Winter is an unusual time to be troubled by bicycles, but the addition of a bike lane in Lexington has some commuters pounding their steering wheels.
"Recently, traffic has come to a standstill on Hartwell Avenue in Lexington, especially during the morning rush hour. Bike lanes were added on both sides of the road and a turn lane to the middle of the road. This resulted in the loss of one lane in each direction. Consequently traffic is backed up horribly, going all the way back to Great Road and sometimes all the way to Route 128 around 8 a.m.," Charles Sroczynski of Bedford wrote in an e-mail.
"Hartwell Avenue is the main access road from Route 128 to Hanscom Air Force Base [and] Lincoln Labs. There were two lanes of traffic, and cars could turn onto Hartwell Avenue without waiting so long. Traffic was orderly, and those wishing to go to the base stayed to the right and those turning onto Wood Street going to Lincoln Labs and Route 2A could do so unimpeded in the left lane. There were breaks in the traffic and traffic moved, at best without a slowdown and at worst with relatively minor slowdowns. There are very few bikers coming into work at any time, and traffic can deal with these without having a new bike lane creating major stop-and-go problems for the majority of others. It is silly to inconvenience the majority for the sake of a very small minority."
It may be silly, but it's safe, according to David Cannon, assistant town engineer in Lexington.
"The bicycle lane was built in response to a safety issue," Cannon said last week. He explained that Hartwell Avenue is a two-lane road, but in the past few years motorists have been seen forming four lanes near the entrance to Hanscom.
"This created safety issues for pedestrians and bicyclists," he said. "The creation of a bicycle lane and a turn lane is not a perfect solution, and it does back up traffic during the rush hours, but it has improved the safety situation for pedestrians and bicyclists."
But it wasn't a sign of trouble for the 24-year-old "temporary span" noted for the thumping of its deck panels as cars cross the river; it was just a routine inspection.
Last week, Massachusetts Highway Department spokesman Adam Hurtubise said the inspection was an annual examination of the bridge's middle pier. A final report has not been filed, Hurtubise said, "but the inspectors didn't find anything amiss."
"A few weeks ago you answered a complaint about the lack of any traffic signals at the merge of Route 2 itself and the entrance from Alewife subway at the Alewife Brook Parkway intersection. Agreed, a traffic light would really gum it up, but how about a merge sign so that cars on the main route would pause instead of thinking they have the right of way?
"Another hazard with the Route 2 setup is that there are no yield signs on the access roads, rather large arrows indicating (usually, but not always) that the access road has the right of way over the exiting cars from Route 2. No one pays any attention to that! So that if you are on the left lane of the access road going down the great Route 2 hill, you are in trouble from Route 2 exiting cars.
"How about sticking to the yield sign? Admittedly, drivers are tending less and less to pay attention to yield signs entering Route 2, but still those arrows are not understood and certainly not paid attention to!"
We forwarded Plimpton's idea to the proper authorities.
Starts & Stops appears every other Sunday in Globe Northwest. Comments and questions may be sent to starts@globe.com.
