The recent front-page Gazette story (“Bike-ped crashes become emerging threat,” May 16) highlights the expressed concerns of the Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation relating to protected bike lanes. Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt has been even more candid in public comments regarding the positioning of these lanes between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars — like those proposed here in Northampton as part of the Picture Main Street redesign. Speaking at a recent 2024 Annual Celebration 2024 of “Walk Massachusetts” Tibbits-Nutt fielded a question about the safety of these protected bike lanes sandwiched between sidewalks and parked cars. She characterized them as “wild” and “horrible.” Tibbits-Nutt described the positioning of these lanes as “a problem” and makes clear that this design is “not a good one.”
I wrote about the safety hazards associated with the positioning of these lanes in a Gazette editorial on Aug. 23, 2023. On Oct. 20, 2023, I described the hazards in a letter to the City Council. On Nov. 16, 2023, on behalf of a group of concerned citizens, I presented an alternative design for Picture Main Street that moved the bicycle lane to be adjacent to traffic lanes. My presentation also included the scientific studies relied upon by the city and carefully reiterated the safety issues.
â Cyclists would be at risk from motor vehicles taking right turns onto side streets with several uncontrolled intersections.
â Cyclists would be at risk from motor vehicles entering from side streets that need to pull past the curb line for drivers to see oncoming traffic around parked cars.
â Cyclists and pedestrians would be at risk as passengers exit parallel parked vehicles (passengers, often minors, are less likely than drivers to check the sideview mirror).
â Pedestrians (particularly small children and the elderly) would be at risk when they step off the curb to get to a parked car.
At the close of my presentation, the City Council did not say that it would consider the information or review the information with experts. Instead, the council proceeded with a vote on a resolution supporting the design. They were unwilling to reconsider a design to which they were all married. I am confident that most proponents of these bike lanes genuinely believe them to be safe. However, that belief is unsupported and even contradicted by science.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has an online publication under its Bicycle and Pedestrian Program called “Separated Bike Lane Planning and Design Guide.” Buried in the third chapter it reads in pertinent part, “However, while cyclists may perceive that separated bike lanes provide increased safety, it has been difficult to identify conclusive safety trends due to a lack of data, especially bicycle volume data before separated bike lane installation.” In that same chapter there is a review of an analysis of 17 separated bike lane corridors in eight states that notes, “Additionally, the analysis found that increases in bicycle crashes after separated bike lanes were built were especially pronounced at intersections.” The FHWA publication can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/nvf3s24b.
There are other modifications that would actually improve safety. These include raised crosswalks on Main Street, curb extenders at the crosswalks, flashing lights and/or signage at crosswalks and painting the travel lanes with well-marked bike lanes.
Washington D.C. was considering the very same position for a protected bike lane until recently when it struck the protected lane from a 2.7-mile redesign of Connecticut Avenue for these very same reasons that the opponents of the Northampton redesign have been warning of for months.
I hold out hope that our local leadership will heed the warnings of the Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and follow the lead of Washington D.C.’s mayor. It is a sign of responsible leadership to consider new or additional information, especially if it contradicts a previously held belief. The safety of cyclists and pedestrians seems a worthy reason to challenge a previously held belief.
John P. DiBartolo Jr. is a Florence resident with law offices in Northampton and Easthampton.