BU Bridge Advocacy
10-04-08, 02:02 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
BU Bridge Advocacy
In several threads some Boston bike riders and commuters have expressed dismay over bike lane implementation on Comm Ave. They see it as either not enough, not necessary, no improvement etc...
Here is your opportunity to participate before infrastructure gets added. Let your voice be heard or at least listen as people try to figure out the best way to deal with the BU bridge and the intersections around it.
BU Bridge Rehab Project Public Meeting: Thursday, October 16, 2008
If you ride in Boston, then help us advocate for bicycling improvements as part of the upcoming rehabilitation of the BU Bridge. The bridge itself, and the complicated intersections on either side of it, are among the most dangerous places in Boston for bicyclists, yet thousands of cyclists must use this critical link between Boston and Cambridge every day.
At the meeting, representatives from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the agency’s design contractor, STV, will discuss plans to repair and rehabilitate the 80-year-old bridge, which carries an estimated 41,000 vehicles a day. Bids for the roughly $20 million project will be solicited this fall, and work is planned to begin next spring. The project will involve a total deck replacement on the bridge and is expected to be completed in about three years.
The most recent designs we’ve seen do not improve conditions for bicyclists, so this meeting is an opportunity to tell the DCR that they cannot miss this opportunity to make the bridge safer for bicyclists.
The meeting will be in the auditorium of the BU College of General Studies, 871 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, Room 129 on the lower level, from 6-8pm.
Here is your opportunity to participate before infrastructure gets added. Let your voice be heard or at least listen as people try to figure out the best way to deal with the BU bridge and the intersections around it.
BU Bridge Rehab Project Public Meeting: Thursday, October 16, 2008
If you ride in Boston, then help us advocate for bicycling improvements as part of the upcoming rehabilitation of the BU Bridge. The bridge itself, and the complicated intersections on either side of it, are among the most dangerous places in Boston for bicyclists, yet thousands of cyclists must use this critical link between Boston and Cambridge every day.
At the meeting, representatives from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the agency’s design contractor, STV, will discuss plans to repair and rehabilitate the 80-year-old bridge, which carries an estimated 41,000 vehicles a day. Bids for the roughly $20 million project will be solicited this fall, and work is planned to begin next spring. The project will involve a total deck replacement on the bridge and is expected to be completed in about three years.
The most recent designs we’ve seen do not improve conditions for bicyclists, so this meeting is an opportunity to tell the DCR that they cannot miss this opportunity to make the bridge safer for bicyclists.
The meeting will be in the auditorium of the BU College of General Studies, 871 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, Room 129 on the lower level, from 6-8pm.
10-04-08, 02:15 PM
#2
L T X B O M P F A N S R
I honestly have no idea how it could be improved without radically redesigning traffic flow (and I'm not going to hold my breath for that), but I'll show up and see what's going on.
10-17-08, 08:09 AM
#4
L T X B O M P F A N S R
I did not go. I remembered it about 15 minutes before it was supposed to begin. I still would have been able to get there in time, but the thought of sitting through a two hour meeting didn't seem too appealing to me. Ah well.
From a cyclists point of view I don't think there's anything wrong with the bridge. It's getting on it and around it that can be difficult (on both side of the river, but particularly on the Boston side). The fact that the southbound lane is partially blocked (and probably will be for a good while) can be a PITA though.
I wonder if they're going to close it totally at any point. It sounds like they would if they are going to replace the whole deck. The impact on traffic flow is sure to be, ah, interesting to say the least. (Well, I guess that's why one shows up for these meetings, to find out about these things!
)
From a cyclists point of view I don't think there's anything wrong with the bridge. It's getting on it and around it that can be difficult (on both side of the river, but particularly on the Boston side). The fact that the southbound lane is partially blocked (and probably will be for a good while) can be a PITA though.
I wonder if they're going to close it totally at any point. It sounds like they would if they are going to replace the whole deck. The impact on traffic flow is sure to be, ah, interesting to say the least. (Well, I guess that's why one shows up for these meetings, to find out about these things!
)
10-20-08, 09:45 PM
#5
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ok, so I'm part of BU bikes, a newly sanctioned student bike advocacy club here at BU, and at today's club meeting officers who went to last thursday's meeting reported back. Again, I was not at the meeting, but from what I recollect from what others have told me the meeting went something like this.
Around 60 people from the public showed up. Around ten were BU students with BU bikes. Then there was a powerpoint of the proposals for reconstruction.
Every proposed reconstruction plan includes a 5ft wide bike lane in each direction (vs the BU comm ave bike lane which is 4ft wide). In order to do this, they are getting rid of one of the four existing car lanes completely. I believe the sidewalks will stay the same width.
When open to public comments, a member of bostonwalks expressed concerns over lack of consideration for pedestrians in the new design, and someone advocating geese habitats expressed concern over the lack of consideration for the geese in the field on the cambridge side of the bridge.
The four proposals, all of which include bike lanes, would look something like this:
where the reversible lane in proposal C would be dictated by time of day and controlled by a direction traffic light of some sort. Construction will take two years and be done in (2011?), during which the BU bridge will be traffic hell.
As a side note, a woman named Jackie, a BU '08 grad who now works for Livable Streets, a boston transportation advocacy group, has been a helpful resource to our club. She told us that she was actually quoted in last thursday's meeting from when she once pointed out in a talk with city planners that when she stood at the intersection of the BU bridge she counted over 450 bikers going over the bridge at 8am on a weekday morning. A woman from bostonwalks complemented the organization of the bike advocacy community in Boston compared to pedestrian advocacy efforts.
