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Bicyclist On Road
As we continue our journey through 2023, stepping back and examining the state of bicycle safety is essential. This topic grows more relevant as more people turn to bicycles for commuting, exercise, or leisure activities. For our clients at Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, we explore recent trends, contributing factors to accidents, and potential strategies for improving safety on the roads.

Our goal is to shed light on the latest information shaping the landscape of bicycle safety. These trends are complex and multifaceted, driven by a myriad of factors, such as the evolution of urban design, the increasing density of bike lanes, and the advent of new safety technologies. They also reflect changes in public policy and societal attitudes towards cycling and outdoor activities.

We’ll further dissect the contributing factors to bicycle accidents. This examination is crucial, not just for identifying the causes but also for understanding the nuances of these incidents. The factors contributing to bicycle accidents are often intertwined, ranging from infrastructural issues like poorly designed roadways and bike lanes to behavioral aspects such as lack of cyclist awareness and unsafe driving practices.

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Bikers are the most vulnerable drivers on the road and, as a result, are the most susceptible to serious injury in a collision. Massachusetts recently passed a new law, M.G.L. c. 90, §14, to reduce motor vehicle and biker accidents. The law requires motor vehicles to provide at least four feet of space between them and bikers on the road when passing, and they also must pass the cyclist at a reasonable and proper speed. Despite the new law, crashes are bound to happen. As a cyclist, knowing your rights is essential when the unthinkable happens. 

Cyclists Have Up to 3 Years to File a Bile Accident Claim

In Massachusetts, there is a limited amount of time to file a claim for damages following a bike accident. If you were injured in a bike accident through no fault of your own, you have three years to file a lawsuit in court for injuries, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

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Get ready to hit the road this September with our bicycle enthusiasts

The bicycle attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Glassman are gearing up for Bay State Bike Month this September and would love for you to join us. Let’s do this, Boston!

The event’s bicycle-centric events take place across the great state of Massachusetts and are designed to bring out new riders and shine a spotlight on the benefits of bicycling for transportation, fitness, and fun.

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Our Boston bicycle injury lawyers have spent years advocating for safer communities for bicyclists that includes traffic infrastructure incorporating protected bicycle lanes. Just as sidewalks establish a safe mode of travel for pedestrians, protected bicycle lanes – those separated from motor vehicle traffic – are the ideal for safe cycling, especially in highly-congested urban areas. Boston bicycle accident attorney

Although Boston officials have outlined a solid vision for how to proceed, the process is moving excruciatingly slow for those of us who cycle daily.

In the meantime, our suburban neighbor, Cambridge, is leading the charge. As reported by the StreetsBlog, Cambridge became the very first city in the U.S. to make protected bicycle lanes mandatory. The only other city with a similar policy is Portland, OR, and that community requires bicycles lanes only on major streets. Continue reading

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Bicycling is one of the most efficient – and cheapest – ways to get around urban cities like Boston and surrounding communities. As noted by the Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research, the majority of bicyclists aren’t young, wealthy hipsters making their way on two wheels by choice (though there’s nothing wrong with that either). Many include the working poor who bike out of necessity. Unfortunately, Boston bicycle attorneys know these are among the residents for whom bicycling infrastructure – and thus safety – is least accessible. Bicycle injuries for these groups tend to be more common.Boston bicycle injury lawyer

These are sometimes referred to as “invisible cyclists.” Working class. Typically a minority. Often a recent immigrant. Commuting to work. Uninterested in the color or sleekness of bicycle style, as long as it works. For these individuals, bicycling isn’t an environmental cause or an interesting thing to do with friends. It is a means of transportation, cheaper than a car, faster than walking and more reliable than public transit.

Other difference in these two types of bicycle riders:

  1. Can afford living in the priciest part of the city (i.e., owning a car isn’t necessary); lives in an expensive part of the city, close enough to work so owning a vehicle isn’t a necessity; lives near a bike-share station built as a residential amenity because local wealthy residents sustain it financially; Riding is generally easier because bicycle infrastructure is in place.
  2. Lives in a more remote part of town; would prefer to own a vehicle due to long transit times to-and-from work; Living area lacks adequate bike-share, docking stations and other bicycle infrastructure.

Some cities, including Boston, are attempting to make it more equitable. Continue reading

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Many motorists have lamented the cyclists who break laws while riding in traffic, a new study published by the Danish Road Directorate revealed in that country, where cycling is the preferred method of commute, less than 5 percent of bicyclists break traffic laws, compared to 66 percent of drivers.bicycle accident lawyer

So why the disconnect in perception? Study authors opine that when a cyclist violates traffic laws, it’s fairly easy for people to notice. Transgressions by other traffic users, like speeding, are less visible, even though they’re far more dangerous.

