Sorry, but, it makes zero sense to me to have the bike lanes behind the car parking spots.
Every single side street or driveway is just a death trap waiting to happen. Totally avoidable.
Pour one out, always terrible to hear. To anyone that needs to hear this : don’t ride in the bike lane when it is not the safest place to be. If cars don’t like it, fuck em, they aren’t gonna understand traffic from your perspective anyway. (I happen to know somerville and boston biking very well) It’s good that more bike lanes= more bikes on the road but if you’re a strong/skilled cyclist the bike lane should often be ignored.
I live in Boston. I fully agree with you though in this situation the guy wasn’t in the bike lane, he was on the sidewalk.
The biker was on the sidewalk, not on the road, when he got hit, and went flying over the hood of the car.
I don’t know how anyone would be expected to play defense against that situation.
I’m definitely not trying to victim blame by any means, my apologies if it came off that way. You’re absolutely right, sounds like the driver was 100% to blame and cyclist happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I did not intend to imply that this particular accident was the result of a skill issue , and looking back I can see where it might sound like that. I know far too many strong cyclists that will never be the same after accidents in Boston.
The amount of disctracted drivers on the road is scary for sure. I love riding in the city but I’m also thankful that it is no longer my job.