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Two bicycle police officers injured in collision that started when one was doored

Channel 25 reports on an incident this afternoon on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. Note the location of one of the bicycles - right by a "sharrow" meant to tell drivers and bicyclists to watch out for each other in the shared lane. Injuries were minor, 25 says.

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Comments

Whoooaaaaaaahhh!!! This is going to totally confuse the anti-cop pro-bike lunatics.

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*and* the anti-bike pro-cop lunatics!!

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I would definetely describe the commentators here as pro-cop anti-bike. No question.

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Bike lanes need to go -- both bikers and drivers hate them because they make everyone less safe.

Bikes need to stick to the right of traffic lanes so faster traffic can easily pass, but far enough to the middle that parked cars can see them in their mirrors. Also, watch out for doors, because accidents happen and you are harder to see than a car.

People in parked cars need to look before opening doors -- that door would have been ripped right off if a delivery truck was coming instead of a bike cop.

Ideally bicycles would be banned from all multi-lane, numbered state routes, which carry the greatest volume and fastest automobile traffic, and provided with parallel, but separate bike paths for safety.

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I want to know:

-if either officer was the one who responded when I was doored, and when reminded about the $100 fine for dooring, said "yeah yeah, let me do my job" and then didn't write the ticket up because they thought I was at fault for something I can't possibly be at fault for. The woman who hit me said she was "stressed" and "didn't see him". Yeah, because she DIDN'T LOOK, which is the whole reason for the law!

-if the driver was cited for the dooring

Fun fact: A Brookline cop told me a few weeks ago that a number of the bike patrol officers have been doored while on patrol.

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Was she cute? Girls get away without tickets all the time ;-)

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That is a shared use marking, the principal purpose of which is to remind cyclists where they should be in the travel lane to avoid hitting opening doors of parked cars.

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Fixed, thanks.

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Regardless of if there is or isn't a bike lane or marker, according to the Standards of Fault in Massachusetts, I believe the driver would be considered at fault here, regardless of if it was a bike, car or person that got hit by the opening of a door.

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eopsterminal&L=5&L0=Ho...

See Code 18

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"No person shall open a door on a motor vehicle unless it is reasonably safe to do so without interfering with the movement of other traffic, including bicyclists and pedestrians. Whoever violates the preceding sentence shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100." MGL chapter 90, section 14

http://www.massbike.org/2010/04/08/ask-massbike-op...

Not that I think anyone should be doored, but I imagine this incident will make at least these particular police more attune to the dangers created by drivers who aren't careful.

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Sharrows are decidedly not to mandate where cyclists can ride. The law is plain that they can take as much of a lane as they need to be safe, depending on such things as double parked vehicles, opening doors, pot holes, errant pedestrians and so forth.

The intent of sharrows is to remind motor vehicle drivers that this lane is shared. They have to obey such laws as only passing at a safe speed and distance, waiting if necessary as with pedestrians and so forth. These are visual cues for drivers, not cyclists.

Sharrows are certainly not license for car and truck drivers to buzz bikes and force them right beside cars.

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I really hate how close they put bike lanes and sharrows to parked cars in Boston. If you actually follow the markings, you put yourself right into the door zone.

I really wish that some standards would be passed that would say that all bicycle facilities must have at least 5 feet of clearance from parked cars. You need about 4 feet for the door and one foot for the width of your handlebars in order to be safely clear of cars. And yet, they consistently put 4 foot bike lanes immediately next to narrow parking lanes, guaranteeing these sorts of accidents. And when it's too narrow for even a bad bike lane, they add these sharrows too close to the parking lane, encouraging cyclists to squeeze in close to parked cars and have accidents like this one.

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placement of shared use markings ("sharrows"):

On streets with on-street parking, the center of the marking shall be 11 feet from the right curb or pavement edge.

On streets with no parking, the center of the marking shall be 4 feet from the right curb or pavement edge.

And, as I noted in my inital comment pointing out the "sharrow", the principal purpose of the marking, as stated in the MUTCD, is to provide a positioning guide for the cyclist to follow so as to avoid opening doors of parked cars.

Lastly, if you take a closer look at the Fox 25 photo, you will see that the open car door does not encroach upon the travel lane, let alone the "sharrow" marking. So I fali to see how this marking was improperly placed.

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Yeah, the door probably froze in place at the instant of the accident, and didn't move at all until they took the photo. It must have known to be cooperative for evidence purposes.

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In the picture that I see, it does appear that the door extends into the travel lane; it is at least going across the white line (in the place that is obscured by the officer standing there), and it looks to me like it extends a couple of inches into the lane. And I don't think that that's the closest that sharrows get to parked cars on Centre Street; I'm pretty sure I've seen ones that are closer, though I've never gone out with a measuring tape to verify.

According to a study of how far car doors extend from the curb, if a car is parked within 6 inches of the curb, the door can extend up to about 124 inches from the curb. If the center of the sharrow is 11 feet from the curb, that means that you are just barely missing or just barely brushing the door depending on the width of your handlebars (on a mountain bike with wide, straight bars, they may extend a foot from the center of your bike). But of course, you don't ever ride in exactly a straight line. You deviate slightly for balance, to avoid potholes, if people passing you are crowding you, or the like. Assuming that you endeavor to stay within the 40 inch wide sharrow, riding on the right side of the sharrow will put you solidly within the potential door zone.

I think that the rules for the widths and placements of bike lanes and sharrows are overly optimistic. Large portions of them overlap with the door zone. You basically need to stay in the left half of them to be safe, which is a fairly narrow target and puts you closer to the path of overtaking cars. They should be designed so that you can be safe from doors and overtaking cars no matter how you are lined up within the lane or on the sharrow. Sadly, all of the federal guidelines allow them to be placed poorly, so we're not likely to see improvement unless those federal guidelines are updated, and more lane space is taken from parked cars or travel lanes.

