This weekend, Brattle Theater, BE THERE!

BFF Boston
November 20 – 21

Friday November 20
7:00 PM | GOLDSPRINTS Middlesex Lounge – 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Saturday November 21
Screenings at The Brattle Theatre – 40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square
5:00 PM | Program 1 – BMX Program – Buy Tickets
7:00 PM | Program 2 – WHERE ARE YOU GO – Buy Tickets
9:00 PM | Program 3 – Urban Bike Shorts – Buy Tickets
10:00 PM | After Party – Flat Top Johnny’s – 1 Kendall Sq. Bldg 200

More info here.

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Second Annual Boston Bikes Report Event by Nicole Freedman, Director of Mayor Menino’s Boston Bikes

Hosted by LivableStreets Alliance
Thursday, December 10, 6:30-8:00 PM (doors open at 6)
@ Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library, Copley Square, 700 Boylston St

Free and open to the public

Nicole Freedman, Director of the Boston Bikes Program, will present her second annual report on the past achievements and future goals of the Mayor’s efforts to create a “world class bicycling city.” Ms. Freedman will discuss plans for the city’s bike sharing program, bike lanes and off-road networks, bike parking facilities, youth programs, bike festivals, and more.

You don’t want to go to this, you need to go to this. Bring your wallets, support this amazing team, do it!

Notice anything new up on the top bar there? Click the shop link at the top of the page and feast your eyes on our current offerings (some sweet stickers), more items will be showing up shortly (including headbadges with the option to get custom work done). At some point in the future we will also be offering the option for BostonBiker.org bloggers to use the store to sell their own items, but we will get to that in the future.

The system is very simple, and it has instructions, but if anything gets broken, or if you need help contact me.

If you have any suggestions please do leave them in the comments below.

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Friday, November 20 at the Eliconia House, (32 Mansfield St, Allston) 7pm-ish

The Eliconia house is throwing an open mic/benefit…party! Our goal is to raise some money so we can buy important (and kinda expensive) bicycle tools. Then we can have open hours for folks to come by and use the tools to fix their own bike, and more importantly LEARN how to fix their own bike. Eventually we will host workshops and other informative bike-related activities! Bikes are fun, good for you, and good for the earth! So, come and support the project… bring some donations (money, bike tools, GOOD bike parts)

If you wish to perform (which would be rad!), please show up on the earlier side, closer to 7, so we can organize the musical acts.
Bicycle-themed performances are encouraged

As usual, no bad vibes, illegal drugs, or oppressive behavior. We thank you and love you very much.

peace,
-D.Scan

–
Dave Scandurra
www.myspace.com/excitedpeople
www.myspace.com/changethroughmusic

(this is a pretty common sight here in Boston).

We will set aside for a moment the other consequences of running red lights and deal solely with the safety aspect of it. As far as I can tell, the main thrust of the argument for why running reds is safer goes something like this:

“When I am on my bike, if I stop at a red light and wait for it to turn green all the cars take off really fast, and I am taking off slower so I feel in danger from these cars, so If I run the red light I can avoid this situation.”

I have heard other variations on this from “I feel a little wobbly when I start” to “I feel strange about making the cars wait for me to get going” but mostly it boiled down to the idea that a co-start, in which the bikers and the drivers all leave the line at once, is in some way dangerous.

The problem is that this argument breaks down for a couple of logical reasons.

1. If you position yourself properly at a red light you should not be competing for space with cars as they get going.
2. If you are worried about cars passing you as everyone starts because of a speed difference, how will that be less dangerous when the cars pass you moving much faster further down the road?
3. By running the red light you put yourself in the very real danger of being hit by a car going through the intersection at high speed.
4. You potentially endanger pedestrians and other cyclists crossing with the light.

Before we move on, let me just say, the stuff I am about to tell you, could be, in some situations, not completely totally legal…That being said what I am about to tell you is only very slightly illegal, and I feel it does nothing to garner ill will of other road users, or place you in danger. Thus I am comfortable with it. So what is this slightly illegal thing I am gonna propose you do to address the points made above?

When you stop at a red light, pull in front of all the cars and park yourself in front of them. Plop yourself down right in front of the cars, even if this means you have to go slightly past the stop line (that is the slightly illegal part). When you are doing this remember that because cars don’t always stop on the stop line by putting yourself in front of them you may be in the cross walk, this is also slightly illegal, but if you position yourself as far back as possible you should still leave plenty of room for pedestrians.

