Malden city councilor trying to ban future bike lanes and remove current bike lanes.
Posted Aug 31, 2023, 2:29 AM UTC
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Why am I not surprised to see her name attached to that?
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The charter school has signs up everywhere in support of the ban too. This shit is infuriating
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I do not like this anti-bike movement and I do not like this woman and I do ride a bike in Malden.
That said, the bike/bus lane situation on Centre st/route 60 is not good. I don’t have a better solution than trying to synch up the traffic lights better so some cars can actually, but it actually is a brutal situation for people driving there, and I understand the resentment.
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Believe me. I love to have a bike lane, but not this way. Fucking getting through Malden Center in not so much rush hour can be 45 min from one end to another. That's god damn ~4 miles to each end.
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Take the bus.
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I take the bus and train into Boston everyday. Do you know how much time I spent on the road? 1 hour in the morning on a good day. If there is train delay, it'll be 1.5 hours. In the evening, normal ride is 1 hour 45 min. The most was 3 hours trying to get home on the T for a 8 mile trip.
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It's 4 miles from Commercial to Ferry? That's how long the bus/bike lane is on Center St, which is Malden Center. As someone already mentioned, the traffic is probably more due to new density than the added bus/bike lane. It's always been one lane from Ferry to about the Planet Fitness.
What about that terrible traffic by the funeral from coming from Medford towards Beebe? No bike lane there and it's really congested. Then it's clear all the way to the T station where the city center starts (which is where density picks up again).
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3.5 miles approx. I live on the other end past Broadway. If I come out from 93 go through RT 60, I will get stuck at traffic point near Ferryway , then Malden center , and then Broadway. The whole trip will take more than 30 min.
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That's a tough ride, I agree. I hate that Fellsway part, there's no easy way around it if you're heading towards the center. My point was the bus/bike lane takes up a small portion of that 3.5 miles, so it's not the reason for the congestion, it's density.
I also agree the implementation is not good. They need to fix the light syncing to facilitate the flow better. But getting rid of the bus/bike lane and preventing further ones is not the answer.
Also, I go home differently now. I find hitting Canal helps me skip the congestion. I pickup 60 again at Main or Ferry St. For you, I'm wondering if switching to Canal from the station and going to Eastern Ave to hop back on 60 would be faster.
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I understand the resentment, too, but the folks opposed to the new lane design on Centre are looking at it from a one-dimensional perspective.
It's unrealistic and a bit deluded to have the expectation that one can just fly through a downtown corridor in a vehicle. More specifically, this is the Malden downtown corridor that also contains the T station, where it undoubtedly makes sense to prioritize pedestrians and busses heavily.
It's shortsighted to believe personal automobiles should get so much weight, and it ignores the fact that this exact mentality has destroyed the economic vitality of so many downtowns in North America over the last couple generations (i.e., engineering roads through downtowns that make it easy to travel through rather than the much healthier alternative where the downtown is a place people want to spend time outside of their vehicle). Malden shouldn't be like the other 90+% of US towns that get this stuff wrong. If you prioritize traffic volume, you are sacrificing the local community. Again, this is especially true in a downtown/business corridor.
Removing the bike/bus lane on Centre would only accomplish so much, anyway. People act like traffic through that same corridor was great before the lane reduction. It was not. One, there are other routes that do not back up quite as much. Use them. Two, it's an error to assign the sole cause of recent congestion to the bike/bus lane, rather than accounting for the fact that, recently, a higher proportion of people are opting to drive rather than take the T (because the service levels and consistency have been relatively atrocious over the last few years).
Please, people, do not perpetuate mistakes of the past 80-100 years. Automobiles are a blip in the history of cities. They can be wonderful and have their place, but do not forget that cities evolved without them for thousands of years. We are experiencing multi-generational growing pains as we figure out how to incorporate them without destroying the things that make densely populated cities beautiful and productive.
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Amen
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Obnoxious. Maybe if they put a bike lane on Salem or Mountain, you wouldn't need it as much on Center/Eastern!
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Desperately need bike lanes there. And agree that bike traffic in those areas could avoid the traffic on center!
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K. Well I know who I’ll be trying to vote out.
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Sadly she's running unopposed this year. You can at least not vote for Spadafora (counselor at large) whose stink is also all over this.
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This chick is trash. I can't believe she even got reelected.
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This is legit insane. Im part of the All about malden facebook group, and there is a war about this. The amount of people against the bike lanes is really staggering. We will need to show up for this, or the bike lanes could be stopped.
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People are against it because the design on route 60 is horrible and impedes already crappy traffic conditions. Also the route 60 lane runs parallel to the bike path, and the councilors responsible for implementing the route 60 bus and bike lane were shady about the implementation
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the design on route 60 is horrible and impedes already crappy traffic conditions. Also the route 60 lane runs parallel to the bike path,
You are only addressing the bike lane, which is just a supplement to the bus lane. What you're really calling for is getting rid of the bus lane.
The bus lane serves its purpose, effectively giving busses priority and moving more people to the Malden Center T station as intended. If you want to say "fuck the people riding the bus, I want all of the lanes for my personal vehicle" then come out and say it.
I strongly recommend an alternative route. Have to warn you, though: you'll encounter crappy traffic conditions (a technical term) on other routes, too, but you won't be able to blame it on bike/bus lanes.
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The bus lane is the biggest problem on rt60 during height of rush those said buses aren’t even half full a complete waste of tax payer’s dollars the design of the bike only creates hate towards the lanes if they got rid of the bus lane and kept the bike lane it would be leaps and bounds better and maybe the hate would go away.
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Oh this is supposed to be a ballot measure? OK, well I'm happy to vote no on something like that.
The rt 60 bike lanes are trash, but banning them is clearly not the way.
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This is the consequence of poor city planning. The bike and bus lanes on Route 60 should’ve been implemented AFTER they installed traffic light syncing equipment. I noticed this week that they’re being installed at this very moment across the Route 60 corridor, but to allow it to sit as essentially a parking lot for an entire year is woefully unacceptable. Whoever managed that project should’ve been held accountable.
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Horrible
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For those interested in preserving and improving Malden's bike and bus lanes and further reducing car dependence in the city, I'm trying to get a local chapter of Strong Towns started here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326155031334304.
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Hate me all out want. But the bus lane and bike lane was the most stupid thing. Have u guys ever drive around Malden high area ( commercial steeet) near Walgreen. It was so toxic to drive.
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Please sign my petition to SAVE Malden's bike and bus lanes. (I used chat GPT to create a opposing Change.org against the one "Keep Malden Moving" has been putting out. lol. https://www.change.org/p/save-malden-s-bike-and-bus-lanes
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More noxious garbage brought to you by the same councilor that is proudly indifferent to racism:
These people are so backwards. I cannot imagine living in the town they want Malden to be.
She also had a huge (outdoor) party for her daughter at the absolute height of the Covid lockdowns. She’s been in the news a lot more than any other Malden councillor for being a bad person.
Everett enters the chat