Residents in Cambridge said bike lanes and barriers are making things more dangerous

Residents of one neighborhood in Cambridge said a newly designed intersection with bike lanes is making traffic more dangerous than before. WBZ TV’s Laura Haefeli reports.

here at 6:00 depending on where you live you may have noticed some new and sometimes unusual Road configurations most are part of what’s called Vision zero a strategy to eliminate deadly or serious traffic crashes but as wbz’s Laura Hayley explains residents in one Cambridge neighborhood say one newly designed intersection is now more dangerous than it was before the project cars in Cambridge caught in the crosshairs of a chaotic intersection you know if somebody’s not paying full attention there’s going to be a head on crash the Cambridge corner of BRD Lowel and Appleton streets caused for concern neighborhood Advocate John McMahon took these videos showing close calls between bikes and cars and near head-on collisions and they swing out over the double yellow line and meanwhile there’s a car coming at them that they don’t see and also I’ve seen Cars come out of LEL Street take a left turn onto the bike lane so they would go here and turn into that and moments later that’s exactly what happened this blue car confused wondering which lane is which backs up then turns into the bike Lane right in front of our camera before finally realizing she’s made a dangerous mistake this is a mess this is a new traffic pattern with two-way bike Lanes barriers and pedestrian Islands implemented as part of cambridge’s commitment to Vision zero we have to get to the point where there are no fatalities no major accidents across the city for pedestrians for cyclists but even City councelor Patty Nolan admits the new build Narrows traffic Lanes leaving no room for cars and the change is doing more harm than good it does take up most of the road we should learn from our implementation and our installations we have made some mistakes along the way and it seems to me these pedestrian Islands do not add safety and so again if it’s making it less safe for cars and not more safe for pedestrians or cyclists it doesn’t make sense to me Nolan tells us the city is aware of the problem and is working towards a solution in the meantime Neighbors continue to be cautious I nanny every day in this area we have to really be careful about when we cross the street at the request of neighbors the town is hosting a meeting regarding this topic at history Cambridge right here along Brattle Street on May 23rd in Cambridge Laura Halley WBZ News