Bicycle Canticles

This took place recently. I wrote to EZRide Service, and they responded with the following.

Ms. Tuing:

Thank you for sending the video of Paul Revere Transportation bus 707, operating EZRide Shuttle in Kendall Square, Cambridge on Wednesday, September 29. In addition to managing the contract for EZRide service, I respond to you as an avid cyclist and a bike commuter for more than fifteen years. My colleague serves on the Cambridge Bike Committee, and has been quoted on bicycle safety in the Globe. More than most managers of bus operations, we care intensely and personally about cycling safety.

Your video illustrates a regular and important interaction of bicycles and buses on complete streets. I hear your concern, voiced at one of the shuttle’s busiest stops on what is perhaps the most heavily travelled bike lane in the city. Here indeed is a place where we all need to share the road, especially where bicycle lanes share real estate with bus stops.

The bus driver did not do anything wrong in this video. We strongly disagree with your assessment that the driver took aggressive actions. On Ames St., the driver followed you, yielding to your hand signal as you take the left turn lane. We do not see any indication he is trying to pass you—there are cars coming the other direction and the roadway in narrowed by traffic barrells. After the turn onto Broadway, the video clearly shows the bus driver passing you and then using the right turn signal in preparation to access the bus stop at the curb in front of 145 Broadway. The bus brake lights show, as the driver pauses to let another cyclist clear the stop area, before pulling to the curb to pick up passengers. The video further suggests that your rate of speed does not change in response to the turn signal and brake lights. Based on this video, we think you had ample time to stop, and were not cut off. The bus driver is not trying to be uncool, aggressive or impede your progress here, but rather to operate transit service, and pick up passengers at a designated stop, and get the fifteen passengers on board to their destinations.

To ensure that our contractor understands your concern, and that bus drivers better understand cyclists perceptions of sharing the road with buses, my staff reviewed this video with shuttle operator Paul Revere Transportation, and will continue to work with them to ensure safe driver operations here in Cambridge.

We will also bring this type of interaction up at the Cambridge Bicycle Committee, and the Cambridge Transit Committee to seek further input on safe bicycle and transit interaction in Cambridge.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Best regards,
Jim

Jim Gascoigne
Executive Director

New Contact Information
Charles River TMA
10 Rogers St. Ste 101
857-285-6519

jim@charlesrivertma.org
www.charlesrivertma.org