I'd like to formally request that the "slip lane" from Hampshire St to Antrim St remain open to motor vehicle (or all) traffic indefinitely. The fact that a single driver recklessly made a right turn certainly does not warrant the prohibition of right turns at this or any other intersection. I use this lane often as Antrim Street is the most direct route home from Somerville.

Robert, you're certainly entitled to your opinion!

I'm just not sure what else I can do to make myself safe, other than advocate for infrastructure changes. I'm wearing a dayglo yellow safety vest, I have a *very* bright flashing light on the front (and rear) of my bike, and I'm riding in a prominent position in the bike lane. I'd love to hear for other thoughts on how to make myself safer, but at this time, all I could come up with is closing the slip lane. I definitely can understand you'd advocate the opposite, and I don't begrudge you at all for that, but I am pretty frustrated that I was almost run over today even though I did everything "right".

If more motorists acted in a safe manner and actually checked their blind spots then I think this slip lane is fine. However, my experience is this is too often not the case, and I'd really rather not have another ghost bike in Inman Square.

Also, please do not bring up cyclists dangerous behavior here, that is definitely a concern, but in this case the cyclist (me) was doing everything according to law, so if you notice cyclists here doing something unsafe please open a new ticket for that, thanks!

The same thing could happen at ANY intersection, i.e. a right hook from a negligent driver. You cannot simply eliminate all right turns because of illegal behavior. Every intersection has to be approached with caution and minimal assumptions that other road users will act within the law - even if 99% of them do act legally and courteously.

Let's not be hyperbolic, I'm asking for the City to formally consider a single action, closing a slip lane at a specific intersection that I see many road users using in a dangerous, and often illegal, fashion. Let's give the City some time to respond to the single request, they might just say no, or they might be interested in looking into this further.

There is nothing hyperbolic in what I said. Antrim Street is possibly the single longest street in Cambridge without a cross street. There are many people who live on this street, and the lane you propose to close due to a single incident is used daily by many of the residents of that street. I would hope that reminding City officials of this fact is not irrelevant to any consideration of your proposed closure.

Could you post the video? That might be more effective at getting some movement on this. This slipway also seems to be a favorite for taxis to stop in to pick up passengers in Inman. Just yesterday morning a cab stopped here and completely blocked the bike lane, got out and started opening the trunk to put some suitcases in. Amazingly, I've also seen cars use this slipway to make left turns. Cars also like to move over into the bike lane too early when making the right from Hampshire. I recommend more enforcement during rush hour for Inam in general, especially in the morning.

Pat H,

I apologize for the delay, had to wait until I got home to pull video off my GoPro. I've posted a link to a short clip showing my approach until we both came to a complete stop. After quick review I did not see any signals by the motorist, who appeared to be more focused on a GPS unit on the dashboard than the roadway. The vehicle was a late model (2014+) White Subaru Forester, Registration MA 514KP2. The operator was a white, middle aged male. If Cambridge Police would like to follow up I can provide an image of the motorist's face as well, though I don't see much value in trying to publicly shame the operator, even if he nearly ran me over.

City of Cambridge,

If you cannot, or will not, consider closing the slip lane please let me know what I should be doing to make myself safer here. I'm honestly not sure what else I can do, but clearly my efforts are not enough, so I'd like the City to chime in here.

Wow - that's a pretty clear cut case of driver negligence. Drivers like this should be cited by police. I hope they can follow up with you and hand this clown a nice fat fine. Thank you for sharing.

Unfortunately in the past, Cambridge Police have basically told me, "Hey, you didn't actually crash, so you didn't get hurt, hooray!" They're not wrong, but they are either unwilling, or perhaps unable, to do anything unless there is either property damage or personal injury, which is usually something you try to avoid!

Fortunately, yesterday was one of the rare days I was riding a regular style bicycle, normally I'm on a long, heavy cargo bike. If I had been riding my regular cargo bicycle there's no way I would have avoided a collision. I guess luck was on my side yesterday, but still, I'd rather the transportation infrastructure not depend on luck to prevent road users from being run over!

Police - JW (Communications) assigned this issue to Traffic - KK (Parking)

Any updates here? This intersection is still super dangerous, made even more so by motorists now trying to turn left across traffic into the slip lane. Would really like to not be seriously injured or killed just trying to get to work.

The whole intersection is being redesigned, so it would be silly to change things now. Also, that slip lane may not be ideal, but I can point out fifteen places that are more dangerous. #priorities

The Inman Square Intersection Improvements Community Meeting scheduled for Tuesday December 5, 2017, is being postponed and will be rescheduled for a new date in January 2018. The City Manager, Deputy City Manager, and numerous staff have been meeting with various stakeholder groups to discuss the preferred design proposal. Based on the feedback received, the project team needs more time to perform additional analyses and further refine the project design, so that they can present the community with the most complete information regarding the intersection and plaza layout. Once a new date is confirmed, an additional notice will be sent out announcing the date, time, and location of the rescheduled community meeting.