2 crashes involving cyclists occur on similar avenue in Cambridge 11 minutes aside

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Cambridge police mentioned that there was no hyperlink between the crashes.

Two cyclists have been concerned in separate crashes on the identical Cambridge avenue solely 11 minutes aside on Tuesday morning. 

Superintendent Frederick Cabral of Cambridge Police mentioned that there was no hyperlink between the crashes and that the timing and site seem like a coincidence.

The 2 intersections are roughly an 11-minute stroll other than one another, in line with Google Maps.

At 8:43 a.m. on the intersection of Appleton Road and Brattle Road, a bicyclist allegedly uncared for to cease at a cease signal and collided with the driving force’s aspect of a automobile, in line with the police report.

“The bicycle owner was not very critically injured. They declined medical on scene. I believe that they had some facial scratches and the bicycle was not very closely broken,” Cabral mentioned. 

Neither the driving force nor the bicycle owner was issued a quotation.

At 8:54 a.m., on Mason Road and Brattle Road, a automobile making a left flip crashed into a special bicycle owner. 

“The operator of the motorized vehicle in that occasion was cited,” Cabral mentioned. 

The bicyclist was taken to Mount Auburn Hospital after the crash however didn’t endure critical accidents.

“I can see why there’s some curiosity,” Cabral added. “I do know there’s some new separated bike lanes in there.”

The brand new separated bike lanes are a part of the Brattle Road Enchancment Undertaking. In 2019, Cambridge Metropolis Council handed the Biking Security Ordinance, which “requires building of separated bike lanes when streets are being reconstructed,” in line with the Metropolis. 

Brattle Road was one of many streets inside the Bicycle Community Imaginative and prescient chosen to obtain the brand new lanes. 

Part one in every of Brattle Road’s bike lane set up course of, which included the Mason Road intersection, was accomplished within the fall of final 12 months. The second part, which incorporates Appleton Road, launched in June and will probably be accomplished someday “over the approaching weeks,” in line with a current mission replace on the Metropolis’s web site. 

A 100% rise in bicyclist crashes from 2021 to 2022 in Massachusetts required the Massachusetts Division of Transportation to finish a Weak Highway Consumer Evaluation on account of a federal mandate.

Brattle Road and Appleton in addition to Brattle Road and Mason are listed as “Bicycle Major Threat” intersections on the Weak Highway Consumer Evaluation map. 

MassDOT hopes to make use of the evaluation to “ prioritize weak street consumer security in all acceptable tasks to reply to the present disaster in site visitors fatalities,” in line with the evaluation.