Local News
The BU Bridge Safety Alliance held a public meeting Thursday night with representatives from Cambridge, Boston, DCR, and MassDOT.
Before John Corcoran died while cycling near the Boston University Boathouse, advocates had warned for years that the BU Bridge corridor was unsafe. Now, state and city officials plan to bring long-term solutions to the bridge.
The BU Bridge Safety Alliance held a public meeting Thursday night with representatives from Cambridge, Boston, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who each have jurisdiction over some portion of the traffic corridor.
Officials from DCR and Boston said there will be signal and infrastructure changes coming to the bridge this fall, including updated traffic signaling and lane changes.
Peter Furth, the co-founder of the BU Bridge Safety Alliance and a professor of civil engineering at Northeastern University, explained traffic problems in the corridor and multiple proposed solutions.
The group is advocating for signaling to be updated to phase cars turning right, crossing the bike lane. Their proposed changes would separate the car’s right turn signal from their green light, which they share with bicyclists and pedestrians.
“It’s easy to focus on what’s on the bridge, but when you get off the bridge, we have these conflicts with right turning cars,” Furth said, noting that sometimes 300 cars turn onto Commonwealth Avenue in an hour.
John Monacelli, principal transportation engineer with the City of Boston, discussed the proposed signaling changes to the bridge, including giving cyclists more time to get through the intersection.
The lanes will also be changed to two right lanes and one through lane beginning this fall, while DCR works to resurface and restore pavement markings, Monacelli said.
The southbound right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue is the most problematic turn, he said.
“We’re going to kind of reorient how many lanes we have, and we’re going to phase separate, is the technical term,” Monacelli said. “They’ll all get their separate turns. We won’t have them interact at the same time.”
More proposals from BU Bridge Safety Alliance
While some short-term changes are being implemented to make the area safer, a longtime advocacy group wants more. In early October, DCR began construction on improvements from Magazine Street to Audrey Street through the Boston University Bridge rotary, including reducing speed limits, adding new bike ramps, and widening sidewalks.
The Alliance wants the bike lanes along the bridge to be protected with flexposts.
Other proposed changes include to the rotary itself and to the path on Memorial Drive where Corcoran, of Newton, was killed. The 62-year-old died after he was struck by a SUV on Memorial Drive, which is operated by DCR. The short-term improvements were planned for more than a year but were implemented shortly after Corcoran’s death.
Currently, bikes that travel down that path have to use a narrow sidewalk, while the Alliance wants to see the sidewalk extended to convert the bike lane into a raised bike path.
“I’ve had many conversations with DCR and with Mass DOT, and I think we do have engineers and planners and administrators who are committed to making progress,” State Rep. Mike Connolly said at the meeting. “It’s been great to see some of the progress we’ve made, but I think we have to make a lot more progress, and so that’s why I’m here tonight.”
Boston.com Today
Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.