mr_bill

It's not a high-speed road, but it is busy. Dangerous is a pejorative term, do you think bicycling is dangerous?

-mr. bill

Grey.

Mconlonx never made any such insinuations yet you're replying to his posts like he's responsible for everything that has been said in this topic. Again, he never said a word about the man on the bike. He said the road was unsafe and provided sources (and personal experience) to justify his position. That dosen't make the rider stupid, we don't know why he was out there. Maybe he had no choice, we can't know.

Either way you're accusing him of making "snap judgements" that he never made.

wphamilton

No. That's really my point here. Just because I see someone riding where I might feel is too dangerous is not reason enough to believe that the man is a fool.

wphamilton

So you believe that he's disputing everything I wrote simply to argue, without reference to my conclusions? Perhaps so, but I'll let Mconlonx speak to that.

He did say " but rider was a stupid moron" which I take to be a snap judgment.

On reflection, I'll take your advice and bow out of the conversation now.

spare_wheel

sm1960

This highway is so busy the breakdown lanes (where a bicycle would ride), are authorized for traffic use. Cars were attempting to swerve out of the breakdown lane and into the 1st lane while traffic is running full speed

sm1960

Didn't mean to criticize the clothing, just pointing out he's on his way to work

spivonious

Wow, lots of anger in this thread. I seriously doubt any of you would ride on an interstate at rush hour with no shoulder (which is what the road becomes when traffic is allowed to drive in the breakdown lane). Would you want people coming up behind you at 50mph+ and slamming on the brakes, hoping that no one rear-ends them and pushes the mass of cars into you?

Riding on that road is idiotic, period.

MMACH 5

If by "breakdown lane," you mean the shoulder, then yikes. Is it really legal for cars to drive on the shoulder?

genec

Love this... once again east coast vrs west coast... gee that 50MPH+ is pretty standard fare on many of our western "only way to get there" arterial roads. Take a lane???

B. Carfree

While I won't ride on roads where it is illegal to do so, at least until some crazy legislature makes the list of such roads onerously long, if the road is as busy as has been stated then it's not like there's going to be cars coming up at full speed and then making a panicked lane change. Once the cyclist is in front of a car, then that lane is going to be going at or below his speed. Sure, it's going to slow traffic down a bit and require some skill on the part of lane-changing motorists to not run into each other, but it's not something that I would see as incredibly dangerous. YMMV.

I would be surprised if the alternate route isn't a two-lane road with no shoulder and heavy, but free-flowing, traffic. He might be safer in the interstate.

spare_wheel

Cascadia does not have the kind of suburban and exurban blight that crisscrosses the southlands like razor blade scabs on a disturbed teenager.

mr_bill

No, I did not ride a bicycle THROUGH the Big Dig tunnel. I rode a bicycle ON I-93, here's the street view from around the corner. Step forward on street view and you'll plummet into the tunnel.

What do you think I am, a stupid moron or something?

As to the people who are not from around here who are continuing to "speculate" that I-93 Southbound (which is illegal to walk, ride, or ride on) North of Boston during rush hour was the safer alternative to other NEARBY streets and NEARBY roads (which are legal to walk, ride or ride on) - uh, no, absolutely not. Sorry. It's rather bizarre to continue in that misdirection.

(FWIW, the "feature" of street view that prioritizes the tunnel over the surface streets is particularly amusing, since almost everyone who tries to use street view on Atlantic Ave would rather look at the surface street.)

-mr. bill

jjankie

Why do you disagree? Is it that you don't think it is stupid to bike on these busy roads? I am rather curious.

wphamilton

The argument went on way too long already.

I don't know why he's there, and what seems stupid to someone observing isn't always that crazy. The person actually doing it just might know something about it that we don't.

I don't know if it's stupid or not, for that guy on that road.

There are motorists driving on roads that I frequent, who believe that it's stupid and I'm bound to get run down sooner or later. Yet in reality I'm relatively safe on those busy roads. They know all about those roads; they drive them all the time. They can't imagine being on a bike on them, therefore I must be stupid. I see the situations as analogous.

jjankie

So. You choose not to have an opinion (ok) and give the biker the Benefit of a Doubt that he has good reasons or knowledge to bike on a very busy road. Hmmm, admirable!

genec

Or it could be that the biker simply doesn't know of an alternate way.

I wonder about this on a particular cloverleaf connection I drive from time to time.... and see a cyclist trying to negotiate the awkward connections. there is a superior bikeway in the area of these cloverleaf interchanges that is far simpler and shorter to use, if you know the bikeway is there. (I quite appreciate the bikeway for it's ease of use and expediency over having to drive the cloverleaf connections; this is one of the few places where biking has the advantage, by design). But to use the bikeway, you have to know it is there.

Keith99

Is traffic still moving fast?

Near my work there is pretty much only the freeway and one surface street. On the surface street there are a couple of tight stretches and quite a bit with quite adequate shoulder.

The ironic bit is if traffic is either light or very heavy it is fine. Light there is space, really heavy the nasty spots are not much if any faster than I can ride. But the middle where it is heavy but still between 35 and 55 would eb really nasty. I have not considered riding because predicting any day is impossible.

mr_bill

Rush hour is between VERY heavy traffic at stop and go to VERY heavy traffic NASCAR-ish (bumper to bumper) at 65 mph speed limit and above (75 in the breakdown lane is not atypical). The transition from one state to the other is measured in hundreds of meters.

Really, it's not just the law, it's pretty much a no brainer *NOT* to ride a bicycle on I-93 and I-95 during rush hour in peak direction. Right up there with staying out of the tunnels (Callahan/Sumner/Ted Williams/Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr./Dewey Square).

Pretty much the only thing more bizarre is attempting to ride a bicycle ON Boston Harbor, Charles River or the Merrimack River. I'm not going to assume that the rider might be Moses or Jesus Christ.

-mr. bill

Booger1

Tip O'Neill tunnel.............How many lanes wide is that,20?...Or does he lay on his back and it's 10 stories tall...

spare_wheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoSbyT6dO0U

2manybikes

It's been done plenty of times.

mr_bill

That's so a decade ago.

Something newer.

-mr. bill