CPSC says data highlights the importance of wearing helmets
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on bicycle-related traumatic brain injuries has determined that more adults are dying in bicycle crashes.
Notably, the study, which analyzed data from 2009 to 2018, also found that:
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.
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.
“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.
“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
Electric bicycles (AKA e-bikes) are the latest self-transport ride-share option slated for unveiling in Boston. It hasn’t been smooth-sailing in every city, but entrepreneurs and visionary traffic planners in Boston, Somerville, Cambridge and Brookline are moving ahead with big plans for e-bikes. Ultimately, the goal is an altered traffic landscape with smaller, safer, cleaner transport alternatives to motor vehicles.
Boldly declaring gas-powered cars are going the way of the covered wagon, MassDOT leaders at a recent global transportation summit said they were on board with prioritizing multi-modal transport, particularly those that are eco-friendly. Hundreds of millions of cars in the U.S. clog roadways and degrade are quality, designated now as the No. 1 climate change contributor in the U.S. Plus, despite technological vehicle safety improvements, they’re quite deadly, especially where pedestrians and bicyclists are concerned. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports bicycle crashes involving cars are rising sharply, in a single recent year killing more than 800 riders and injuring at least 45,000.
Boston in on the forefront of the multi-modal movement, and city officials recently announced an e-bike pilot program in the spring. Continue reading
The meteoric rise of bike share has transformed the streets of Boston in many positive ways with many more bikes on the streets thanks to bikeshare programs like Hubway, now Bluebikes, but they have not been without their share of problems. In the grand scheme, these are good problems to have, but they still must be addressed. Specifically right now, Boston and surrounding communities are being inundated with dockless bikes. This is in addition to the tremendous growth of the city-backed bike share program.
Since the the launch of Hubway (now BlueBikes) which expanded from a starting fleet of 610 bicycles and 60 docking stations in 2011, Boston’s bikeshare program has continued to grow to now 1,800 bicycles at more than 200 stations in Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline.
Now, neighboring towns like Arlington and Newton have added their own bikeshare programs, but with the cheaper dockless bicycles of LimeBike, Spin and other dockless bikeshare companies. Along with Arlington and Newton, bikeshare programs now exist in Bedford, Belmont, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Revere, Waltham, Watertown and Winthrop. The bikes cost $1 for every 30 minutes of use, and unlike bikeshare systems used in Boston and other cities, riders don’t have to find a dock to park their rented bikes.
More bicycles in Boston is NOT a bad thing! The question is how these bike access services are going to co-exist and whether the city will embrace the private dockless biking companies (or at least their model) or resist them.
The new bikeshares have created a real problem. Millions of dollars have been invested in the standard bike-share system, with the bright blue bicycles and stationary docking areas growing ubiquitous throughout Boston. Although extremely popular, two issues have arisen that could impact Boston bike share’s future growth:
The sudden explosion of dockless bicycle companies in cities have taken communities like Boston by surprise as they burst onto the stage, and the long-term impact is unclear.
Less concentration (or total lack) of bike share docking stations in outlying communities has been a long-standing problem since the program’s inception. It was always intended to be addressed gradually as the program grew. However, the issue of private companies swooping in with a dockless bike share option seems to have taken everyone by surprise. It’s not just the fact that there is competition. The problem is private investors like Blue Cross Blue Shield have invested in the bicycles, and the docking stations and ant to protect their investment, putting city officials who granted the docked bikeshare programs an exclusive contract in an awkward situation. The question is whether Blue Cross and other companies that have invested in a docked system will have incentive to continue that investment if they are deprived of market exclusivity.
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials the most recent annual bike share report was the first wherein dockless bicycles were counted, dockless bicycles are used in just 4 percent of rides, but account for 44 percent of all bicycles on the ground in cities, nearly doubling the U.S. bike share footprint. The close of this year will give us a sense of whether these bike companies will crash and burn or adapt and thrive. Continue reading
Dooring Accidents in Boston
A dooring accident (not really an accident in the legal sense) occurs when a person inside a vehicle opens his or her door into the path of oncoming traffic. This can include oncoming motorists, bicycle riders and even pedestrians, though pedestrians are not usually traveling fast enough on foot to suffer significant personal injury.
