By Dante Ramos, Boston Globe
\nIF YOU\u2019RE DRIVING in a crowded city, it\u2019s your job not to hit anybody. Not cyclists, not pedestrians, not even pedestrians wearing headphones.
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\nThe problem isn\u2019t that Walsh thinks pedestrians and cyclists should pay attention to their surroundings. (Shouldn\u2019t everybody?) It\u2019s that, in his comments, the mayor seemed to accept the myth of the beleaguered Boston driver who\u2019s at the mercy of unpredictable bikers and walkers.
\nWhen a car hits a bike in the Netherlands and some other countries, laws generally presume that the person driving the two- or three-ton metal box is responsible. Here in Boston, we\u2019ve all internalized the idea that driving is how human beings naturally get around, and that everything else in city life \u2014 our transportation plans, our development rules, our circadian rhythms \u2014 must bend to accommodate it.
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\nIn practice, though, the city\u2019s bicycle lanes are regularly blocked by delivery trucks, passenger vehicles, and even police cars. All too often, city government still sends this message: Real people use cars; all that other stuff \u2014 the bike lanes, the climate planning, the official paeans to transit-oriented development \u2014 is OK only if doesn\u2019t bother drivers.
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\nIt\u2019s easy to blame crazy cyclists or headphoned jaywalkers for getting hit by cars, but the victims are often children and elderly people. Calls for personal responsibility also mask the underlying issue: Many streets and intersections in Boston aren\u2019t properly designed for the mix of people using them.
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\nThe other possibility is that, when throngs of transit commuters pour out of South Station every morning and jaywalk across the street, they\u2019re sending a message of their own: We\u2019re focusing too closely on the needs of motor vehicles, and not enough on all the people around them.
\nhttps:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/opinion\/2017\/05\/20\/the-myth-beleaguered-boston-driver\/LEpqqu6VVeVUDnh2gybNzJ\/story.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Dante Ramos, Boston Globe IF YOU\u2019RE DRIVING in a crowded city, it\u2019s your job not to hit anybody. Not cyclists, not pedestrians, not even pedestrians wearing headphones. … The problem isn\u2019t that Walsh thinks pedestrians and cyclists should pay attention to their surroundings. (Shouldn\u2019t everybody?) It\u2019s that, in his comments, the mayor seemed to … <\/p>\n