Local news

The BU Bridge Safety Alliance held a public meeting Thursday evening with representatives from Cambridge, Boston, DCR and MassDOT.

Before John Corcoran he died while riding his bicycle near the Boston University Boathouse, advocates have warned for years that the BU Bridge corridor is unsafe. Now, state and city officials plan to bring long-term solutions to the bridge.

The BU Bridge Safety Alliance held a public meeting Thursday night with representatives from Cambridge, Boston, the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which each have jurisdiction over a portion of the traffic corridor.

DCR and Boston officials said there will be signal and infrastructure changes to the bridge this fall, including updated traffic signals and lane changes.

Peter Furth, co-founder of the BU Bridge Safety Alliance and professor of civil engineering at Northeastern University, explained the corridor’s traffic problems and the multiple proposed solutions.

The group is advocating that the signage be updated for cars turning right, crossing the bike lane. The proposed changes would separate the car’s right turn signal from the green light, which they share with cyclists and pedestrians.

“It’s easy to focus on what’s on the bridge, but when you come off the bridge, we have these conflicts with cars turning right,” Furth said, noting that sometimes 300 cars turn onto Commonwealth Avenue in an hour .

John Monacelli, Boston’s principal transportation engineer, discussed the proposed signal changes for the bridge, including giving cyclists more time to get through the intersection.

The lanes will also be changed to two straight lanes and one cross lane starting this fall while DCR works to resurface and redo the pavement markings, Monacelli said.

The southbound right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue is the most problematic turn, he said.

“We’re going to reroute as many lanes as we have and we’re going to phase-separate, is the technical term,” Monacelli said. “They will all get their separate lines. We’re not going to have them interact at the same time.”

More proposals from the BU Bridge Safety Alliance

While some short-term changes are being implemented to make the area safer, a long-term advocacy group wants more. In early October, DCR construction has begun regarding improvements from Magazine Street to Audrey Street via the Boston University Bridge, including reducing speed limits, adding new bike ramps and widening sidewalks.

The alliance wants the bike lanes along the bridge to be protected with flexible bollards.

Other proposed changes include the roundabout itself and the path on Memorial Drive where Corcoran, of Newton, was killed. The 62-year-old man died after being struck by an SUV on Memorial Drive, which is operated by DCR. The short-term improvements were planned for more than a year, but were implemented shortly after Corcoran’s death.

Currently, bikes on that path must use a narrow sidewalk, while the Alliance wants to see the sidewalk widened to turn the bike lane into an elevated bikeway.

“We’ve had many conversations with DCR and with Mass DOT, and I think we have engineers, planners and administrators who are committed to making progress,” state Rep. Mike Connolly said at the meeting. “It’s been great to see some of the progress we’ve made, but I think we need to make a lot more progress, and that’s why I’m here tonight.”

---

Molly Farrar is a feature reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime and more.

---