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-Anarresti- OP t1_jb7x76l wrote

The city will present information and collect questions and comments on the Hampshire Street Safety Improvement Project.

At the meeting, the city will:

  • Share two design options for Hampshire Street.

  • Share designs for installing separated bike lanes on one block of Broadway, between Portland Street and Hampshire Street.

  • Discuss planned changes to parking regulations.

  • Review changes to bus stop locations and improvements to transit operations

  • Discus planned improvements at existing crosswalks to improve pedestrian safety.

Why is this project important?

Hampshire street is the major bicycle thoroughfare connecting Davis, Porter, and Inman squares to Kendall Square via the protected bike lanes on Beacon Street. During rush hour, it is one of the busiest streets for bikes in Cambridge. Adding well designed protected bike lanes to Hampshire Street will represent a huge jump in bicycle lane coverage and connectivity in the city.

Protected bike lanes are mandated on Hampshire Street as a result of the 2019 Cycling Safety Ordinance, so it's important to make sure that they are well designed and safe. Particular attention should be given to the following points:

> Hampshire St is a busy street for biking

> • We regularly see more people riding their bikes on Hampshire St than driving during busy parts of the day

> • Bike lanes on Hampshire St are narrow and lack separation

> • This can be uncomfortable for many riders, and increases the number of conflicts that can occur between all users of the street

> • People bike at a variety of different speeds

> • This means that passing is common. Passing today requires entering the vehicle lane

You can learn more about the project from the slides presented during the first community meeting here: https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/Traffic/2023/hampshirest/hampshirestreetfirstcommunitymeeting.pdf

How to join:

Click this link: https://www.cambridgema.gov/citycalendar/view.aspx?guid=1fa1cd1d1ba14337836f4f040845df8c and follow the instructions on how to join the Zoom meeting.

If you have the time tomorrow, please consider joining the zoom meeting and listening in, or adding your questions or comments!

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JazzlikeNecessary293 t1_jb9s6m7 wrote

• This means that passing is common. Passing today requires entering the vehicle lane

Passing on a divided bike lane can be pretty inconvenient. For anyone that goes, try to scrutinize this part of the design.

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UniWheel t1_jbjxbx6 wrote

>This means that passing is common. Passing today requires entering the vehicle lane
>
>Passing on a divided bike lane can be pretty inconvenient. For anyone that goes, try to scrutinize this part of the design.

Exactly. Physically confining cyclists is a win for drivers, but bad for cyclists.

Build this, and you'll probably see lots of folks opting for the car lane instead - which is fully legal in Massachusetts, and quite appropriate at the volume of usage depicted in that picture.

An actually useful bike lane is space that we can use when being passed by cars at the hours where that's actually possible, and space that we can leave when that's what is required.

Plus confining cyclists to a fixed, second class space fails to match the desire to use subsidies to get people who would not currently bike onto an e-bike - e-bikes break the idea that bikes have different needs from cars, as they put even less-athletic folks in that uncanny valley between cherished beliefs of distinction that were never true to begin with.

And that's even before getting into the intersection conflicts...

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