Bike Friendly w/o Appearing Bike Friendly 2: Traffic Calming

Earlier today I rode through the Back Bay to The Pour House. More specifically, I crossed the Mass Ave bridge and continued to take a left on Boylston St. For those that don't spend much time in the Back Bay, most of the streets are three lanes one way and most intersections are controlled with lights. There is no bike infrastructure anywhere to be found. When the light turns green, even a competent and strong vehicular cyclist must crank the pedals as hard as he can just to try to keep up with traffic. The worst part is knowing that every driver around has their foot heavy on the gas pedal, in a hurry to wait at or possibly beat the next light. It is certainly an uncomfortable situation, even before the cyclist has to make a left turn. Beginners and most intermediate cyclists will certainly avoid this area or choose to use the sidewalk.

What can be done to make this area more bike friendly? Traffic calming. By that I mean a couple things. The first would be raising the intersections to the sidewalk level, forcing drivers to slow for the sidewalks even when there are no pedestrians. In the back bay, raised crosswalks could be added mid-block on the long side of the block. Second, chicanes or slight bends could be added in the road to eliminate the drag strip feeling in this area. The combined effect of these treatments would make it much more difficult to accelerate hard out of every light when in a car. It would also lower the top speeds cars attain on the road without seriously impacting average travel time through the area.

Those two effects would combine to make bicycles fit into traffic much better. Bikers would no longer need to strain just to keep up. There would be less road rage since the speed and acceleration difference would be smaller. The improved pedestrian crossings would increase pedestrian traffic and safety. Drivers would be forced to play nice with pedestrians and likely with bikers as well.

There would also be a few nice side effects. By lowering the top speed and bringing it more in line with the average speed and the street grid, the sound and pollution effects of stopping and accelerating hard would be reduced. This would be especially nice for people enjoying the mall on Commonwealth Ave, and for residents of the area. Pedestrians would certainly take advantage of improved and mid block crossings. The increased bike and pedestrian traffic combined with lower vehicle speeds would also likely be a boon for businesses in the area, even though they are certainly already doing well.

In the near future, I will attempt to create a series on my strategies for making Boston Bike Friendly, neighborhood by neighborhood. The first will likely be the Back Bay.