In an article, “Cyclists don your gas masks,” by Kevin Hartnett that appeared in the June 1, issue of The Boston Sunday Globe Ideas section, the writer reports about new research from the Harvard School of Public Health that measured pollution along five bike routes in Boston. These five routes included bike lanes running directly adjacent to traffic and bike paths that are a distance from the road and separated from the traffic by trees to block exhaust. They included lanes shared by buses and cyclists.
“The researchers pedaled these routes with a device to measure pollution, specifically two exhaust elements known to increase cardiovascular and lung cancer risks — black carbon and nitrogen dioxide. The researchers found that concentrations of the two pollutants were about one-third higher on bike lanes compared to bike paths. Air quality was especially bad at intersections, where cars idle and accelerate.”
The researchers concluded that the distance from traffic did make a difference, indicating, for example, that “The Paul Dudley White Bike Path, which runs near crowded Storrow Drive, has lower levels of pollution than bike lanes on quieter streets, thanks to up to 150 feet of separation from the road and a line of trees to block exhaust.”
The researchers further concluded that “urban planners should push for the development of bike paths instead of bike lanes whenever possible and should design bike paths with vegetation between the cyclists and the vehicle traffic.”
This research confirms that riding bicycles on the one mile Mass. Ave. Corridor’s proposed bike lanes right next to the heavy traffic without a shred of foliage in between is far more unhealthy than riding on the Minuteman Bikeway bike path located hundreds of feet from that traffic and protected by many intervening trees, bushes, and other types of vegetation. The proposed Corridor bike lanes put the bicyclists directly in harm’s way.
The case is overwhelming: the dangerous and unhealthy bicycle lanes must be eliminated from the Mass. Ave. Corridor roadway design.
This viewpoint was published Wednesday, June 4, 2014.
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