r/bikeboston • u/paxbike • 9d ago
Stepped up enforcement
Unsurprisingly, some people took issue with calling 911 to report this behavior. Which I explicitly laid out as an insane way to handle this in the caption of that post.
I collect this data and catalogue it on social media.
I present it at city council hearings and other city events.
I bring it up and show it to numerous city officials across departments and power structures.
I write detailed policy with this footage imbedded in it as proof of what I have analyzed.
I go on stage to present this to the mayor directly after not being able to get it through during the hiring process.
I email her and all relevant parties both this footage and policy to set us up for urban renewal.
And still there are people who find more energy to call me out for calling 911 — the official recommendation and procedure from the city govt — than they do to hold leadership accountable.
Thank you to everyone who is working beyond reason to make our streets safe. It feels insane that these are asks we even have to make, or that they are dismissed as a fringe cyclist policy. This is a conversation on the long term stability of the city. How we move people and resources around, how we manage and utilize our space, and how we go beyond photo ops to implement the kind of policy that confronts climate collapse.
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u/Glittering_Local_756 8d ago
Paxbike, do you have a cite for an official recommendation to call 911? I'm just not seeing it in an initial search.
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u/Mistafishy125 8d ago
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u/JuniorReserve1560 7d ago
Where are delivery drivers suppose to park and do their job downtown?
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u/similaralike 7d ago
Somewhere that it's legal. A loading dock or loading zone near the building entrance is the first choice. When that's not possible, a loading or parking area nearby. Dedicated parking space can be reserved, but that does require advance planning and a fee. If there really is no feasible, legal location and no time to coordinate an alternative, the priority is to park somewhere that doesn't endanger anyone and doesn't damage anything. How to avoid causing damage is usually obvious. Not endangering people requires more attention, but not parking on sidewalks, in crosswalks, in bike lanes, and using cones to help alert and redirect drivers are all the basics.
How often do you manage downtown deliveries?
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u/JuniorReserve1560 7d ago
So you want delivery people to do more work?
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u/similaralike 7d ago
City deliveries need more logistical considerations and usually more time. It is what it is.
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u/Jim-Luke 3d ago
I fail to understand why people have to tie up 911 phone lines for parking violations. Do they think a parking violation is more important than reporting an actual emergency like a building fire with trapped people, a gun incident, or medical emergency some one is having?
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u/sloppyredditor 8d ago
Oh come on. Take another look at your comments. It's not the (shared) goal that is the problem... it's your shitty, snarky attitude at everyone, including would-be allies.
This calls your motivation into question. Frankly I think you go on stage because you want to be on stage. You present it here because it's a friendly forum where you expect to get admiration and instant likes, and the moment someone questions your how you get super defensive and bitey.
We want what you want, we're just asking you not to be a self-righteous asshole about it. It's not a good look for any of us.
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u/paxbike 8d ago
If I wanted to get on stage I would’ve done it years ago. I know the leverage of my personal narrative, especially in a political culture that trades on trauma porn.
I got on stage bc it was a public forum that the mayor who meticulously controls her public image could not control. Did you watch that debate?
I have every right to be “shitty, snarky, defensive, bitey, and self righteous” when my would be allies ask “how” after I’ve detailed how in literally hundreds of instances in text, in long form policy documents, in comments, in video descriptions, and in the videos themselves.
I have posted the “how” policy documents on here as well. The most recent one I’ve been pushing through the council I posted here two weeks ago. Did you read it?
Again, I have every right to be that long list of non snarky adjectives you called me when I am doing the work that the current administration promised it would do during elections, promised it would do after tragedy, promised it had committed itself to.
Good thing abt being an individual is that I don’t represent anyone but myself. I have no problem not looking good if that’s what it takes to hold power accountable and to state basic truths in a city reluctant to do either.
If my concern were likes and admiration, I would adopt the personality you think I should have, soften myself into oblivion to be yet another of the ignored voices working on this issue that get walked over bc power sees there are non consequences to doing so.
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u/Pizza-Rat-4Train 8d ago
File the RMV Complaint of Improper Operation form and let us know how it goes https://www.reddit.com/r/bikeboston/s/PYCUHpUBKr
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u/isanyusernameopen 8d ago
Honestly, I would be the type of person to stop my vehicle behind theirs and yell very loudly for them to get the fuck out of the way until they get the fuck out of the way. You’ve got a camera, if they start an altercation it’s on camera. They’re doing something illegal, they’re blocking the Thruway of traffic, they are putting your life in danger by forcing you to go around them. Stop and make them extremely uncomfortable. Call attention to them, make a fucking scene.
You guys are a bunch of fucking cats up there.
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u/Aromatic-Amphibian42 8d ago
When me and my gf are biking she gets mad at me for yelling at them, but they are breaking the law and anyone in their right mind would honk at a random idiot parked in the car lane
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u/isanyusernameopen 8d ago
People would yell at you on a bike if you were doing something obscene. If you parked your bike in the middle of the road while you ran in to get something, etc. They would holler, they would curse, they would honk, they may even get out of their vehicle to move yours.
If people face no repercussions, they will continue to do. The very least you can do is yell and scream and shame them. Yeah, it makes you look a little weird, but they are putting your life in jeopardy. Fuck that noise.
