Bicycling the Hubway

Gosh, I would sure like to live in a place like Amsterdam, where nobody drives and everybody rides bicycles to work. Where tourists pedal around town under their own steam, rather than charge around using the odious Segways (rendered only slightly less odious by having been relegated off the sidewalks and onto the streets). Where everyone can stop and smell the roses, rather than the exhaust.

How green. How civilized. How humane.

It may take a while for Boston to get there, but we do now have a ZipCar-ish shared bicycle use set up, The Hubway.

Hubway started up a couple of months ago, and I don’t know how many takers they have as yet, but I have seen small packs of tourists pedaling about. And have come across a couple of stations, including this one on Boylston Street.

New Balance Hubway (New Balance is as major sponsor) was “initiated under Mayor [Tom]Menino's nationally recognized Boston Bikes Program, which aims to build Boston into one of the world's premiere cycling cities.”

How green. How civilized. How humane.

But “build Boston into one of the world’s premiere cycling cities”?

Before that happens, I would suggest that Hizzoner do something about cracking down on the non-Hubway bicycling a-holes who make life even more miserable for pedestrians than the odious Segways did before they were banned from the sidewalks of Boston.

The bicyclists I am referring to are those who speed along the sidewalks, pedal madly along the pathways of the Boston Public Garden where they are strictly verboten, follow the “rules of the road” when it is convenient but not – say – when they’re at a red light, and – worst of all horrors – zoom the wrong way down one way streets.

I have never come close to being hit by a car while walking in Boston. Not so with bicycles. Fortunately, my close encounters with our two-wheeling brethren have been brush backs. But this is only because I make sure to double check at red-lights, making sure that there’s not a bicyclist zipping along between the rows of stopped cars.  And I always mostly look both ways, even when crossing one of our many one-way streets.

Yes, I know that Boston is a tough town for folks on bikes. The traffic is insane. There are few bicycle lanes. The streets are narrow and congested. Pedestrians (I must admit) can be a pain.

Still…

A number of years ago, the friend of a friend was hit by an uninsured bicycle messenger after he stepped off the curb to cross a street, in a cross walk where he had a walk sign.

An unarmored man is no match for a full-steam bike messenger.

Our friend’s friend suffered tremendous physical damage, including severe brain trauma. He spent months in a rehab hospital, and has never fully recovered.

Bicycle messengers are the worst offenders, as far as I can tell. That’s because they’re paid to get from Point A to Point B really fast. For the more aggressive messengers, it’s a clear matter of to hell with anyone in their way.

But the messengers are by no means the only troublemakers. And sometimes it’s the troublemaking bicyclists who get hurt, not the innocent bystanders.

Just the other day, I was standing on the corner chatting lamenting about the Red Sox, when I heard a terrible thud.

That was the sound of a wrong-way bicyclist crashing into the side of an SUV that was slowly and cautiously inching out onto Beacon Street from River. As anyone who has ever driven this route can tell you, slow and cautious is pretty much the way to go, as cars come pell-melling down the hill or around the corner, and it’s truly caveat driver trying to get with the flow. So drivers slowly and cautiously inch out, looking to their left, from whence cometh all the traffic.

That is, except for a bicyclist madly making his (wrong) way down Beacon.

I have to say I felt pretty bad for the young man on the bicycle, however wrong-way he was. He really hit hard, and appeared to have a banged up leg and broken arm. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet, which may have saved, if not his life, then his brain.

I called an ambulance, and we waited with him until they came. He was conscious and lucid, but clearly in pain.

I was not a direct witness to the incident, as I was facing away when it happened, but my neighbor saw the whole thing, and had to make a statement to the police about what he saw. I.e., a bicyclist riding the wrong way on Beacon Street. The guy driving the car was uninjured, but his car was damaged, and he was clearly shaken up.

My neighbor took the young man’s bike for him, but 24 hours later, he still hadn’t come by for it. He may just be getting over the shock of his expereince– breaking a limb, which I’m pretty sure he’d done, will definitely put you out of it for a few days, anyway.

I certainly hope it’s nothing more than that. The EMT’s had done a quick check to determine whether there was any obvious organ damage, and there appeared to be none.

I suspect it will be a while before this fellow is back on his bike. And I guess that he’ll be a tad more cautious from here on out. (I was going to write “I certainly hope he’s learned his lesson”, but that would be way, way, way too old fart-ish of me.)

By the way, I don’t want to come across as anti-bicycler.

Some of my best friends and best relatives ride bikes, one quite seriously. And just the other evening – after drafting up this post, in fact – I saw two Hubway bicyclers enjoying Boston after dark, riding around on their sturdy Hubway bicycle.  A second after spotting the Hubways – easy to see, even after dark, as the bikes have a distinctive headlight – I saw a bicycle commuter pedaling down School Street in a model bicyclist manner: not weaving in and out, not speed-demoning, not running lights (or running down pedestrians).

Anyway, I may take a Hubway bicycle out for a turn or two. Maybe next spring.

I love the idea of Boston as one of the world’s premiere bicycling cities.

How green. How civilized. How humane.