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We have shared bus/bike lanes now, but what about shared bus/truck lanes?

The Boston Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization has come out with a report on a potential way to curb road congestion: Dedicated lanes for use by buses and trucks, in particular near Logan Airport and the Raymond Flynn Marine Park in South Boston and along Chelsea Creek.

Both transit and freight vehicles operating in mixed traffic suffer reliability and speed challenges related to the area’s congestion and quirky roadway network
(the urban myth of “paved cow paths”). Freight and transit traffic share a variety of characteristics and needs, among them being bigger than standard car traffic; needing certain roadway geometry; placing a high value on reliability; and being highly concentrated in a subset of corridors and near certain destinations. This research begins to explore the extent to which these shared characteristics and interests may be able to lead to cooperation in allocation of roadway space.

Via Sandy Johnston and Matthew Petersen.

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Comments

Can really help prioritize road space for moving goods and services over single occupancy motor vehicles, I know that thats often a point used for push back against bus/bike lanes. Not to mention the benefits to public transit and emergency services that we already see.

Mike from Woburn might not like it but oh well

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Instead of the current preset programed times cycles. Often I see 60 seconds pass and no one is using the intersection while there is a huge line of cars waiting to move.
The traffic signals need to get smarter. We have the technology.
Lets invest in that first.

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Why should one good idea wait on another?

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If the walk signal was linked to the traffic signal such that pedestrians were "allowed" to cross during a bulk of the green light time. Why is that so hard?

People learn to ignore walk signs when they turn on for only 10 seconds when the crossing traffic signal is red for 2 minutes.

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that only blink when selected by pedestrian. There's a newish one on Harvard Ave between Comm Ave and Brighton Ave that is on all the time - meaning drivers are learning to ignore. Lights should only blink when there's an actual pedestrian trying to cross.

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I was in Germany in September where this is the standard at the overwhelming majority of traffic lights. I did see several exclusive non-concurrent phases (always automatic) in Berlin, and in the greater Berlin area, I saw a total of four beg buttons, two of which were at temporary traffic signals in construction zones, a permanent one on Unter den Linden and another permanent one outside of Potsdam's central train station. The two permanent beg button lights were at midblock/non-intersection crossings. I saw no beg buttons in Munich. I asked my German friend who lives in Berlin about them and he told me that the walk signal will eventually come on, that the beg buttons just shorten the wait time or, in some cases, prolong the walk signal for slow crossers, not to mention, some "invisible" crosswalks, only marked by a lowered curb (mostly on "playing streets", where drivers are warned by signage that they may drive there, but need to keep it at or below 10km/h and must yield to all vulnerable road traffic). Germans generally don't walk against the light, partially because they're universally predictable (none of this concurrent automatic in one direction, beg button in the other direction nonsense that's too common in Boston (see Berkeley St in the South End), or hodgepodge of settings from one intersection to the other that are the result of Boston's (or really the US's) lack of standards) and the waits are rarely very long, though I saw a lot of midblock crossing in Berlin and Munich. Another advantage to near-universal concurrent walk signals is that it does not give a legal right of way to a turning car over pedestrians going straight who get a don't walk, as is too common here, and drivers turning will be conditioned to expect to yield at almost all turns.

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Automatic governing to speed limits is possible. Why not that first?

Because all this idea takes is a bit of paint.

We don't need faster moving traffic anyway - speed kills.

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Your post is excellent, except for the last line. We definitely should head in that direction (though it's not AI, it's just a control system), but it's a very big project with unforeseeable complications. We shouldn't put off straightforward, if imperfect, solutions for individual problems because someday we hope to have something better.

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The American Legion bike lane. Still haven't seen a single person use it since it was installed.

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People like you are why cyclists get killed.

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As a frequent user of it, I can tell you there are a lot of cagers who don't seem to see cyclists.

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Pull your head out of your arse.

It might help you see a lot of things more clearly, particularly when driving.

The state and the city do counts on bike lanes - your rectum is obstructing your vision pretty seriously.

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I've ridden on the ALH lanes hundreds of times, and seen others using them, too. The reason bike lanes often look empty is because they aren't congested. Congestion causes lanes to appear busy, not normal usage. Lack of congestion does not equate to lack of use.

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Does the Metropolitan Planning Organization accomplish anything, besides meeting the Federal requirement that it has to exist?

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