Furthermore, a 2017 study published in the Journal of Transport and Land Use asserted that where cyclists do break the law, it’s rational – because it’s done primarily for their own safety, not convenience.

Bike attorneys know these kind of stereotypes are stubborn, but important to challenge not only because they’re wrong, but because they can have real consequences for cyclist safety in Boston and beyond. Motorists who presume cyclists to be scofflaws are likely to exercise less care and concern for their well-being.

More Bicycle Lanes/Cycleways/Bike Paths Means More Law-Abiding Bicyclists

The Danish study utilized video cameras at at numerous intersections in major cities throughout the country, including Copenhagen. Objective analysis of more than 28,500 cyclist crossings revealed that fewer than 5 percent of bicyclists broke the rules when they were riding in bicycle lanes. However, that figure rose to more than 14 percent when there was no safe cycling infrastructure.

Smaller cities, like Denmark, tended to have more scofflaw cyclists, but also on the whole had a lot fewer bicycle infrastructure features. Where cyclists did break the law, the most common offense was cycling on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, wholly two-thirds of motorists broke the law, their most common offense being speeding. Continue reading

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The “Red Solo Cup” synonymous with “barbeques, tailgates, fairs and festivals” are now being associated with bicycling rights awareness and Boston bike crash reduction.

Boston Bicycle Accident

Image Courtesy of Peter Cheung

The #redcupproject is an international movement, coordinated in memoriam of Washington D.C. cyclist Dave Salovesh, an advocate recently killed in a bicycle crash when the driver of a stolen van barreling down the road at twice the posted speed struck him and a pedestrian. The #redcupproject in Boston took off with the help of cycling advocates like Peter Cheung, organizer of the Boston Bike Party and leader of Boston’s ghost bicycle project, which honors cyclists who died in Boston bicycle accidents.

As explained in The Boston Globe, the red cups are filled partially with water and lined in a row within existing or makeshift bicycle lanes, alongside traffic where most cyclists ride. At every location – from here to San Francisco and in countries as Spain, Denmark, Australia and Mexico – the cups were smashed within minutes.

The message: How incredibly vulnerable bicyclists are riding alongside moving traffic, separated only by a painted road line. 

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A fatal bicycle crash in Fenway killed a much-loved children’s librarian from Cambridge, sparking renewed calls to action for city leaders to take the lead on better cycling safety throughout Boston.Boston bike attorney

As our Boston bike attorneys understand it, 69-year-old Paula Sharaga was struck by a cement truck driver near the same area where a 24-year-old Boston University student bicyclist was killed in November by a dump truck.

Tragedy in Fenway: Bicyclist Dies in Crash With Truck

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“Urban roads aren’t meant for bicycles,” was the headline of a 2015 Boston Globe editorial by long-time columnist and WBUR commentator Jeff Jacoby, following the 13th tragic bicycle crash death in the city in five years.bicycle accident lawyer

“That number is sure to rise if Boston keeps encouraging people to ride bicycles where bicycles don’t belong,” Jacoby wrote, adding that if people want to ride bicycles, “Massachusetts Avenue during business hours shouldn’t be one of them.”

As longtime Boston bicycle attorneys and cycling rights advocates, the fact was then (as now) MGL Ch. 85 s. 11B legally gives bicyclists the same right to the road as motorists, with few exceptions. But we’ll give the writer this much: Boston roads weren’t meant for bicyclists, at least in the 20th Century (though cyclists were the driving force behind the first paved roads in the U.S., before cares become commercially available 110 years ago). American traffic engineers throughout the 1900s, however, made cars the priority, building wider lanes that encouraged higher speeds.

This, combined with the fact none of us alive today remember life before automobiles likely fuels drivers’ sense of roadway space entitlement. Regardless of who was here “first,” the fact that something has been done a certain way for a century doesn’t mean it should stay that way – particularly if it is proving inefficient and especially if it isn’t safe for others sharing that space lawfully.

Leaders with both The City of Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation don’t appear to be heeding critics like these, instead recently pledging further commitment to the cause of multi-modal traffic infrastructure that offers more options for safe access. Continue reading

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As far as busy biking corridors in Massachsuetts go, Inman Square in Cambridge may easily score No. 1 for the most bustling. It’s also a dangerous mess, resulting in numerous car accidents and bicycle crashes – most causing serious injury and a few resulting in tragic deaths.Boston bicycle accident attorney

Although city officials have made some improvements in recent years, Boston bike injury attorneys know Inman Square (where Cambridge Street and Hampshire Street intersect at an oblique angle at which three other streets also intersect) continues to be one of the most chaotic thoroughfares to navigate.

In general, diagonal intersections are known to be more dangerous. One study published by researchers at Harvard three years ago concluded they are 37 percent more crash-prone. Some are advocating for a redesign that incorporates a newer traffic safety solution known as a “peanutabout.”  Continue reading