December 4, 2011

BikeBits #1

Spotted on Commonwealth Ave. last night:  Yellow stenciled warnings at pedestrian crossings: "Look left for bikes."

The paint was a little thin, but the paint/thermoplastic used for road markings is known to stick poorly on non-new asphalt, and the stencils were quite readable for those who needed to read them--people about to leave sidewalks to step into crosswalks.  Boston has gone to great lengths the last five years to make its streets more bike-friendly.  From Allston Heights to the Eliot Bridge completely on bike lanes or with road-shares.  Left-side lanes on Comm Ave. in Back Bay.  Proposed removal of parking spaces to accommodate bike-lanes on Mass Ave. (just in time for me to no longer be using that route to commute; sigh).  Lanes all around Dorchester.

It'd be wonderful to get to a point where drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians don't need explicit warnings for us all to coexist, but in a section of the city notorious for erratic behavior by all users, the heads-ups are a welcome sign--literally.

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