongside the trains in order to get to the crosswalk, and as we approached the front of the first car I caught a glimpse of a bicycle, crushed, the train had rolled over it by a good ten feet or so. There were two cops there already, just standing there, not helping any injured person. The only distressed person I saw was the T conductor of the first car, who was bent double, gasping and choking. ...
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Comments
maybe the Green line drivers can stop running red lights
...which I see happen EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I drive near the green line. Red lights don't mean a fucking thing to them. I've given up reporting the drivers, but hopefully others aren't. I actually had an argument with MBTA police about whether I was "able to tell" if the train has just blown through the light. "I was staring at a green line in my direction" apparently wasn't good enough.
However, and please keep in mind that I am a cyclist, and I used to post regularly very strong defenses of cyclists...since September 1st I have seen the fucking stupidest things from pedestrians and bikers. Every single one of them was young, college-age.
This afternoon in Allston on Harvard Ave, the car in front of me almost turned an idiot into a smear on the pavement. Why? Because she popped out from behind a car (which was moving, just not going fast enough for her) INTO THE ONCOMING LANE, where the driver had nowhere to go because the road is narrow and there were cars parked all along the sides. The biker (not wearing a helmet, but her fixed-gear looked very hip) narrowly missed getting clipped. She didn't miss a beat, zooming to the edge of the road and continuing on down the road, riding directly at oncoming traffic.
Massachusetts has laws on the books for this stuff. Why aren't Boston Police enforcing them? Why aren't Boston Police enforcing ANY traffic laws except for speeding? C'mon, guys!
I don't think I've ever seen
I don't think I've ever seen a Boston or Cambridge cop enforce any traffic laws on city streets except when they pull people for running stop signs in Harvard Square. I'm regularly in traffic on Memorial drive that is flowing at or above 50mph as a 20mph sign goes whizzing by, the cops are right there with the rest of us.
I'm actually not really complaining about that, though. The nature of the roads around here make them a royal pain to enforce some traffic laws on (could you imagine if people actually drove 20mph on memorial?), but like you I would like to see a little more emphasis on patrolling against reckless driving (or cycling or walking). This is especially true on roads with trolley lines or with high-use 'shared spaces' such as Mass ave. between central/harvard/porter where cyclists, scooters, cars, tour busses, city busses, and jaywalkers all share the pavement at once.
...I'd also like to see people pulled over for braking when they see something interesting and completely effing up traffic in already congested areas.
A-forkin-men!
I can't tell you how many times 93 South has been a clusterfuck starting at South Bay, then it suddenly clears up once you get past Pope John Paul II park and realize that everyone's slowing down because THERE'S SOMEONE FLYING A GODDAMNED KITE. Usually not even an interesting kite. AJYGIJHIGJHHH!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Why would you report
Why would you report drivers? And by that, I mean, what would you be reporting? Trolleys are NOT required to obey signals which are intended for vehicles. While a bus MUST stop at a red light, rail, which follows a different set of laws does NOT have to. A trolley going past a red light may be breaking MBTA policy, but they are not breaking a law.
I have no idea if theyre legally required to stop for the trolley specific lights recently installed on comm ave (line, triangle and circle)
Personally, I love when trolleys run reds. The MBTA was given the option to install sensors that would always give preference to trolleys and chose not to, so it makes sense that the drivers would take things into their own hands.
Anyway, the point is mute because there is no reason to believe the trolley ran a light. If the bike was crossing from marsh to st marys, he should have done one of the following:
Enter comm ave and wait at the left turn lane
or
cross on crosswalk with pedestrian signal
Read the story, the cyclists admits to not looking at the signal. This was his own fault entirely.
He could have easily lost a leg.
what kind of special planet do you live on?
Trolleys are NOT required to obey signals which are intended for vehicles.
[Citation needed], snowflake.
By the way, have you noticed that Green Line crossings aren't railroad crossings? They're "Light Rail Vehicles", and they traverse numerous sections of road. Sometimes in parallel with other vehicles. For example, the E-line after Brigham Circle?*
Might be one of the reasons green line cars are equipped with turn signals.
*Speaking of which, when the hell are BPD or MBTA Transit Police going to start enforcing the stop-for-a-stopped-trolley-disgorging-passengers rule? Or start ticketing people in bus stops, after they jacked the fine up to $100? Far as I can tell, the 39 bus stops on Centre Street are STILL "I have my flashers on so it's okay" Masshole parking.
It is absolutely mind
It is absolutely mind boggling that with the MBTA, state, and city so far in the red that the long hanging fruit of actually ENFORCING CLEARLY POSTED PARKING RESTRICTIONS AND COLLECTING THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FINES seems to not be a priority. All the illegal non-parking parking and the issues with parking meters around Fenway Park alone probably in itself would have covered all the cutbacks in the Police Department for crying out loud.
Snowflake?
This use of the term does not match my understanding of the term (i.e. for people who consider themselve uniquely preccious and special).
It just seems to be used here as a general term of scorn.