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I agree with anon not verified. The bike lanes are too close to the car doors. Plus, no way that that "sharrow" in the picture is 11 feet from the curb, is there?

Anyway I tell my kids to ignore the bike lanes and sharrows -- they're invitations to getting doored! -- and ride safely in the traffic lane.

Safe riding and I hope the officers are o.k.

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Right.

That's all I need - more little noobies trying to cut around me on the right because mommy told them they can't ride outside the bike lane to pass me ... or pick a different street to "go be fastest" on.

(I ride the outside of the standard lanes to avoid dooring - even if you are still "in the door zone", riding to the outside makes you more visible to motorists opening doors, more visible to motorists entering from parking lots and side streets, and gives you a couple more feet to work with in a swerve.)

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In the past few days in JP I've seen three bike cops riding the wrong way down a one-way street, and another one riding full speed up the sidewalk while pedestrians had to move out of her way. Sounds like it's time for all bike cops to start following basic bike laws.

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Cops on bikes are allowed to violate traffic laws if resounding to an emergency just like those in cars

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I've seen the same, except it was 5 or 6 in a group making a bee line from Robinwood Ave to the NW corner of Lochstead to stop and chat. Glad to see them riding the beat, very much so, but yes it is dangerous no matter who is riding.

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So when you call 911 and you're waiting for the cops to come and save you, you want them riding around the block to get to your house because your street is one way?

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There's a fairly obvious difference between "I'm going to ride up on the sidewalk to get my burrito" and "I'm going to ride up on the sidewalk to get to that [burning house/mugger/gunman]"

I think we're all capable of making that distinction based on some simple observations, like whether the officer and his partner calmly step off their bikes, unclip their helmets and leave them on their bikes, and mosey on into Purple Cactus for a burrito.

By the way, if you want to see something amusing: sit at the intersection of Centre and Seaverns Ave with a magazine for about half an hour when there's some traffic.

You'll occasionally see an E-13 cruiser calmly moving up through traffic from the north, lights flashing, running the red light at green & centre. It'll make a turn onto Seaverns, and shut off its blue lights and keep driving slowly down Seaverns, headed back to the police station. Basically, they didn't want to sit in traffic.

You can see the same thing with private vehicles, usually either Crown Vics or Ford 500's, around Forest Hills station. They'll flip on the lights for a second to run the traffic light, then flip them off once they've cleared through.

Oh, and one last thing: the next time you see a cop at JP Licks, pay careful attention to the totals that flash by for their cup of coffee or ice cream cone. Hint: at some point, the numbers become half of what they should be...

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@anon 6:39 pm, if they're on a priority call, it's not unusual or illegal for an officer to use the lights and siren to get through an intersection and then kill them to resume a silent approach. Sometimes those urgent calls are at the station, like a "person acting up in the station lobby" or "meet the ambulance at the cellblock, follow it to hospital and guard the prisoner while he's treated." As for the police discount generously offered by some businesses, unless it's been changed, the academy instruction on the state ethics law used to be you could accept up to $50 in discounts per year. Most cops will leave the difference as the tip so as to avoid any conflict. When I was working, Domino's Pizza's nationwide robbery prevention program was no charge for uniformed officers whatsoever. While "who gives a discount" never influenced me, I can assure you that no stores, discount or not, were ever robbed while I was there.

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So police protection depends on ability to pay what amounts to something between a bribe and protection money? Nice sense of morals and justice there. You do realize you just jumped in bed with organized crime, right?

Did you only respond to home invasion calls from people who had you over for dinner?

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Mmmmmm, angry internet babble - c'mon anon.

That's not what he said.

"While 'who gives a discount' never influenced me, I can assure you that no stores, discount or not, were ever robbed while I was there."

Oh, that's right, "no stores, discount or not" - what he's saying is that it didn't matter, not that it did matter. Try a little harder next time.

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If he is more likely to hang out in a store offering freebies, and no store is robbed while he's there, then the freebies are in fact an effective enticement for better police coverage.

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Idiot. For better or for worse, some businesses figured out that giving away free coffee to cops means that more cops hang out in their store, which deters robberies. You'd only be close to correct if they refused to respond to the stores that didn't hook them up.

Side note - can't believe I justified that with a response.

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The first cop was doored? The second wasn't. Aren't you supposed to leave enough room in front of you to stop in an emergency? Cars certainly are.

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How exactly does this work? Stay 20' back from all closed car doors?

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No. Stay back from the bike in front of you.

Is this really difficult? Good God.

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oh sorry, misunderstood.

But good one. Hilarious. Cars keeping a safe distance from the one in front of them, that's rich

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Not even cars leave enough distance for "instant unpredictable stopping"

Try cars on the highway. Roadway design manual says you need 645 ft. as a stopping sight distance to recognize an immovable object in your path, react, and avoid hitting it.

You go 65mph, follow at 4 seconds, you're 381 ft. behind it. If it gets stopped instantly, you're hitting it.

That's what happened to the bikes, an immovable object appeared in their path when they were too close. There's no way the second officer is at fault for following too close.

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Was the driver cited?

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Dooring earns a fine, for several years now, $100 might encourage paying attention next time they open the door. http://www.massbike.org/resourcesnew/bike-law/bike...

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I saw the arial Photograph of the accident and these bicycle lanes that close to parked cars are just accidents waiting to happen...I will personally contact the Boston Media as well as Mayor Menino and the Police Commissioner to take note and to do something about this public hazard. This is not the first accident and it won't be the last!

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