We want safe streets. We want actual law enforcement. No more leniency please.

How about some bollards? Mass Ave here is really only one lane anyways (due to the crazy Mass Ave/Somerville Ave intersection), so removing a lane to install a safer, protected bicycle lane is not likely to cause excessive delay to motorists. Actually, as a motorist as well, I'd prefer if there were only one left turn lane anyways, right now the current "merge in the middle of the intersection" configuration is absolutely insane and has led to multiple near misses while driving here.

We want reason also. Are there other delivery options available along that stretch of Mass. Ave.? If that's the only reasonable option, you have to cut some slack.

Robert- are you aware that a man lost his life at this very intersection last year? Cutting slack to delivery trucks who illegally block the bike lane is not a long-term viable solution- it will only lead to more such fatalities as bikes get squeezed between cars/trucks/buses on the left and delivery trucks on the right. We need a solution whereby bikers are safe and adjacent businesses can receive deliveries with minimum inconvenience. I agree with Ian's suggestion about reducing the turning lanes to one.
Thanks
Pat

The photo also shows something that might have prevented the fatality. but most cyclists don't use it.

^GTS

I hope you're referencing a truck side-guard. Because...otherwise, that's just crass.

I don't believe parking was in any way related to the cyclist fatality.

Robert - so we should wait till we have another fatality due to a truck blocking the bike lane and then do something? Let's get real here. The point is this is a really dangerous intersection for bikers and anything we can do to make it safer is worth doing.

Robert stop trolling. There is a truck in the bike lane. It is dangerous and illegal.

I'm trying really hard to recall a single instance where the blocking of a bike lane led to a fatality. It's an inconvenience, to be sure, but that hardly warrants bringing up traffic fatalities in order to combat inconvenience. The cyclist fatality in Porter Square had to do, I believe, with riding in the blind spot of a moving truck. A Cambridgeport fatality two years ago had to do with riding out a driveway as a truck was approaching. The death of a cyclist in Inman Square happened when a cyclist rode from the sidewalk onto a street and around a parked car before noticing that the driver door was opened. I simply cannot recall a case where a cycling fatality was caused by a vehicle parked in a bike lane, but maybe others know of such an incident.

This is not to say that this is best practice in any way. I do try to look at things from the point of view of the taxi driver who has to let off or pick up a passenger in the safest way - and that might require pulling up temporarily in a bike lane. Same goes for a working guy making deliveries when the most feasible option involves temporarily parking in a bike lane. It also goes for the many parents I see every single day parking in a bus stop or double-parking as they drop off or pick up their kid at one of the Montessori schools or the day care facility on my block. Should we just bust them all for bending the rules? I hope not.

Let drivers block a traffic lane then. Protect the bike lane from intrusion. People on bikes having to jump in and out of traffic because of inconsiderate drivers is still dangerous, even if you don't have an example of a death in your head.

As my wife often reminds me- don't feed the trolls. Lol.

Arguing for reasonability is not trolling even if it goes against you established dogma. Bikes are not jumping in and out of traffic. They are traffic. They are simply temporarily shifting lanes to avoid an obstruction.

It is unreasonable to ask for drivers to respect the law and not put vulnerable users at risk ?

Robert,

Quite simply, if drivers would respect cyclists' rights to the full roadway, then sure, block the bike lane. But don't honk at me, yell at me, curse at me, or try to run me off the road just because I'm going around an obstruction in the bike lane. Unfortunately, drivers are not playing well with others, so we're forced to fend for ourselves, by reporting *every* *single* *obstruction* in a bicycle lane because we simply have no other recourse to try and keep ourselves, and our loved ones, safe.

Sure, I've yet to be killed by a motor vehicle blocking the bike lane, but I've had plenty of way-to-close-to-comfort calls, and those are not ok. Until motorists decide to respect cyclists we need protected infrastructure and enforcement to protect us.

Oh, and before you say cyclists need to respect motorists, sure, I agree with that, but I'm not going to kill you in your car if I accidentally crash into you.

Police - JW (Communications) assigned this issue to Traffic - KC (Permits)

The Cambridge bicycle plan calls for separated bike lanes on Mass Ave, however plans for such a lane require more substantial changes to the roadway including removal of the median. Removal of a travel lane at this location would cause severe transit and vehicle delay. Timing for further improvements to Mass Ave has not yet been set.