There’s been some discussion about this on another thread but we’ve had a request to start one specifically about the Walnut Street in Newtonville revitalization project which includes a proposal from that includes wider sidewalks and shared bike/vehicle lanes and a plan for dedicated five-foot bike lanes.
Tim Stone, president of Beautiful Newtonville, wrote this oped for the TAB in support of wider sidewalks a couple weeks ago.
As a cyclist, I feel a shared responsibility with cars to bike more slowly and deliberately in congested zones. This goes for, among others, Newton Centre (Centre St in particular) and Walnut St in Newtonville. With that in mind, I would feel less need for a separate bike lane in that stretch in favor of wider sidewalks- the idea being that in (mandated) slow traffic bikes can and should be in the travel lane anyway. My 2 cents.
(I love to bike faster, but generally most of my longer rides start with getting the heck out of Newton to less congested surrounding towns where we have the space and sparser traffic to stretch out)
I was originally of the opinion that bike lanes were a natural, much as is being done in West Newton Square. But further reading has convinced me to agree with the linked article: a bustling, activated village center will serve to slow car traffic to the point where bikes are better off in the travel lane, away from opening car doors and with better mutual visibility among motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.
I do, however, think that bike lanes on the excessively-wide bridge over the Pike (and connecting up to hopefully-eventual bike lanes on Washington St.) would be welcome on what’s now a fairly scary stretch of road for a cyclist.
Greg,
My original comment was not really about trump but rather the speed at which Newton likes to introduce ordinances which Offset Trump policies (i.e. Welcoming illegal immigrants)
Newton now has the opportunity to introduce an ordinance to restrict carbon emissions. One such possibility is more bike lanes, more public transportation, solar power etc. much more than Newton has previously considered
Would like to see the liberals actually “do something” they feel strongly about
Bugek:
Some of us are talking about actual improvements. This has little to do with liberal or conservative. Bike lanes have positive features and negative ones. For instance, I would be fine with bike lanes on the bridge, or more traffic calming on the bridge, so I agree with Doug L above.
As I posted elsewhere, I’m a big fan of the wider sidewalks, and it is not because I’m anti-bike lane. With correct traffic calming I believe it is the best way to go, that bike lanes in the village center will become defacto loading zones. (and don’t feed me the b.s. that we will issue tickets for that, because folks park in the middle lane now all the time to unload, which is dangerous for everyone, and yet I’ve seen the police routinely ignore this behavior or simply not on the window and ask the driver to move along.)
Does this transform the village? yes. Will it cause travel through the village to slow? Yes. For those of us who live near the village is that a good thing? Yes. I don’t go through Newtonville on Walnut unless I am trying to go directly north. Lowell and Harvard street would be easier ways to get to Washington. And slower traffic (and bikes sharing the lane in a sharrow) is better for a village environment and better for bikes.
Now I WOULD like more places to park my bike on the south side. And I’ve love a bike share all along Washington Street and Nonantum Street. Let’s do THAT.
The Paris climate accord could be the actual spark needed for Newton to finally act with impetus. Global warming has been known for at least 20 years, yet Newton or MA has not put serious effort(bike lanes, local public transportation, much more solar)
If now is not the time to act, it never will
Don’t know if they need to be quite 5 feet wide, but certainly dedicated bike lanes through the business district and across Washington Street are a good idea. Yes, wide sidewalks are really nice, but public safety would mandate dedicated lanes in that kind of congested area.
Andy, I think you should do a bit more reseach on this. You are correct in my view that dedicated bike lanes are a good idea on larger avenues and roads with speed limits over 20 miles per hour. But in more crowded areas, that has not proven to be the case. Happily, I’ve put together some bike nonprofits over the years, and the leaders were kind enough to point me to some…gasp…real data so I wasn’t just talking out of my ample rear end.
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/bike-to-work-4-best-of-all-worlds-together/
So in at least some situations, a dedicated bike lane in a slow moving environment with many cross intersections (basically what we have in our village area, where cars during 7 am to 8 pm rarely exceed 20 mph, and where there are multiple intersections, pedestrian strips, etc), was actually found to be LESS safe in Europe when it was studied. My bike friend said that truely dedicated bike lanes (raised or set off) are a different story, but that absent that he’d prefer to drive in a shared lane in a village type environment. It also greatly lowers the chance of being doored, which in a dedicated bike lane would be a real risk.
Sometimes what seems like a good idea isn’t born out when one considers the evidence. Please read the link, talk to some bike folks, and consider the evidence before you or the paper weigh in on this.
Thanks!
http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/lanes/wachlane.htm
Or this one Andy. Lots of good info here.
I will post this (unofficially) on behalf of Bike Newton which is officially supporting “Option C” (or none of the above)
Option C has buffered bike lanes on the bridge extending to Austin street (ish). It has widened sidewalks, narrow travel lanes and a shared environment for bikes and care in the village heart. It then has bike lanes starting up again about at the senior center and heading as far south as possible (right now) which is about Otis street.
