A few days ago, we had another tragic bike fatality, in this case along Memorial Drive. What was sadly ironic for me about this death was that safety improvements were on the drawing board and planned for early next year at the exact spot where the accident occurred. The spot is clearly dangerous to both cyclists and pedestrians. The planned improvements have been accelerated and will begin this Monday, October 7, and finish in November. Here is a link with details of the project and the project traffic management plan and below appears DCR’s press release about the project.
The heart of the $1.5 million project is a rough doubling of sidewalk widths both east and west of the BU bridge — a concept that many have been advocating. This is a significant investment involving moving of street drainage and light poles, and requiring the addition of a retaining structure to move the sidewalk river-ward in one segment.
In light of the particular tragedy that occurred, I am hoping that we will be able to move beyond the project plans in one respect, namely to permanently close the right inbound lane on the Reid Overpass. This would make the merge to Memorial Drive east bound coming off the BU Bridge much safer for motorists and reduce the probability of the type of tragedy we had. The construction plans call for this lane closure to protect the work area during the construction period. Experience during the construction period will inform the conversation about a permanent closure. An additional enhancement that we will be following as the project moves forward is the addition of guard rails where the recent fatal crash occurred.
DCR Press Release:
October 4, 2024
CONTACT:
Ilyse Wolberg
Ilyse.Wolberg@mass.gov
617-360-1715
DCR Traffic Advisory: Safety Improvements for the BU Bridge Corridor of Memorial Drive in Cambridge
WHAT: Beginning on Monday, October 7, 2024, and continuing through Friday, October 11, 2024, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and from Tuesday, October 15, 2024, through Tuesday, November 26, 2024, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (potential night and weekend work) the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) will intermittently close lanes and implement detours along Memorial Drive from Magazine Street to Audrey Street via the BU Bridge rotary in the City of Cambridge to accommodate more than $1.5 million in safety upgrades for pedestrians and cyclists. The safety improvement work includes widening the shared use path leading to the BU rotary; improving and reconfiguring wheelchair ramps and median islands at the intersection of Memorial Drive and the BU Bridge; replacing nearly 700 linear feet of existing Boston Pattern Fence; restriping the crosswalks; and implementing a speed limit reduction to 25 mph along the BU Bridge corridor. Drivers should expect traffic congestion during rush hours and seek alternate routes, if possible. Cyclists are advised to ride at slow speeds with increased caution, stay within marked bike lanes, follow detour signage and lane delineation and yield to pedestrians. Traffic patterns will be clearly marked, and a police detail will be on site.
For more information on the work including a detours and design plans visit DCR’s webpage for the project.
WHERE: Memorial Drive from Magazine Street to Audrey Street via the BU Bridge rotary in the City of Cambridge
WHEN: Monday, October 7, 2024, – Friday, October 11, 2024, 8 p.m. – 5 a.m.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 – Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. (potential night and weekend work)
Thank you for being an advocate for road safety
This bottle neck is an inconvenience that we must be reconciled with. Did painting a bike lane on the Mem. Dr. on ramp make this situation all the more dangerous? Have the witness claims been corroborated? What happened to make the driver stray onto the sidewalk if that is in fact what happened?
I believe it is the bad merge that pushed the driver on to the sidewalk and am acting on that hypothesis. But I am eager for the formal crash investigation to complete. That will take weeks or months in my experience.
Thank you. This is an awful tragedy (for all involved I’m sure.) My gut gets tied in knots thinking of loved ones on the road. The rotary can get pressurized at times (for some) and the left turn onto Vassar is absolutely critical. I’m not a fan of adding unnecessary traffic control lights, but Mem. Dr. at Vassar may need something: rumble strips, a light. Vassar comes up on you right away of you’re looking at the map/tech on your console and negotiating the merge.
The sidewalk/ multi-use bottleneck at the onramp, between the bridge and the boathouse, why can’t the sidewalk be widened river-ward to match the normal width of the pathway? Who owns that green space between the sidewalk and the river and why can’t the sidewalk/bikepath span be widened? It seems like the obvious cure if there’s a will to fix this? If you alleviate this single-file bottleneck will have more attention available to pass the boathouse, but on the other hand you eliminate this natural speed restriction (bottleneck) for bikes, motorized bikes and scooters there may be leas caution given passing the boat house.
Yeah, widening that section of the bike path and installing a guard rail between the bike path and the on-ramp definitely makes that section safer. I’ve rarely biked there, but every time I’ve gone through that section it felt too narrow for comfort, and biking on the on-ramp itself seemed too crazy to contemplate. That’s too bad, because the rest of the Memorial Drive shared-use path is a fun ride.
John Corcoran’s accident is so terribly sad. Thank you so much for your advocacy for safer bike and pedestrian paths.
https://mass.streetsblog.org/2024/10/04/state-police-did-not-arrest-john-corcorans-killer-suspect-could-still-be-driving
If drivers faced real, public consequences for endangering and murdering cyclists, that would make a real difference. But we won’t do that. The drivers, like the overwhelming majority of criminals in MA, regardless of the circumstances of the death, drive on utterly without consequence. There are many real steps the police could take to send a resonant message to reckless, dangerous drivers, but no politicians, most particularly Will, are the least bit interested.
I’m a strong proponent of increased traffic enforcement — the main way we can do that is with increased automated enforcement. That has been an uphill slog politically, but more and more people are coming around.
I agree long term these safety improvements are needed. That said can we get some more clarity from the Middlesex DA and the State Police Middlesex DA office Detectives assigned to this case. No charges have been filed yet and they should be more transparent if they are indeed pursuing such charges. Any vehicle incident that results in a serious injury or death should result in some charges unless there are very major extenuating circumstances that the DA’s office and MSP should disclose to the public. Also was the driver in this incident given a drug/alcohol test. To me it seems like any drive involved in a crash that results in a death should be drug tested. Finally while better infrastructure will help prevent these types of incidents we also need more vehicle enforcement for unsafe drivers/vehicles. Local and State Police do very little traffic enforcement within 128 and drivers are just getting more and more reckless. We need better enforcement for things such as speeding, not yielding to pedestrians, cutting off bicyclists, aggressive driving etc.
Waiting for the final accident report. It will take some time.
Agreed we need better enforcement!
I pass that place on a bicycle every day on my way to work. The planned improvements will be indeed very welcome. However, I agree with other commentators here that improving the general traffic safety situation is more important. I’ve an impression that following the covid, the situation worsened even by Boston standards. I routinely see drivers running red lights and ignoring pedestrian crossings let alone speed limits. I would support automated enforcement, which is common in many places in Europe.
P.S. For a reference: Berlin, Germany, has had 8 cyclist fatalities this year. The population of Berlin is 30 times that of Cambridge and bikes are owned by 75% of Berliner households.
It’s a tragedy that it takes someone getting killed to get the DCR to make these much needed safety improvements. The DCR needs to prioritize those most vulnerable on their roadways, many act as a barrier to accessing their parks.