Bicycle Austin forum

AusTexMurf

Member

From: South Austin

Registered: 2008-11-21

Posts: 439

Behold The 'PeanutAbout' : A New Bike-Friendly Intersection Concept

BEHOLD THE ‘PEANUTABOUT’: A NEW BIKE-FRIENDLY INTERSECTION CONCEPT
November 30, 2016
Michael Andersen, local innovation staff writer

A proposed design in Cambridge, Mass. Image: Kittelson and Associates via Boston Cyclists Union.

Wickedly good biking ideas continue to pop up in Massachusetts.

Last year, it unveiled the country's best state-level bikeway design guide and Cambridge opened the country's best new bike lane on Western Avenue.

On Tuesday, the Boston Cyclists Union shared the inspiring back story behind a new concept for the long, complex seven-way intersection created by the acute crossing of Cambridge and Hampshire streets. Like a lot of good ideas in modern American bicycling history, it involves Anne Lusk, a Harvard public health professor who's been a major brain behind the spread of protected bike lanes in the United States. Last summer she connected BCU with engineering firm Kittelson and Associates, and dominoes started falling:

PeanutAbout Article, here : With Link To MA Bikeway Guide

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Behold The 'PeanutAbout' : A New Bike-Friendly Intersection Concept

For a thoughtful alternative view:  http://cambridgecivic.com/?p=5056

AusTexMurf

Member

From: South Austin

Registered: 2008-11-21

Posts: 439

Re: Behold The 'PeanutAbout' : A New Bike-Friendly Intersection Concept

I don't like the door zone bike lanes, either. Remove On Street Auto Parking ? Easy solution.
The 'Bend Cambridge' solution seems viable in theory, if plans to include the straight shot bikeway as described were included in actual diagram/proposal/study. I wonder what exactly are the current existing conditions on the ground, there ?

Last edited by AusTexMurf (2016-12-02 12:33:43)

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Behold The 'PeanutAbout' : A New Bike-Friendly Intersection Concept

Map  http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8471/8119 … 0f1b_z.jpg   Or Google street view

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: Behold The 'PeanutAbout' : A New Bike-Friendly Intersection Concept

I think if I had to navigate that intersection I would just want to take my place in the traffic and stay out of the door zone lanes.   The best thing about this design is that it seems that it would slow the car traffic enough to make this pretty easy to do. (But I get that not everyone would be willing to do that.)  Not sure if it would be legal to just stay in the car lane since separate bike lanes are there. 

Also, how does winter weather play into these kinds of solutions?  Down here we only get a couple of icy days a year, but I wonder what it would be like to navigate that peanut with banks of snow.  Do they salt or plough the little bike lanes?  Not sure I would like those tight green turns on ice. 

But hey, at least the proposal isn't for an eight(?)-way stop.  I have noticed that lots of people have trouble keeping track of their turn in a four-way stop.