In Boston, and other parts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, dooring is not only negligent, but it is also something for which a person can be issued a civil infraction in the amount of not more than $100 pursuant to Section 14 of Chapter 90 of the Massachusetts General Laws (M.G.L.). In this section, the law clearly states no person shall open the door of a motor vehicle unless it is reasonably safe to do so without interfering with oncoming traffic, and the statute goes on to say this include bicyclists and pedestrians. This is the specific statute, which prohibits dooring a bike rider, and it was included as part of the legislatures efforts to improve bike safety in our area. Continue reading
Every time you are on the road, regardless of your mode of travel, there is a potential for an injurious accident. Bicyclists are much more likely to be seriously injured in a collision than occupants of cars or trucks as a bike offers scant protection from a forceful impact. Even low-speed crashes can result in major injuries for someone on a bicycle. It’s true that most crashes are the result of some type of negligence, meaning one or more of those involved breached their duty to use reasonable care on the roads. Enforcement of speed limits, anti-distracted driver laws and impaired driving statutes is important. But another effective way to reduce the odds of a serious bicycle accident is to invest in good traffic safety infrastructure. Well-designed bike lanes are an integral part of this.
As explained by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, a bike lane is a portion of the road designated by striping, signage and pavement markings that give bicyclists preferential or exclusive use. The goal is to create some degree of separation between cyclists and motor vehicle traffic so those on bikes can ride at their preferred speed without worrying (too much anyway) about conflict with motor vehicles. It creates better predictability of movements between both drivers and cyclists.
Continue reading
An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities, a broad and sweeping bill directed at improving bicyclist safety in Massachusetts has survived its latest hurdle in the State House but now needs your support.
The bill, S.1905 and H.2877, covers a comprehensive range of critical traffic safety issues, including several pertaining directly to the rights and safety of bicyclists in Boston and across the Commonwealth.
The bill includes provisions relating to bike path crossing, a pet project of our own BikeAttorney.com attorney Andrew Fischer, a three-foot law and increased fines for double parking in bike lanes. Each section addresses current hazards cyclists face and impediments to damage recovery from negligent motorists.
Several elements of the bill have been floated in some form or another during prior legislative sessions. These efforts always stalled, typically an unfortunate victim of warring political interests. This bill presents a vital opportunity to protect Massachusetts bicyclists in a comprehensive manner, underscore their rights on the road and allow meaningful recourse against those who disregard their lives.
The Act (which we also credit in large part to the efforts of state and local Vision Zero coalitions and cycling advocacy groups like MassBike) would help reduce overall traffic deaths in the Commonwealth through a host of changes, including:
State senators and representatives need to hear from constituents that now is the time to act. The deadline for legislative action was extended, meaning voters have from now until March 2nd to contact their lawmakers and voice support for S.1905 and H.2877. Continue reading
A civil lawsuit following a Boston bike accident is a case designed to obtain compensation for a plaintiff with respect to any injuries suffered as a result of defendant’s negligence. In many cases, civil defendants who are at fault in causing an accident will be given a civil motor vehicle infraction, but will not be charged with a crime. In some cases, where there are allegations of operation to endanger or drunk driving, there will be criminal charges filed in addition to any civil personal injury lawsuit. These criminal cases, or the lack thereof, do not control a subsequent civil case, but they may have an effect on the outcome.
Recent Tension Between Boston Bike Advocates and Prosecutors
According to a recent news article from the Boston Globe, a group of bike safety advocates in Boston are blaming the driver of a truck for his alleged involvement in a fatal bike crash, but prosecutors are declining to file criminal charges. This fatal Boston bike crash occurred in 2015. Prosecutors and police have said they believe the Boston bike rider who died in this accident was at-fault, and thus no criminal charges are warranted. Continue reading
Bike Accident Lawyers Blog