In my opinion the only plan that would work is D. A and B are unfair in either direction, and a reversible center lane sounds like a terrible, confusing idea. Others who went also said another idea that was mentioned but met with negative "oooos" was a shared bus/bike lanes. It's great to see that the DCR is starting to take bikers seriously in a city that's so behind in bike friendliness. It'll be interesting to see which proposal is chosen and how the elimination of a car lane will affect the traffic around it. That's pretty much everything I can remember. Please correct me if you went to this meeting and I'm wrong about anything.
Around 60 people from the public showed up. Around ten were BU students with BU bikes. Then there was a powerpoint of the proposals for reconstruction.
Every proposed reconstruction plan includes a 5ft wide bike lane in each direction (vs the BU comm ave bike lane which is 4ft wide). In order to do this, they are getting rid of one of the four existing car lanes completely. I believe the sidewalks will stay the same width.
When open to public comments, a member of bostonwalks expressed concerns over lack of consideration for pedestrians in the new design, and someone advocating geese habitats expressed concern over the lack of consideration for the geese in the field on the cambridge side of the bridge.
The four proposals, all of which include bike lanes, would look something like this:
where the reversible lane in proposal C would be dictated by time of day and controlled by a direction traffic light of some sort. Construction will take two years and be done in (2011?), during which the BU bridge will be traffic hell.
As a side note, a woman named Jackie, a BU '08 grad who now works for Livable Streets, a boston transportation advocacy group, has been a helpful resource to our club. She told us that she was actually quoted in last thursday's meeting from when she once pointed out in a talk with city planners that when she stood at the intersection of the BU bridge she counted over 450 bikers going over the bridge at 8am on a weekday morning. A woman from bostonwalks complemented the organization of the bike advocacy community in Boston compared to pedestrian advocacy efforts.
In my opinion the only plan that would work is D. A and B are unfair in either direction, and a reversible center lane sounds like a terrible, confusing idea. Others who went also said another idea that was mentioned but met with negative "oooos" was a shared bus/bike lanes. It's great to see that the DCR is starting to take bikers seriously in a city that's so behind in bike friendliness. It'll be interesting to see which proposal is chosen and how the elimination of a car lane will affect the traffic around it. That's pretty much everything I can remember. Please correct me if you went to this meeting and I'm wrong about anything.
Last edited by thehum; 10-20-08 at 09:49 PM.
10-21-08, 04:51 AM
#6
L T X B O M P F A N S R
What exactly is wrong with 4 lanes?
Traffic gets pretty backed up on both the Boston and Cambridge sides, and killing one lane in either direction seems to me like it would be a very, very bad idea. I understand that taking out a lane would create room for the bike lane, but the bridge itself is already pretty bikeable in my opinion (and I noticed recently the Jersey barriers in the southbound lane have been removed recently).
It's the areas leading up to the bridge that are the problem, and I think making it even harder for cars to get on it will just make the problem worse.
Traffic gets pretty backed up on both the Boston and Cambridge sides, and killing one lane in either direction seems to me like it would be a very, very bad idea. I understand that taking out a lane would create room for the bike lane, but the bridge itself is already pretty bikeable in my opinion (and I noticed recently the Jersey barriers in the southbound lane have been removed recently).
It's the areas leading up to the bridge that are the problem, and I think making it even harder for cars to get on it will just make the problem worse.
10-21-08, 02:50 PM
#7
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Thread Starter
thanks so much for the update. I, too, was unable to attend. I had to fly to Louisiana for 10 days (I'm there now) and had to leave a day earlier than expected.
Interesting experience down here. I called several places to rent a bike ( I'm in Shreveport) and only one rented bikes. It was weird though having one woman at a bike shop actually say, "Oh, you want a road bike? Well folks down here don't take too kindly to having bikes on the road."
When I said, "well, where do people ride then?" and she said, "There's a bike path a few miles long that runs along the highway (somewhere) or they ride a mountain bike."
Thus far the only people I've seen riding bikes here are using them for real basic transportation and they basically ride in the dirt along the side of the road or way over to the side or on the sidewalk.
I'm still hoping to try to get a ride in down here. But don't know if schedule and/or logistics will allow for it.
That the kind of input and consideration allowed for bikes in infrastructure planning were even a speck on the horizon down here. Odd thing is there could be some GREAT bike riding down here and I'm sure there is.
Interesting experience down here. I called several places to rent a bike ( I'm in Shreveport) and only one rented bikes. It was weird though having one woman at a bike shop actually say, "Oh, you want a road bike? Well folks down here don't take too kindly to having bikes on the road."
When I said, "well, where do people ride then?" and she said, "There's a bike path a few miles long that runs along the highway (somewhere) or they ride a mountain bike."
Thus far the only people I've seen riding bikes here are using them for real basic transportation and they basically ride in the dirt along the side of the road or way over to the side or on the sidewalk.
I'm still hoping to try to get a ride in down here. But don't know if schedule and/or logistics will allow for it.
That the kind of input and consideration allowed for bikes in infrastructure planning were even a speck on the horizon down here. Odd thing is there could be some GREAT bike riding down here and I'm sure there is.
