A year after getting its first sharrows, those on-street symbols indicating that cyclists and drivers need to share the road, Wellesley now has an actual marked bike lane on Washington Street on the street across from Hunnewell Field.
While we’ve had no luck getting an update from Wellesley’s Engineering Department on the latest disappearance of brick crosswalks on the town’s main thoroughfare (i.e., Rte. 16), the appearance of fresh sharrows and a dedicated bike lane are plain to see. The bike lane is on the westbound side of 16, and the sharrows are on the eastbound side, encouraging cyclists to share the road with drivers and perhaps getting themselves out of harm’s way where people parking for ballgames and such along the Hunnewell Field stretch aren’t always careful about swinging open their car doors.
Wellesley has been attempting to make the town more bike friendly in recent years, even forming a Bicycle Safety Committee in the wake of a local cyclist’s death on a Wellesley road in 2012.
Cycle Day at Wellesley Farmers’ Market
Speaking of cycling, the Wellesley Farmers’ Market is having its official Cycle Day on Saturday, Sept. 24 from 9am-1pm at 300 Washington St.
Fuel up on free coffee, grab a tote bag to transport anything you buy and meet Steve the Bike Guy, who will be offering quick tune-ups and consultations.
I applaud the Town’s nascent effort to improve bike infrastructure, however, everyone should realize that it is very late, and very far behind the more effective efforts in many nearby municipalities.
There is mounting evidence that sharrows are either totally ineffective or worse. See here: http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2016/02/sharrow-safety-bike-infrastructure-lane-chicago/460095/ (Preview: “As sharrows do not provide designated space for bicyclists and do not enhance the overall bicycle network, all cities should (as many already have) begin to consider sharrows simply as signage as opposed to actual infrastructure. It is time that sharrows are exposed for what they really are, a cheap alternative that not only fails to solve a pressing safety issue, but actually makes the issue worse through a sense of false security.”)
Essentially, sharrows are a waste of paint. Consider how they were characterized in this very post: “encouraging cyclists to share the road with drivers.” That’s exactly backwards from what they are intended to do, i.e., remind DRIVERS to share the road with CYCLISTS. Of course, this is already required as a matter of law in this Commonwealth, but as the post perhaps unintentionally highlights, this is, inexplicably in 2016, not very widely known/recognized/respected/internalized by drivers.
All should realize that this is not meaningless Cambridge-style/inspired whining. The lack of real bike infrastructure plays into lots of other concerns around Town. For example, a constant (ridiculous) complaint heard from the Fells to the Falls is the perceived lack of parking (it is ridiculous because people claim that there is “no parking” if it entails them having to walk more than 100 feet from their car to their desired destination). Additional parking in the commercial districts/train stations is not going to fall out of the sky, but rather, it would have to be constructed at great expense and with huge opportunity cost (in other words, it’s a terrible idea that confirms that more than a few people are clinging to 1960s-era land use policies).
Wellesley is not a geographically large Town. The vast, vast majority of residents live within comfortable biking distance of most of the commercial districts, train stations, etc. Most of that same vast, vast majority of residents don’t ride bikes around because of a belief that it’s unsafe (this belief being more or less correct, particularly for casual, less-experienced, slower speed riders). Without an increased focus on providing real bike infrastructure and amenities, we are damning ourselves to be stuck with mid-20th century infrastructure for another 30-50 years. That should not be acceptable to anyone.
It’s time for us to get with the program, and I will be taking this message, repeatedly and forcefully, to anyone within 20 feet of the Unified Plan process.
The bike lanes are non sense. Roads are for cars and trucks to travel – not for bicyclists dressed in onesies to challenge being along side of a 18 wheeler truck. I don’t applued anything.
The Sharrow is to remind the cars! Not the cyclists. See this
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/21/bicycling-dutch-way/kFRT0ABSPtUnXMIUj5zONM/story.html
I remember being taught it in the UK. Please do this, as I had two people open doors on me (while I was in a cycling lane!)
Right, we get this. We could have worded it better, but our point was that the sharrows welcome cyclists to use the middle of the road — just like the drivers — and not to feel like they have to stay to the side where they wind up dodging open doors.