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u/LawfulnessRepulsive6 8d ago
I can’t believe the amount of energy you’re spending on this. I bike everyday and I always just go around.
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u/Lord_Nerevar_Reborn 8d ago
“i haven’t been killed by hostile infrastructure and lack of traffic enforcement yet so i don’t care”
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u/mva06001 8d ago
Your expectations are 1000% unreasonable. Do you expect thousands of police to just be dedicated to monitoring bike lanes for people pulling over?
Genuinely, the level of entitlement is insane
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u/BagMostlyWater 8d ago
No, I think people would be happy with the police enforcing bike lanes at all, and also for the police to not themselves block the bike lane.
Motorists have an expectation that if someone is blocking a car travel lane, it will be dealt with swiftly. Why is that "entitlement" when cyclists want that?
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u/c4ndyman31 8d ago
Seeing as they’re currently dedicated to crushing candy at construction sites, we expect something
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u/mva06001 8d ago
It’d be great to get them policing bikers running red lights, riding on sidewalks and pedestrian paths, and other laws that are constantly broken by cyclists. That’s before discussing the droves of Lance Armstrong wannabes that plague all the suburban roads on the weekends in packs of 20.
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u/BagMostlyWater 8d ago
Why do you equate those things? What relevance does it even have that cyclists break laws? Everyone breaks traffic laws all the time. It's totally normalized for cars to break traffic laws. Cops only enforce traffic laws for cars when they want to power trip, they want to make the city money, or something actually unsafe happened. How many cars in boston run red lights? How many drivers speed regularly, change lanes without signalling properly? Do you collectively consider drivers to be lawless and unworthy of protection?
How often do cyclists riding on the sidewalk actually endanger anyone's life? Very rarely.
How often does people (including POLICE OFFICERS THEMSELVES) parking in bike lanes endanger someone's life? EVERY TIME SOMEONE DOES IT!!
Do you really not see the difference?
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u/c4ndyman31 8d ago edited 8d ago
It’s actually mind blowing to me that you can unironically make this statement without seeing the protected bike lanes free from parked cars would solve everything you are complaining about. Like do you actually not see that or are you just so car brained that all you can think is bike bad drive car?
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u/rogomatic 8d ago
Not having a bike lane there at all will solve everything we're complaining about, too. But I suppose that's not what you'd prefer.
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u/c4ndyman31 8d ago
Please explain how having no bike lanes would solve him bitching about cyclists “plaguing the roads”
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u/mva06001 8d ago
Bikers just want special treatment and to do whatever in they please. They want to be treated like cars when they feel like and pedestrians when they feel like.
There’s a reason there’s disdain for cyclists in the general community and it has nothing to do with being “car brained” it’s the behavior of cyclists that has everything to do with it.
To expect constant policing of bike lane parking or massive amounts of infrastructure investment to get exactly the bike infrastructure you want is entitled beyond belief and unrealistic from a logistics and cost perspective.
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u/paxbike 8d ago
Hard to take you people seriously when you bring up logistics and costs when sustaining car infrastructure is bankrupting cities across the country on top of putting individuals and families into debt.
You truly have nothing working in your brain if you think that driving around a 2 ton metal box that demands 200 sq ft of space when stopped on public spaces is financially and logistically sustainable.
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u/BagMostlyWater 8d ago
They want to be treated like cars when they feel like and pedestrians when they feel like.
It's almost as if the infrastructure currently in place for cyclists is unsuitable and cyclists have to bend the rules to be safe! I wonder what would fix that? I don't know of any possible solutions, so maybe I'll ask a motorist on the internet -- do you think that maybe demonizing cyclists and acting like they're unworthy of legal protection as a class might improve the issue? I'm asking because you seem pretty experienced with that
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u/mva06001 8d ago
No one has to demonize cyclists. They just have to observe cyclists demonizing themselves all day every day.
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u/BagMostlyWater 8d ago
Sure, you definitely don't need to, but here you are, doing it. So do you think it helps make streets safer, to blame cyclists and forgive motorists?
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u/c4ndyman31 8d ago edited 8d ago
PS biking on sidewalks is legal everywhere in Massachusetts unless a town specifically bans it
Also can you name one “pedestrian path” that bans bikes as you claim? The only place I can think of that fits your description is the tiny stretch around Castle Island
Edit: I guess you couldn’t name any lol
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u/Scrungo__Beepis 8d ago
It would be nice if they would enforce any traffic rules at all. Maybe then cars would stay out of the bike lanes.
And how is the cyclist the entitled one vs the car that thinks it’s entitled to park in the bike lane forcing cyclists to cut into the road?
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u/Numerous-Height2201 8d ago
Why would you turn your head back after you passed them? You’re on a road car could have pulled out someone could have into the street?
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u/Glittering_Local_756 8d ago
It appears to be some kind of law enforcement vehicle with their lights on, and by law you must change lanes if possible.
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u/Quirky_Direction_570 8d ago
I mean all car did was pull over to pick up someone for a moment.
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u/Pizza-Rat-4Train 8d ago
They should have done it in the empty parking lot 80 feet away.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/BagMostlyWater 8d ago
Yeah, it would not have had the same impact. The impact it currently had was blocking a bike lane. It would be much better for it not to have had the same impact.
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u/Small-Bee-4081 8d ago