Would You Ride A Bicycle Through Here?
If you’ve taken the CyclingSavvy course, you’ll recall the video of John Alexander’s bicycle ride across a huge highway interchange. At less than 10 miles per hour, on an Elektra Townie bicycle.
If you haven’t seen the video, watch it here, and relax. John’s bicycle ride was boring, not daring.
John — and Keri Caffrey, riding behind him with cameras to record it all — had the road almost entirely to themselves, through thoughtful choice of lane position, and by taking advantage of traffic-signal timing.
My own gnarly bicycle riding challenge
I face a similar situation later this month. I have two doctor’s appointments about a mile apart. By far the shortest route between the two doctors’ offices passes through a similar huge highway interchange. I could take a much longer way there, and this longer ride would also include backtracking on a poison-ivy-infested sidewalk.
On Monday, I checked out the route in a car, with a dashcam running:
OK, here’s a challenge for you:
How would you ride this?
Would you ride it at all?
Have a look in Google maps
The image below shows my route, from right to left, in Google Maps. (When I drove, I went straight through on Route 9 rather than turning into William Street. That doesn’t change anything important.)
Google will let me share the location but not the route information. Here’s the location in Google Maps. You can play around with Google Street View and get a closer look.
Not familiar with Street View? If you’re using a computer, click on Google Dude, the yellow fellow in the lower right corner of Google Maps. Drag the green fog under his feet to any street that lights up in blue, release the mouse button, and there you are.
You can move around using the the keyboard’s arrow buttons. The right and left buttons turn you around. The down button is your reverse gear, up button moves you forward. Or click on the image and drag with the mouse.
Once you’ve dropped your Dude, there’s a “compass” in the lower right corner that also makes it easy to turn around:
Once I dropped Google Dude on the road, I spun the compass to point Dude in the direction I’ll be riding next week. I clicked on the street to move forward, and stand with Dude in the middle of any road.
The arrow in the black box at the upper left corner of the screen takes you back to the overhead view.
On a tablet or smartphone, you can tap and swipe the screen to access these same features.
This bicycle ride is possible!
I have discussed this route with a few other people and found at least two, maybe, three different ways to manage it. I don’t consider the ride difficult even for a novice cyclist, but savvy strategies can make it much more convenient. (Hint: see my description of John Alexander’s ride above.)
Please post comments and suggestions. I’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks with video of my ride.
I love to ride my bicycle, but I have my limits. Arriving at the doctors’ offices drenched in sweat during a pandemic or with rain would exceed those limits! If necessary, I’ll ride the route on a different day to shoot the video.
Your turn now.
I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this ride.
As a savvy cyclist riding any type of bicycle (incl. e-Bikes) at any speed, WHY NOT?!
John
This looks pretty straightforward. Here’s what I would do:
Quinobequin onto the Rt 9 ramp, taking the lane.
Watch left for motorists making illegal right turn from Rt 9 onto Williams St (that protection is minimal).
Leave Williams St onto Rt 9. One of two hazards on this whole route is right here, as motorists move right to get onto Rt 95N. I’d take the rightmost through-lane (and keep middle left in it) watching carefully to my left for motorists headed for 95N. Depending on traffic, it may make sense to move to the 2nd lane, which might be stopped/slow due to the traffic lights, and leave the right lane for access to 95N. Probably safer to keep the right lane, as anyone moving right for the onramp will/should be looking right.
After the traffic light, stay in the rightmost through lane, watching out for motorists merging from the right, from 95N. This is the 2nd hazard, but you can control the merge. Again, depending on traffic, it may make sense to avoid that merge by being in the second lane. I would not, as motorists often merge across multiple lanes, so not much safety is gained by being in the 2nd lane.
The rest of the ride can be done in the right lane, watching for right-hooks at every intersection.
Good luck.
Pretty much what I would do. Although I personally wouldn’t want to be huffing and puffing up that “on-ramp” to Rt 9 if I had any type of office appointment I had to get to. I might be tempted to use that little sidewalk on the right. Or more likely I would just be on my pedal assist e-bike.
The ramp up to Route 9 is 22 feet wide (there is a measuring tool in Google maps), easy lane-sharing width, and traffic is very light there. Thanks for the warning about illegal right turns but I’ll be turning right onto William Street, so it is less of a problem. I’m still working through what to do after William Street. I am going to go out there and take a look.
