By Jeffrey Epstein
The Selectmen are thinking about how to keep bicycle riders safe, and they heard a presentation on the subject from a traffic engineering firm at their April 9 meeting.
A separate bicycle lane, set off from both the pedestrian sidewalk and automobile lanes, is one option under consideration for the next round of highway work on The Great Road. The presentation, from engineering firm VHB Inc., was only informational and the Selectmen are not considering any formal action yet. VHB Inc. is proposing options for future work, particularly on the downtown stretch near the municipal complex.
In a Separated Bike Lane, as it is formally called, buffer zones physically separate the roadway from the bicycle lane. Various ways of doing that exist. It could mean strips of landscaping, or simply using traffic striping and flexible plastic vertical delineators. The presentation displayed photos of these various options for creating the bike path. These types of bicycle lanes have been introduced in many towns and cities including Cambridge, New York, and Washington.
But as with any highway project, each idea has pros and cons. The attending members (Chair William Moonan was absent) generally agreed that cyclists feel most safe when cars don’t get too close, and a strong separation helps accomplish that. On the other hand, as mentioned by Selectman Margot Fleischman, snow clearance would be an issue. A plow can easily move snow from an adjacent bike path separated by only a white stripe, but not a physically separated one. To clear the bike lane would require a sidewalk removal tool, and sidewalks in Bedford are not cleared at the same time or the same way as streets. So a separate bike lane cluttered with snow or black ice could actually be more hazardous than a non-separated one during those times.
Some options may require encroaching on existing property lines or easements, according to VHB Inc. That starts getting complicated, the Selectmen noted, in areas with managed easements from previous reconstruction projects.
Consideration of the bicycle management scheme would take time that can push the road project down the calendar. This third overall phase of the highway project is tentatively aiming for bidding at the end of this year but further planning changes could likely mean delays to the summer or fall of 2019.
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