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Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

citylab.com

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Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#11

Post by pselbert »

Every person I know that bikes in Chicago has been hit at least once. Fortunately none of them have been seriously injured, but it is a constant danger.

There are lots of bike lanes downtown but they aren’t protected or respected. We have a long way to go to make biking a safe form of transport like it is in the Netherlands.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#12

Post by throwawaysea »

Asking for anyone who might know: how is it that this article is at the #1 spot on the front page already. It was submitted by an account created 21 minutes ago, and it seems unusual that it would displace things like the Assange story, which has over 800 comments.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#14

Post by larrymyers »

I'm a huge fan of protected bike lanes. Chicago has a few of them, and they are far less stressful to ride on compared to just basic striping on the road.

By far the biggest issue I have with striped bike lanes is trying guess when an Uber driver is going to do something crazy when picking up or dropping off a passenger.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#15

Post by adamnemecek »

throwawaysea wrote: post #12

Asking for anyone who might know: how is it that this article is at the #1 spot on the front page already. It was submitted by an account created 21 minutes ago, and it seems unusual that it would displace things like the Assange story, which has over 800 comments.

62 upvotes is a lot.

I’m guessing a lot of hn users live or lived around Cambridge.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#16

Post by dsfyu404ed »

throwawaysea wrote: post #12

Asking for anyone who might know: how is it that this article is at the #1 spot on the front page already. It was submitted by an account created 21 minutes ago, and it seems unusual that it would displace things like the Assange story, which has over 800 comments.

Up-vote rate over time is highly weighted and it's east coast business hours right now so there's a lot of people from MA mashing the upvote button.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#17

Post by CydeWeys »

ummonk wrote: post #10
psychometry wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cambridge is a city of 100k people, not a suburb. For comparison, Boston has 600k.

I wouldn't describe Cambridge as a suburb, but plenty of suburbs have populations larger than 100k.

The key distinction is that suburbs are largely residential and composed of lower density housing, which does not describe Cambridge accurately.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#18

Post by jdgoesmarching »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #13

As much as I hate Cambridge I'm having a hard time finding fault with this. Bike lanes fit their needs really well.

Are there scooter companies in Cambridge? I've been hoping they would spur some major cities to invest in bike lanes but I'm not sure if that's the case here.

Either way, solid win all around.

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#19

Post by Eric_WVGG »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #13

As much as I hate Cambridge I'm having a hard time finding fault with this. Bike lanes fit their needs really well.

I lived in Boston/Cambridge about eight years ago and found it to be the most bicyclist-unfriendly city I had ever lived in (there are certainly worse, I just haven’t had that misfortune). I’ve been honked at by obnoxious drivers before, but only in Boston would drivers routinely slow down to call me a “f----ing f-gg--t” for being on the road.

NYC drivers might be jerks, but I never got the impression that they were actively malevolent.

Brian McGrory, editor of the Boston Globe, penned this great little op-ed, “Make Boston Bicycle-Free” back in 2011. I wonder how he feels about this win for the f-gg--ts in his city. http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/...

Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law

#20

Post by komali2 »

larrymyers wrote: post #14

I'm a huge fan of protected bike lanes. Chicago has a few of them, and they are far less stressful to ride on compared to just basic striping on the road. By far the biggest issue I have with striped bike lanes is trying guess when an Uber driver is going to do something crazy when picking up or dropping off a passenger.

I've been politely asking the Lyft and Uber drivers to next time not stop in the bike lane, and reactions have been positive.

I kind of wish they were required to have "check for cyclists before you open door!" signs like I've seen in some taxis.

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