We very much would have preferred and heavily advocated for protected bike lanes if the ROW permitted it. Unfortunately, without significant parking removal (politically a non starter in the village at the moment), it does not.
So building off of Fig’s point above and many of our own experiences on bike lanes in busy business districts, and potential safety hazards of unprotected bike lanes, we feel that a shared lane and slow driver speeds are the safest option here.
We also support some specifics on the one-way sections that is a bit wonky but could be done with much less impact to residents than block long one-way sections. Our focus is using the one-way’s for safety improvement and turning driver traffic consolidation, not for increasing auto parking.
If you want to read a bit more on our reasons and what we feel is the best of both worlds, please see the email blast below that just went out to our membership yesterday.
http://mailchi.mp/bikenewton/bike-newton-action-alert-email-the-city-to-support-safer-biking-in-newtonville
Thanks!
John Pelletier
Board Member, Bike Newton Steering Committee
Newtonville
Please, everyone review and support option C:
http://mailchi.mp/bikenewton/bike-newton-action-alert-email-the-city-to-support-safer-biking-in-newtonville
This proposal combines the best aspects of options A & B. The City Council may also designate the village center a safety zone with a 20 mph limit. These will dramatically enhance safety for kids biking to/from NNHS and boost the economic vitality of the village center by making the street a destination more than a roadway.
Fig, the link you shared reflects a particular school of thought that promotes “vehicular cycling”, the idea that ideally bikes are best integrated into roads when they are treated no differently than cars. This view has been most strongly promoted by expert, cyclists, mostly men, who are tolerant of the risks of taking the lane in traffic. http://bikeparts.wikia.com/wiki/Fred_(bicycling)
That approach doesn’t work for the vast majority of people who don’t bike because they (rightly) don’t feel it is safe. Building safe bike facilities is not for Fred. Its for a Newton in which 12-year old kids can safely bike to school or to their friend’s house.
Nathan and John:
I’m appreciate your willingness to consider the proposals, as well as your flexibility and realistic take on the situation. I wasn’t trying to state that the links in my posts were the only way to think about bike lanes, just that it wasn’t as simple as dedicated bikes are great for public safety. And I’m clearly not as experienced or knowledgable as you, I was mostly responding to Andy’s post and trying to point out the research on the other side.
With that all said, I’ve studied option c, and personally I think it is a good compromise. I’d prefer the bike lanes to start after the Senior Center so we could maximize that public space, but the increased sidewalks in the heart of the village is one of the key aspects of Option A. Others may feel differently, but the bridge having wider sidewalks isn’t as important in my view, I can’t see folks hanging out on the bridge, and seating and other aspects needed for the village center aren’t needed for the bridge.
I note that no one who has in depth knowledge seems to be supporting Option B in full. The Newtonville Area Council, Beautiful Newtonville, Bike Newton, are all major stakeholders, and all either support Option A (wider sidewalks) or Option C (combo plan with wider sidewalks in village center, bike lanes on bridge and post senior center.
And again, I appreciate a reasonable discussion on this, so hats off to Bike Newton.
I believe our bike lane issues on Walnut Street in Newtonville village have a similar concerns with the bicycle accident in Inman Square in 2016. As a result of the safety issues, I believe Inman square revised plan will have no bicycle lanes with the square. There are five roads that intersect at this square. Newtonville village has a similar issue at base of Walnut Street bridge (Austin Street, Inbound south from bridge, Outbound south from bridge, Newtonville Ave, North bound from Walnut to/thru village).
Revisions with the one ways and no left turns routing will alleviate a large portion of the congestion. Bicyclist safety is a concern. Bikers do and will ride on the sidewalks whether they are wider or not. I have talked to many Newtonville bikers. Several cyclist have said “they would rather ride the sidewalks rather than take the chance of being killed on our streets”. I have heard bicycle bike way proponents say that the average bicycle speed in a protected dedicated bike way is in excess of 10 mph. – I think this speed is excessive within the Newtonville village. I can only imagine more bicycle-pedestrian accidents, with both parties suffering significant injuries, possibly with a fatality. My recommendation is to follow Inman Square’s example, which does not have any dedicated barrier protected bicycle lanes with the Newtonville village.
Our Newtonville small businesses often have very large trucks (16 wheeler), which either double park or park in the center lane to off-load merchandise/supplies – all times of the day. If this third lane option is not available the only option for a automobile is to drive in opposite lane with this truck blocking the roadway. And with protected dedicated bicycle ways, I believe the only solution is have two police officers directing traffic to all allow safe travel in either direction while un-loading occurs. Having a smart traffic light on the north side of the bridge of the intersection of Walnut and Washington will offer very little to no relief to this situation.
And I also believe all those smart meters will offer very little relief , since these trucks take ways more than 15 minutes to make these service calls.
Where I have heard that 15 minutes was the preferred time allotment for high demand parking areas.
My recommendation is to not have any dedicated barrier protected bicycle lanes with the Newtonville village and make revisions with the one ways with no left turns routing will alleviate a large portion of the traffic congestion causes from single lane roadways..