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Get out: Some of our traffic lights are actually coordinated
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What if?
Im doing 25mph but the guy next to me is doing 30+MPH?
Then he will be stopping a lot
The lights will stay red until the 25 mph drivers catch up, and maybe (not likely) the speedy guy will learn how to save his brakes and his gas, and slow down.
and if you're riding a bike down Comm Ave westbound
....through Back Bay, you will without fail hit every single red light unless you're practically flat-out. Put in a bike lane, then set the light timing such that cyclists can only bike a block before they hit a red light, 5-6 times in a row, while everyone in cars sails through in a minute or two. Then chastise the cyclists for running red lights.
Not true
If you are on a Hubway doing 10mph, you tend to hit every light.
Those 50lb monsters can get
Those 50lb monsters can get to 10mph? Or is it just that the casuals that operate them are too afraid to go faster than a walking pace?
It's the gearing!
The fastest of the three gears on the Hubways seems to top out around 10 mph on a flat, you can spin all you like but can't go any faster.
You can go faster than 10mph
But for me it is a lot of effort and not something I can sustain.
And I had just this experience this morning. Hit red at almost every light on Comm Ave with a Hubway.
They can
You just need a rider who can pedal in top gear at cadence 80-90. Easy enough on a long flat straightaway.
17 mph
My first time on a Bixi-style bike was in Minneapolis (same bikes, but they had them a year earlier, as did DC). Took out my phone with a speedometer app. Got the thing to 17 mph, but I was pushing. 10 is certainly attainable if you're at least going faster than tourist mode.
Lights ought to be timed for 12.5 mph, which is a decent cycling pace and means that a 25 mph car should get mostly greens, anyway (I think).
Driving faster than the light
Driving faster than the light progression speed will always get you lots of reds. Unless the reds are very very short, or the distance between lights is very long, which is not the case here.
No thanks! It's already
No thanks! It's already dangerous enough for pedestrians with the cars hitting and killing people. Slow down everyone!
In addition you'll have to
In addition you'll have to skid to a stop for jaywalking millenials that look right at you and walk in your path if you have a green and be called an asshole for shouting at them.
If it's too much for you to
If it's too much for you to stop for an oblivious college student crossing the street then city biking isn't a good fit for you. There are a multitude of distractions and obstacles when riding in Boston and Cambridge... some people have the temperament and skills set to handle it. You don't. Do other cyclists a favor and put the bike back in Mommy's garage, amateur.
Guess again
Think about the situation just described: the cyclist has a green light, the pedestrian steps out in front of the bike and expects everyone to come to a grinding halt to save his entitled and clueless ass. And you somehow figure this deserves a "mommy's basement" slam against the cyclist?
The way to make this city work is for everybody to look at the lights and stop for the red ones.
Since BU kids are so
Since BU kids are so fucktarded, the city even spraypainted "LOOK LEFT FOR CYCLISTS" on the pavement and yet they still don't and jaywalk instead. It's not my job as a cyclist to babysit our "best and brightest" who think their student loan debt entitles them to ownership of the city's streets.
Yes, comm ave is coordinated
Yes, comm ave is coordinated going eastbound in the back bay. That screws over westbound, especially if you ain't able to put the pedal to the metal and go 40 mph to blow through all the intersections.
Beacon is for westbound, comm ave is for eastbound. That's how I use them. But I don't mind riding my bike alongside the 40 mph and up speed maniacs on beacon. I wouldn't blame ya if you don't want to do that.
Stepping back, how is any of this news? One drive or bike ride along either street should tell you that there's some kind of timing going on.
That's a shame.
Still not a reason to run the red lights. Maybe cyclists could get licensed and registered so some of those fees could go towards infrastructure upgrades that cyclists are requesting such as protected bike lanes. Cars still make up the great majority of traffic even in the city.
you need to pay 3x as much fees on your car
Before you get to have that attitude. Look it up.
My taxes subsidize your driving. I can lobby for that to stop if you are going to be dumb about that.
My standard question
What exactly would that accomplish?
Let me answer that for you - nothing.
So...
50 mph it is. Good luck everybody else!!!
Not exactly new technology
When I was a kid taking vacation trips with the family, there was a stretch of the Wilbur Cross highway south of Hartford that wasn't yet interstate. I used to marvel at the way all the lights would turn green if you drove at the speed limit. This was 50 years ago. While I'm thrilled that Boston has figured out how to make it work on one road, I can't wait for this amazing development to come to Columbia Road, Washington St., Hyde Park Ave., and maybe a half-dozen of the 30-something traffic lights I meet up with on my trip to work every day.
That's ok, it's not new here either.
I discovered the timing of the lights on Beacon not long after I moved out here in '86, so it's been there for a while.. Was a nice little secret while it lasted. :)
You were cool before cool was
You were cool before cool was invented.
A quick note on the math
If there is a light timed for 25 mph, driving 50 mph or biking 12.5 mph won't mean that you make every light.
Why? Because the other side's time and pedestrian signal time have to be factored in.
Probably why the person up thread hits all the lights timed for 25 mph at 10mph.
Timed lights are an old trick, but one mostly limited to midwest/west coast style gridded cities. Beacon and Commonwealth through the alphabetical streets are laid out thus, so it can be done.
VFW parkway in West Roxbury's been that way for decades
When I was a new driver in the 80s I shocked my parents by being able to drive from Dedham to the Arboretum without a red light. The trick? I drove at the speed limit.