Who Wants to Bike in Boston? | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Bostonians hate many issues, as I’ve discovered since shifting right here. However no group of individuals attracts the entire and unfettered wrath of Massachusetts drivers like cyclists.

Drivers surprise why cyclists are so nervous about their security. In spite of everything, they assert, there are many bike lanes these days, painted inexperienced and plainly seen to automobiles. If a bicycle owner avoids these lanes and decides to chop right into a hazardous intersection, nicely, that’s on them.

However this reasoning belies the truth of car-bicycle relationships and the way they have a tendency to share the street.

The cyclists I see round Harvard Sq. are hyper-vigilant and alert. They danger their security using right here, with little infrastructure to guard them. Regardless of having separate bike lanes in some locations, our campus streets are removed from defending cyclists successfully. They journey about 10 to fifteen miles per hour because the automobiles to their left and proper zoom at twice that velocity. As a substitute of grade separation, the place the bike lanes are at sidewalk stage, there are flimsy obstacles and painted markings.

The dearth of those important options can kill. And sadly, it has.

In 2020, a truck killed a bicycle owner outdoors Harvard Station. Simply this summer season, two extra cyclists in our space had been struck and killed. From Porter Sq. to Inman Sq., a miserable and predictable sample emerges: our poor bicycle infrastructure will increase the quantity of reported crashes, doorings, and deaths. The worst half is that all of it occurs inside a couple of sq. miles.

I’d learn about how harmful painted bike lanes may be as a result of I’ve ridden on them. One night time, my mates and I made a decision to bike from Harvard Sq. to the brand new SEAS constructing in Allston. That required us to traverse the beforehand talked about bike lanes on JFK Road. It’s arduous to acknowledge how a lot sooner and bigger automobiles may be till you might be totally uncovered three ft away from one. On campus, I’ve witnessed drivers hit pedestrians at crosswalks and cyclists swerve to keep away from automobiles that reduce into the unprotected bike lane.

Boston and Cambridge have the best biking fatalities in Massachusetts. These deaths will not be freak accidents — they’re coverage failures.

We all know learn how to forestall biking accidents, and the options are simple and low cost. However when advocates promote these options at metropolis council conferences or group occasions, they don’t fairly know what response to count on from residents. Biking stays polarizing right here, regardless of our space being one of the crucial bike-friendly locations in the USA.

A number of organizations are working to alter that sentiment. In Cambridge, we have now Cambridge Bike Security, a company devoted to bettering the native biking infrastructure. CBS’s work and advocacy led to town passing the nation’s first Biking Security Ordinance in 2019. The ordinance ensures protected bike lanes on many streets over the following 5 years, from Massachusetts Avenue to Cambridge Road.

The group was based in response to the dying of Amanda Phillips again in 2016. Phillips, a pupil at The MGH Institute of Well being Professions, was biking in Inman Sq. when a Jeep driver opened his door and struck her. She fell into the trail of a landscaping truck. Her dying, and that of one other bicycle owner 4 months later, accelerated discussions round biking infrastructure. Due to these discussions and CBS’s advocacy efforts, town of Cambridge put in protected bike lanes between Inman Sq. and Harvard Sq., together with the realm the place Amanda Phillips died.

Six years on, these enhancements are instrumental in lowering biking accidents.

Opening a door into a motorbike lane is a small mistake that creates a harmful scenario for cyclists. Behaviors like these are ingrained in our driving tradition. Vehicles pull into a motorbike lane to choose up meals; vehicles do it to drop provides off. These aren’t all the time aware actions, however they’ve extreme penalties.

These extreme penalties prolong past bodily ones. They have a tendency to dampen the general public’s view on biking security, making it tougher and anxious for individuals to get on the street and bike. So organizations and supportive residents enter the image, selling biking infrastructure that protects public security.

In Cambridge, a motorbike lane challenge underneath the Biking Security Ordinance sometimes begins with Metropolis employees. They attain out to neighbors and residents and announce that there’s a challenge coming. The outreach has improved over time, and extra residents are being attentive to avenue modifications. I attended a couple of challenge conferences the place employees listened to suggestions and performed surveys. Through the course of, they may iterate on the designs, current them to residents, and take further suggestions.

And it looks as if residents are optimistic. Whereas on-line dialogue round biking deteriorates into stereotypes and finger-pointing, real-world surveys present that individuals are excited to see the streets turn into safer.

Sadly, although, the opposition is a loud minority. It’s comprehensible; individuals worry what a change in the established order would imply and sometimes resort to knee-jerk responses.

For instance, many opponents of biking infrastructure say it will solely be appropriate in the course of the hotter months, not whereas it’s snowy and chilly. However many individuals cycle year-round, particularly if they will entry usable bike services. Protected bike networks encourage devoted upkeep; bike lanes must be thought of important infrastructure, not an space to dump snow. These easy changes, practiced in different snowy areas like Scandinavia and Canada, can markedly enhance biking security.

Bike lanes are additionally comparatively cheap to construct. Cambridge’s Full Streets program spends $13.5 million a 12 months. These funds produce big investments that require much less upkeep than roads do. Plus, the long-term bodily and social advantages of biking drive down a variety of bills.

Lastly, accessibility is a major concern. Cities ought to guarantee and meet the entry wants of disabled individuals. Fortunately, the proof reveals that biking infrastructure improves accessibility. With adaptive bicycles, many disabled individuals journey in Boston. Many extra would, too — if given safer lanes.

Altogether, the previous half-decade of progress has launched the Boston space into one of the crucial bike-friendly cities in the USA. We have now achieved loads of modifications. The Gradual Streets and Open Streets packages in Boston and the Bluebikes outdoors Smith Heart present that when cities construct good biking infrastructure, individuals use it.

Protected, accessible bike lanes are starting to criss-cross our area. Fortunately, Cambridge and Boston appear dedicated to increasing our biking tradition.

Nonetheless, that dedication solely got here when advocacy teams, officers, and residents got here collectively and determined to prioritize individuals over automobiles and problem the established order. As college students, we will and may proceed doing this. In spite of everything, these might be our streets for 4 years.

Clyve Lawrence ’25 is a Authorities concentrator in Adams Home. His column “Our Transportation Disaster” seems on alternate Mondays.