We will cover how you get to the front of the line in another article as “filtering” as I like to think of it, is it’s own special skill. For now just slow down, watch for opening doors, and watch for people walking between cars. You will also want to keep a keen eye on the light itself, as nothing is more annoying than seeing someone spaced out far after the light has turned green, and by putting yourself in front of all the other cars you are now “that person.” Don’t be that person.

The reason for doing this, as apposed to say staying over on the right, is that when the light turns green, you can control the lane until you cross the intersection and then you can move over and let the car pass you. Cyclists should really stop thinking about the road as a place they borrow from cars, and instead think of it as a place they control until they are ready to let cars use it. By controlling the lane through the intersection you get to choose when and where the car passes you. If you don’t dawdle too much, and make it clear you are moving over to the right after you get through the intersection the person behind you will pass you easily and safely.

I do this almost every time I stop at a red light, literally hundreds of times a week. Let me present a couple of common scenarios.

1. There are already cars parked at the red, I want to go straight:
I approach the line of cars from the right, and then move slightly to the left so that I am directly in front of the car in the right lane. The light turns green, I stay in the center of that lane until I make it to the other side of the intersection and then I move to the right. The cars then pass me, I am up to speed (and thus more stable on my bike), and I have delayed the cars roughly 5 seconds. They get a good look at me because I am directly in front of them at the red, so there is no “I didn’t see you” bull shit. I am also protected against people making un-signaled right turns off the start line, as I am in front of them. Be aware that at “right on red” intersections people might be turning right before the light turns green.

2. The light is red, the lane is empty, I want to go straight:
I check behind me, signal a left move, move to the center of the right most lane, and wait for the light to turn green. If cars approach from behind and it is a “right on red” light, I will move further over to the left to allow them to turn. The reason why I put myself in the middle of an empty lane, is because empty lanes don’t stay empty. There is a good chance that cars will line up at that red, and if I let them they will try and squeeze past me (actually dangerous), if I am squarely in the center of the lane when they arrive they have no choice but to line up behind me. When the light turns green I proceed across as in the situation above.

3. I want to make a left but get stuck at the light:
Usually when I make a left I will check behind me and make a series of moves over to the left side, thus getting myself into the left turn lane. Sometimes however when doing this I get stuck at a light. In this case I plop myself right in the middle of the left turn lane, when the light turns green I stay in the center of the left turn lane until I am completely through the intersection and then move over to the right to let cars pass. This lets cars that are lining up behind me know that I plan on controlling the left lane, and keeps them from pushing past me.

The secret to all of these situations is that you have to be directly in the middle of the lane, you can’t leave space or they will try to edge past you. This can be a hard thing to get used to. You are not in danger by being in the middle, if anything you are keeping the cars from squeezing past you (which is dangerous), but your mind is not going to realize this. Your brain is going to say “holy shit there is a big car behind me!!!” but after a while you get used to it and it’s old hat.

The issue here is that with a little lane positioning, and some practice you can remove all the “danger” from stopping at red lights. I say “danger” because there really wasn’t that much danger to start with. Even if you position yourself way over to the right, people do not do squealing tire starts when they see the green light, you are not going to get killed by a car going from 0 to 10 miles per hour (average speeds for moving through intersections from a stop). The real reason I think a lot of people feel so confident that running red lights is “safer’ is because they like having a non-selfish excuse. The idea that they are breaking the law “for their protection” rather than “because I didn’t want to stop” sits better in their head. Lying to yourself can be very easy, which is why so many of us do it.

In my opinion, running red lights is neither safer, or faster, yet people still do it. If we are being particularly honest with ourselves we will have to admit that the reason we run red lights is because we don’t want to stop. It’s the bicyclist manifestation of the same behavior we all get so pissed about in motorists. If you have ever been on your bike and gotten mad because a motorist honked at you for “being slow” or screamed “get on the sidewalk” or passed you going too fast, or found yourself saying “why are they in such a hurry to get to the next red light?” you know what I am talking about.

Yet this same impulse, to go as fast as possible, damn the consequences, is what I think is driving most people to run red lights. If we were being super honest with each other we would have to admit that stopping at red lights is only going to slow us down a little (plus why are you in such a hurry?), and is far safer, and better for everyone, than running them.

against all better judgment I actually like this…