Agreed!

I have lived on this portion of Tremont St since 1983 and it has only gotten worse over time. The rate at which people drive down the street at times is insane! But I have also almost gotten hit by bike riders coming up the street in the wrong direction but that is an issue for another day. And I too heard the beeping this morning and couldn't believe that the driver thought constant beeping would magically move the truck out of their way. We've all gotten stuck behind a trash or recycling truck at some point in our lives and we know by now that it's just something that has to be dealt with for the short that we are inconvenienced. If someone has to get somewhere fast, then choose a different route.

@CrazyJayne – I appreciate you supporting my ticket to SeeClickFix. However, I really don’t like it when I report here and someone jumps in to rant about the ‘bad bicyclists trying to hit me’. As we both have already agreed, the issue-at-hand are the drivers going at unsafe speeds and honking their horns when they are ever so briefly inconvenienced.

For a moment, please imagine yourself on a bicycle and think about the alternative if you live on Tremont and need to get home from, say, Central Square. There is no safe bike path AT ALL. Even when you approach our block, you need to go through Inman Square, which has proven deadly multiple times, up backed-up Prospect, into Somerville, and around the unprotected intersections at Webster. Then just because you’re going the right way on Tremont doesn’t mean you’re safe from speeding drivers who will honk at you for simply existing. Are you really upset when people on bikes decide to go a few meters in the wrong direction to avoid this trouble?

Besides, cities in countries much, much safer than ours usually allow bicyclists to bike against the flow on one-way streets like ours. It has the effect of making the street safer by making drivers slow down and pay attention, which is exactly what we want on Tremont St! In the Netherlands, on a street shaped like ours, you would see: https://tinyurl.com/y33re68j (uitgezonderd means ‘excepted from the rule’). The little red path is for bicyclists to go counter-flow, and helps avoid conflicts if someone is traveling in the opposite direction by providing lane markings. The pictured street is the exact same size as ours. Dutch road safety is many, many times higher than ours here in the US. We can have this here if we can just decide that people on bicycles should be encouraged. I hope I have convinced you to advocate for bicycle safety instead of against it – people on bicycles are also vulnerable road users that require advocacy instead of scolding.

We all need to follow the rules we have, cars, pedestrians and bikes. The most recent bicycle death in Inman Square (~3 years ago) was due to entry onto the street from sidewalk and going too fast to stop.

Sorry d, I didn't mean to upset you but I didn't think my 1 sentence comment about bike riders coming up the street in the wrong direction would have been considered a rant. I'm sure it's dangerous for bikes on any road and I understand that sometimes it's easier to go up a street in the other direction on a bike but maybe since Tremont St is a one way and people usually only look one way for both cars & bikes when crossing, that it's a simple ask to have a bike rider give a heads up that they are coming up the wrong way when they see someone is trying to cross. And I'm not upset that riders decide to go a few meters in the wrong direction, I'm more concerned with a collision that may hurt both rider and pedestrian. Thank you for your concern.

More honking at garbage trucks this morning.

@CrazyJane - Glad we agree. Officially advocating for proven-safe 'bicycles excepted' infrastructure, which would cost Cambridge no significant extra resources might be a great way to reduce conflicts on our street. That little bit of paint on the road in the Dutch example I sent is usually sufficient to remind people to look both ways before entering the street. It also fixes the speeding, to some extent. We're going to see an increase of road users when the Green Line opens anyway, so best if we're prepared for it rather than fight it.

@Cambridge 101 - What if I told you vulnerable road users don't have to die, even if they make a little mistake? But if you're talking about Ms Phillips, then your rewriting of history is insensitive and deceitful. Inman Square has been host to dozens of collisions; it is dangerous. Period. Cambridge has tried to address the issue by implementing a city-wide 20mph limit, even if it is not being completely enforced. Anyway, my follow-up post was about learning from countries that our safer than ours to improve our rules and designs. Why does that trigger you?

Hello d,

You could just stop and walk your bike on the sidewalk for the "few meters" to your house. You know, instead of putting yourself in a less than ideal, shall we say, even potentially fatal position, as biking the wrong way down a street.

Also, we are in the U.S., not the Netherlands. I know you are aware of this possibly? It's hard to tell since you spent a paragraph telling us how safe the Netherlands is or something. I do not see how this point you made is relevant to our laws.

I look forward to your triggered, emotionally charged reply.

Best Regards,

s

@Sutera - lol, nah, I don't think I'll take the nationalist, anti-intellectual bait. I will, however, continue advocating for safer streets for you, even if you can't envision what they'd look like, despite my abundantly clear example. Hope you're having a #blessed weekend.
P.S. If you let me know which bridge you live under, I'll submit a repair ticket to MASSDOT for you.

Hi d,

What do you think about my getting off your bike and walking it down the sidewalk idea? Sounds like a pretty safe route for you as a biker.

Best Regards,

s

@d, the way you respond to people who have even a slightly different viewpoint than yours is very immature. The unnecessary criticisms and insults you made to Sutera will only make people think less of YOU! If you ever have any hope in swaying people to see how biking in Cambridge could be made better you should really rethink your responses, otherwise any good points you may make will only fall on deaf ears.

@CrazyJayne - I'm sorry. I will try to be more polite to people who imply I should go back to my country.

@Sutera - I never said I was a "biker", I just use empathy and evidence to envision a better street for all of us. As to your suggestion for even more users crowding our narrow sidewalks on our otherwise very wide street (3 lanes for cars!), COVID-19 has declared that dépassé. Pardon my French.

Closing this ticket as I am not sure what the request is here based on the comments. If it's about the street design, you can email tpt@cambridgema.gov to reach the Traffic Dept. who can review it with other involved departments (Community Development and/or Public Works). Thank you.