Cambridge is consistently recognized as one of the most bike friendly, environmentally conscious and forward thinking communities in the entire country. The city is working on a massive bike lane project, is home to the most prestigious higher learning institutions in the world and its civic leaders are open to next-generation ideas. It’s peculiar, then, that the latest proposal for the reconstruction of Pearl Street is noticeably lacking in safe bike lane infrastructure.
On November 24, City Councilor and former Lt. Governor contender Leland Cheung — a recreational cyclist in his own right — submitted a policy order resolution, which passed unanimously, calling for a reassessment of “adding dedicated cycling infrastructure” to the roadway. The two latest proposals feature inadequate bike lanes at best, despite the fact that residents have acknowledged the risks and perils of pedaling down Pearl Street.
You can check out the two options for Pearl Street below. The first shows absolutely no bike infrastructure whatsoever. In fact, the description bills new crosswalks, six-inch curb bump extensions and raised intersections.
The second option appears slightly more accommodating to bikers but it still poses significant danger. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the right curb would be designated a bike lane only, reducing parking solely to the other side of the street but still allowing for applicable bus pick ups and drop offs. By night, it would return to its normal state of parking, allowing for residents to leave their cars on both sides of the street, leaving bikers without any specified path of their own.
By opting for the latter, Cambridge would inadvertently create more hazards for cyclists. Relieving the street of parking on one side, coupled with the fact the travel lanes are designated as 11-feet wide, allows for an increase in vehicle speeds as well as the likelihood of traffic collisions. One Rutgers University professor even suggests that travel lanes 10-feet or wider are responsible for an additional 900 traffic deaths each year.
Here’s the thing: Pearl Street residents are fully aware of how dangerous biking is in their city. Cambridge conducted a survey of 322 residents, 25 percent of whom actually call Pearl Street home and 52 percent of whom live in the neighborhood
A staggering 68 percent of respondents said they use Pearl Street for biking, second only to walking at 90 percent. Pearl Street also proved to be the most uncomfortable for bikers to use, as per 39.8 percent of respondents, followed closely by children at 39.2 percent.
Only five percent felt it was comfortable for bikers.
More people, 28 percent to 33 percent, say that speeding is already a problem on Pearl Street.
But perhaps the two most significant statistics here are that a whopping 75 percent of respondents felt that cyclists sharing the road with vehicles is the biggest challenge on Pearl Street and that 30 percent own two bikes.
Pearl Street Survey Full Results
Hell, even the City of Cambridge website reads:
Every person who is on a bike takes up less room on the street, reduces congestion, decreases parking demand, and decreases air pollution. Bicycling also supports both individual and public health goals of promoting healthy exercise. It is important that our roads not only accommodate people who bicycle but invite them to do so — whether they are eight years old or 80 years old.
One has to wonder: If residents are fully aware of the already subpar bike safety features, why are city officials so hesitant to improve them?
The short answer: parking.
Many in Cambridge are supportive of the idea of bike lanes, which yield obvious safety and environmental advantages, as long as it’s not on their particular street it seems.
According to an article in Cambridge Day earlier this year, Lawrence Street dwellers were up in arms when they discovered a Hubway station installed on the side of the road. Zoning regulations were revised so that bikers and bike-share frequenters could have the Hubway service close by; otherwise, “if it were open to public participation they wouldn’t be able to put them where they want,” said former City Council candidate James Williamson.
For Hubway, the most popular station in 2013 was Kendall/MIT which recorded 55,815 visits and, as if that weren’t exemplification enough for Cambridge’s collective affinity for biking, consider that all Hubway stations in the city will be open throughout the entire winter – the same cannot be said for Boston, Brookline and Somerville.
“The confounding element with Pearl Street is essentially that adding a dedicated bicycle lane will remove a lot of parking,” said Cambridge bike advocate Joe Poirier.”This gives a lot of city employees and councillors pause in supporting anything environmentally and socially responsible that would also remove parking. It’s wrong that our city weighs doing the right thing against car storage. Not doing the responsible thing shouldn’t even be an option.”
So now the question is not why, but how can Cambridge accommodate the needs of both drivers and bikers?
According to an editorial penned by Poirier and his constituent advocates to Wicked Local earlier in November, “an average of only 75 percent of Pearl Street and 81 percent of side street parking spaces are occupied, leaving 274 spaces vacant.”
In a democracy, somebody always loses. In Cambridge, it should be the drivers. After all, a 2011 study conducted by the city showed that “between 2002 and 2012, the number of people bicycling in Cambridge tripled.”
Similarly, “Traffic counts conducted by the city found that between 2002 and 2012, rush hour bicycle trips in Cambridge tripled in number.”
The best possible action Cambridge could take is to add some kind of buffer between a lane used strictly for biking and the road, or a difference in elevation between the two.
After studying protected bike lanes in Austin, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. – that’s 168 hours of video footage of nearly 17,000 cyclists and 20,000 vehicles – researchers were able to determine that cyclists would at least feel the most safe with a planter separating bike lanes from the road, a two-to-three-foot buffer with plastic road dividers, and/or a raised concrete curb.
It’s wrong that our city weighs doing the right thing against car storage
It’s completely illogical for Cambridge, with its wealth of resources and brainpower, not to be open to legitimate bike safety infrastructure measures. Vying for a middle way in this particular instance is no way at all, and it’s time for the City Council to step up and do what’s right for the environment, the neighborhood and, most importantly, the individuals who will suffer unduly from the lack of their support.
Cambridge won’t break ground on Pearl Street until the spring or summer of 2015, barring any setbacks. In the meantime, if you’d like to get in touch with someone about the project, you can find the applicable contact information here.
Featured Image via Creative Commons/ Tim Pierce (CC BY 2.0)
