BOS:311
OPEN #101006751004
Opened
1h ago
Description
At the intersection of Commercial Street and Battery Street in the North End, the signal phases are configured in a way that is likely to cause a car/bike collision at injurious speeds. While the car driver would technically be at fault in a collision, the signals create this possibility while partially hiding the danger from both drivers and bike riders, and they need to be changed for safety. The issue is that the signals for road users traveling along Commercial Street give a green light to cars, a green light to bikes, and a walk signal to pedestrians at the same time. Because of this, car drivers coming from either direction on Commercial Street who are turning onto Battery Street can turn with a green light and not realize that they are turning across bi-directional bike traffic that also has a green light (and has the right of way, because it is traffic proceeding straight). Bike riders, seeing their green light and being in a dedicated lane, may also be riding fairly quickly here. What tends to happen is that car drivers who are waiting to turn look for gaps in oncoming (car) traffic and then turn quickly into a gap, not realizing that they are also turning across two lanes of bike traffic, one of which is coming from behind them. A driver did this while I was riding my bike through this intersection recently, and I would have been struck had the driver not heard my scream at the last moment and locked his brakes, stopping within a foot of me. The attached picture shows the signal phase that is the problem. Note that the cars and the bicycles both have their own green light and the pedestrians have a walk signal. The white car is making a legal turn that, unless made very slowly, could easily hit a bike rider who is coming from the camera's location. I'm not a traffic engineer, so I won't try to propose a comprehensive solution to this problem, but I think one possible component of a solution could be installing turn arrow signals and adding a dedicated turn phase at this intersection (and prohibiting turns when bicycle traffic has a green light). This change would certainly align with the widely accepted principle that cars should not be permitted to turn onto side streets at the same time that pedestrians have a walk signal telling them to cross those side streets. I will note that there are tiny signs in a few places along this two-way bike lane that tell bike riders to watch for turning cars. These signs are not an adequate solution. Bike riders are constantly watching for cars, and most know that every cross street and driveway is a potential threat, but the intersection and signal phases cannot be designed in a way that increases the likelihood of collisions by giving bikes a green light at the same time that drivers will want to make quick turns that cross the bike lanes. |
Location
Intersection of Battery Whf and Battery St and Commercial St, Boston
42.36639051, -71.05141504

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