This is of course the problem with bike lanes being thought of as shoulders by those who maintain the roads. I read about a European program (in Copenhagen I believe) that goes out with a robot that scans the pavement in bike lanes for imperfections so that they can keep ahead of the development of cracks and potholes. Obviously we're a long way from that here.
I called MassDOT district 6 offices (617-377-7150) to complain about the lousy street sweeping.
The receptionist, said, oh yes, someone called about it yesterday too, and she said she would put in a work order, and transferred me to someone's voice mail. If you're annoyed by it too, call in and complain!
We need to train the maintenance people that that bike lane is real transportation infrastructure, and shrugging our shoulders and feeling sorry for ourselves for being second class transportation citizens won't change that.
Looks just like the roads in Plymouth, must send the drivers to the same training!
ReplyDeleteI emailed the folks at MassDOT about how dirty the BU bridge was about a month ago. i left town for a week and when I came back it was nice and clean. so, the system does work, just not sure how fast!
ReplyDeleteJPT- Can you share where you complained online? I have had the feeling that online complaints disappear into a black hole over there (unlike the very good system that Cambridge has).
DeleteI contacted the woman listed here:
Deletehttp://app1.massdot.state.ma.us/CharlesRiverBridges/index.html#contact
she forwarded the email to the appropriate person.
BU bridge desperately needs thermoplastic. The temporary paint used to 'finish' the bridge project before the onset of winter has almost worn away and come RedSox season, with the influx of crazy suburban drivers, lane striping is going to be very important!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's really been an issue. I've heard varying reports from they didn't budget for thermoplastic, so that's all we're getting, to conspiracy theories that they're looking for traffic reasons to remove the bike lanes, so are just doing temporary paint.
DeleteBU bridge is also district 6, so you can call the phone number in the post and ask them about it.
Honestly this picture either doesn't do this justice or I'm not getting it.
ReplyDeleteHere in Upstate New York, we have to avoid broken beer bottles(and cans)random metal bits, other unknown glass on the roads. They get swept, sure but next Friday all of it will reappear like that ex, at the most inopportune time and with no escape.
Luke, sounds like your roads are really awful- is that an actual bike lane or a shoulder in which you are being pressured to ride?
DeleteTo me it's less about the absolute badness of the conditions as it is the fact that they went through and supposedly improved the situation, while actually making it worse for cyclists. This road gets probably 200 cyclists an hour during rush hours, so it's a very busy route, and its exasperating that they pushed all the debris from the whole roadway into the area where bicyclists, who are the most vulnerable to debris, are expected to ride.
I rode my bike over the Longfellow bridge this morning. It is much worse than the picture here lets on. There are shards of glass and random sharp pieces of metal everywhere. I am surprised I didn't get a flat.
DeleteDefinitely understand the frustration there.
DeleteOn the roads I ride it is all crap, the trails, well sometimes I need to bring a bow saw to cut the broken trees that go across. I guess I could wait but that would take too long.
One broken 40oz bottle crept up on me last week, ugh
In London, the latest poorly thought-out initiative to encourage cycling - the Cycle Superhighways - has involved the painting of lots of blue lines on the roads. Unfortunately, most of them are wide blue strips that turn slippery when it rains (a not-uncommon occurence in London). I describe the problem - and other problems with worldwide cycling infrastructure - here: http://invisiblevisibleman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/in-which-our-hero-picks-up-cycling.html
DeleteBIH has it right, but it's hard to show all the little nasties in a picture. My route is over the Longfellow, and I haven't ridden in that shoulder since last fall.
ReplyDeleteWe called MassDOT and requested the cleaning you see the brush marks for last month, and we just called again today to request a second run to the curb. We also requested a cleaning of Morton Street between Dorchester, Mattapan and JP for those who know it.
ReplyDeletePlease let us know of any other street cleaning needs ASAP. Getting these areas cleaned early in the spring will help us keep our crash rates down! www.bostoncyclistsunion.org
"I reached out to the Resident Engineer for this project and she let me know that MassDOT will be re-striping in this spring. The paint companies prefer to wait until it is a little warmer as paint is very temperature sensitive and it must be done at night. This paint will be done with latex and the thermo-plastic paint will be done at a later date."
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. I have recently started commuting over the Longfellow Bridge and noticed the poor condition of the bike lane.
ReplyDelete