I’ve taken my first test ride through the interchange. There is a curbed median preventing the illegal right turns so that is a lesser concern.
Couple of comments on your response:
Illegal right turns onto William Street are very unlikely as there is a curbed separator between the frontage road/ramp and the main roadway until after William Street.
Please see my follow-up article as to how I used platooning and traffic signal timing to avoid hazards in the interchange.
The on ramp after the underpass is signalized!
Rest of the ride on the shoulder, right hooks preventable because motor traffic is fast and a vehicle’s slowing down is a warning.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33771572
Take a look at the above route.
That is the alternate route I was thinking of. But to get to the of it start of it (red marker, you have the route reversed) from my first appointment on William Street, I would have to ride opposite traffic on the poison-ivy-infested sidewalk of the Route 9 frontage road. And I’d miss my second appointment!
For me, the part I dislike is Quinobequin Rd. Narrow two-lane road with no extra space and poor visibility and a good bit or car traffic. Danger is minimal, just take the lane — heck, you can hardly help doing so. But traffic would be piling up behind me, unlike on multilane roads. Nothing to add to what others have said about the Rt 9 section.
Do you ride Quinobequin Road? I find it pleasant. Speed limit is 25 mph and motorists don’t go much faster, thanks to the narrowness and curves. Traffic is light thanks to the parallel Interstate, and Quinobequin Road is scenic and tree-lined, down to the Charles River on one side, well-kept residences on the other. The double yellow line down the middle would pose a problem except that motorists in Massachusetts have seen this “by the book” marking used inappropriately so many times as to have learned when to ignore it. Several states have by now made it legal to cross a double yellow to pass cyclists – not yet Massachusetts. I control the lane as needed, when there isn’t enough sight distance ahead for a motorist to pass safely.
Oh no, purely based on GSV. What I saw was a combination of traffic and sightlines which would make it difficult for a car to pass a bicycle. Perhaps traffic was heavier than usual when GSV drove the street. I don’t ride much faster than 10 mph (especially if I’m avoiding building up a lot of sweat), so even 25mph traffic can build up behind me.
I’m not much faster than you — slow and fearless :-) — but i haven’t had problems on Quinobequin Road. I have ridden it many times, continuing under Route 9 onto Ellis Street. The challenge for me on this ride is Route 9.
John, when you say you control the lane as needed, when there isn’t enough sight distance ahead for a motorist to pass safely, where in the lane is that? Are you riding left of center? Where are you riding otherwise because that lane appears too narrow to share safely so it seems you should be forcing them fully into oncoming traffic the whole time.
Many of the roads I ride, do not allow for easy passing due to single lanes in each direction and heavy oncoming traffic. Driver’s anger flares quickly. As you can see in this video, controlling the lane does not always work well. This driver could see oncoming traffic clear up in 10 seconds but refused to wait that long before endangering me and the oncoming driver. I have lots of videos like this. The police initially argued that I was blocking traffic. After conceding I “could” use the lane, they questioned weather I “should” use the lane. I told him our middle and high schoolers are taught to use the lane for their own safety but he did not seem to buy it. I have become much more timid in recent years due to these confrontations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UsO2UowhII
I ride left of center on blind right-hand curves. I use a rear-view mirror, so I can otherwise see vehicles approaching from behind. If there is none, my line of travel is at least in part determined by pavement quality, this being pothole country. If passing is safe, I’ll release but never go all the way over to the right-hand edge where the pavement is usually worst. Harassment is quite rare here.
John, why move to the right to “release”? This invites drivers to share your lane. If it is safe to pass, they should be able to fully utilize the oncoming lane. One of the purposes of controlling the lane is to avoid close passes.
Have you experienced belligerent drivers like the one in my previous video link? Here is another example of a driver angry because I am blocking him. Police investigated and initially processed “private person arrest” until they decided to rescind it. In the interview, he argued that he wanted to teach me a lesson for blocking him. The investigating officer was initially very sympathetic to me but changed his view after the interview, sitting at my kitchen table for 45 minutes trying to convince me that I should not take the lane. Do you not have these issues?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXyCIhth028