I am proposing some changes to our bylaws based on my experience as CRW President in 2019 and 2020. Although this work is preliminary, I am, in the interests of transparency, reporting on the work in progress.

The most significant change that I propose is a 2 year term for President. Based on informal conversations with the Board on April 6th, 2021 we would continue to limit the President to two consecutive terms (which would be a total of 4 years). I found from my direct experience that it takes a good amount of time for the President to put together plans, budgets and staff and the term is nearly done before much is implemented. This proposal is not for my benefit nor for the benefit of the incumbent President. I do not plan to run for President again and Rami has said publicly that he does not plan to run again.

We will not rush this through without Member input. The earliest that we will put a formal proposal to the Board is at the May Board meeting. If the Board approves a new set of Bylaws, the proposed Bylaws will be published and presented to club members. There will be a two month comment period with the earliest possibility of formal approval at the July Board meeting.

I also propose merging our Constitution and Bylaws. It is very rare for a corporation to have a Constitution and ours sometimes conflicts with the Bylaws. CRW also has a set of Articles of Incorporation which are filed with the State and also regulates the way in which the club operates. If we do merge the Constitution and Bylaws, I will propose that we rescind the Constitution. This requires a 2/3 vote of club members. If we go forward with that plan, we will hold meetings and have extensive communications with members explaining what we are proposing.

This is the very beginning of this process and Board discussions have just begun on this issue. I would also like to discuss with the Board the concept of a "CRW Foundation" to handle the fund raising and charitable giving activities associated with the club. This discussion has NOT yet occurred, and we will probably table this until fall.

Click here to view set of slides that I used at a CRW Board planning meeting on April 6th. We only covered through slide 7. Remember that these slides are my proposal and do not necessarily reflect the thinking of other Board members or the feedback that I received during the planning meeting.

I would welcome any inputs that members have and I'd be glad to engage in conversation with you as well. Again, remember that this is all very preliminary.

Larry Kernan is a CRW past President, and currently serves on the CRW Board.

The club is planning recurring rides, such as Barbara Jacobs' Bike Thursday, which is an awesome ride, for Deliberate Pace riders, which is a pace of 10-12 mph.  The Lexington (Social) Revolutions is also aiming to have a group of riders at the Deliberate Pace each Saturday morning.  This latter ride meets at the same time and place and uses the same route each time, so riders will hopefully get into the habit of going on this ride and finding and making friends.

We are hoping to schedule soon, a set of rides dedicated to the Deliberate Pace.  There's a cool ride on May 23 that incorporates discussions about biking history:  Revisit the Charles:  Where the Bicyclists Played in 1895.  Rudge McKenney has a fantastic ride in the works that he'll be posting soon, solely for Deliberate Pace riders.  As this group becomes larger, we'll be able to add more rides specifically for this group.

If you want to go on a ride, just go to the website, find the ride on the Calendar, and register.  Then talk to folks on this channel and/or email, and persuade other Deliberate Pace riders to join.  Find each other at the beginning of the ride, and commit to sticking together.  Indeed, you can do this with any ride at all -- just requires a little coordination, and this group now has the tools to do so.

Barbara Jacobs has graciously agreed to be the leader of the Deliberate Pace Group.  She's a long time Ride Leader who knows her stuff (far better than the Interim VP of Rides).

The key to making this successful is for people to communicate and to make an extra effort to join the Deliberate Pace rides so that we can develop a core group of Deliberate Pace riders.

Please do not hesitate to post any other questions, or email me at edward_cheng_89 [at] yahoo.com or Barbara at nyder.jacobs [at] gmail.com

A Ride on the Road to Nowhere: The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

This past October I headed west with three friends for a cycling vacation on the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland.

It was a great trip that allowed us to enjoy a series of socially distant rides somewhere new before another winter closed in on the cycling season. We capped the vacation with a visit on bike to Gettysburg that was a highlight for our group of history buffs.

But the most memorable experience of the trip was the shortest stretch. The Pennsylvania native who planned our vacation had suggested a bucket list ride while we were in the area: The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened to traffic in 1940. But as was the case with many roadways around the U.S. after the Second World War, traffic outgrew the turnpike’s capacity, particularly in its tunnels. There were miles of backups caused by the tunnels where the four-lane highway became one lane in each direction. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission decided in 1968 to reroute a new section of the turnpike and abandon about 13 miles of the original road near Waterfall, in the south central part of the state.

In the more than 50 years since then, the roadway did not go to waste. It was used by the Turnpike Commission to train snowplow drivers, test prototype rumble strips, road reflectors and reflective paint, and even for military training. An abandoned turnpike and its tunnels also turned out to be ideal settings for movie scenes including some for the 2009 film, “The Road”, based on Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic book.

A conservation group bought a portion of the roadway in 2001 but nothing came of it. More recently, an organization known as "Friends of the Bike 2 Pike" envisioned making the Turnpike and tunnels part of the Bike PA Route. But for now, it’s a DIY cycling adventure route.

Being on vacation, we were up for something different that was off the beaten path. What we found was more like the sometimes badly beaten path.

None of us was quite sure what to expect. This sign at the entrance gave us a better idea:
PIKE 2 BIKE
IN DEVELOPMENT AND CLOSED
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
HELMETS AND LIGHTS NEEDED
MOTORS PROHIBITED

With little running room in the small parking lot, we had to walk our bikes up a short, but pretty steep, somewhat gravelly road to the Turnpike itself. Once up there, we saw why this was a perfect setting for a movie about the world gone to hell in a handbasket. It was eerie. It was the familiar landscape of a highway but strangely silent and literally gone to seed with weeds everywhere.

One thing we knew for sure. Social distancing was not going to be a problem.

Early on, the road surface was deceivingly in good shape. What we really noticed, though, was that the turnpike had turned into a tagger’s dream. There was more asphalt with graffiti than without.

Most of the artworks were profane expressions in words and images of love and hate that would have earned a movie an R rating. We were surprised and thankful that if this crude creativity was fueled by alcohol, the artists had left relatively few containers behind.

Another surprise was the remains of road reflectors left behind from the previously mentioned testing. We knew they hadn’t been there since 1968.

About a mile and a half in we came to the Rays Hill tunnel. I made the mistake of assessing the entrance for a moment as my buddies headed in. There was a water-filled hole at the entrance that left me even further behind as I negotiated my way around it. After that I realized my bigger mistake – not having a headlight.

All I could do was focus on the blinking red light on the bike about 50 yards ahead while hollering, “Wait for me!” It didn’t help that I was on the wrong side of cataract surgery with dwindling night vision.

Thankfully, my friends waited, and we continued with me zeroed in on the taillight from about a bike’s distance behind.

Coming out of the tunnel the road headed downhill and the road surface followed. It got to the point where there was less road than cracks, holes and brush. Maybe this was where rookie drivers got their first crack at plowing a road with an emphasis on crack.  

At that point, I was toward the front of the group and started wondering if everyone was still on board with continuing. A sense of adventure was keeping me going but, in my head, I kept hearing a favorite expression of another cyclist friend: “It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.” So far, so good, but should we tempt fate?

I signaled everyone to stop and posed the question. Do you guys want to keep going? You can judge what is says about us, but the quick response was a unanimous yes. We kept rolling.

In a stretch of just two miles we had gone from a road ride to a gravel grinder. Next up was a little single track.

Making our way along this remnant roadway, the path we took on the former westbound lanes of the Turnpike was more squiggle than line. At some point, we realized the eastbound lanes across the median were looking relatively better. Throwing caution and good sense to the wind, we weaved our way through the overgrown median weeds and proceeded on the eastbound side.

Nine miles after exiting the Rays Hill tunnel, the Sideling Hill tunnel came into view. This time we were ready for a tunnel.

Two of us had lights. Two didn’t. We paired up with the lights in front and headed in.

In this tunnel, we could see quite a bit of graffiti on the walls. And we had our first sighting of some youngsters on foot who may or may not have been among the artists responsible for the splashes of color surrounding us.

We were lucky this turned out to be the warmest day of our trip and the coolness of the tunnel was almost welcome. The Sideling Hill tunnel is 1.3 miles long and eventually there’s no light at either end of the tunnel. An arc in the tunnel designed to keep water from ponding in the middle also keeps out the light.

Coming out of the tunnel we discovered that light wasn’t the only thing the tunnel blocked. GPS signals were lost as well and in both tunnels. Fortunately, getting lost was not a concern.

It was only about a mile beyond the Sideling Hill tunnel that the Abandoned Turnpike ended, and we reversed direction. As we headed back into the tunnel, we applied another learning from the first trip through in pairs. When the two of us in the rear kept our eyes on the blinking lights in front of us, we could follow just fine. The problem was that when staring at the blinking lights we couldn’t see much else. Switching to a steady light restored at least a little of our peripheral vision.

Our return trip was a lot less unnerving. We had mastered the trick of finding a good line on the pock-marked pavement and could pick up the pace. Riding into a setting sun, we made it back to our truck without incident.

It was only the next morning that we learned our excursion on the Turnpike had qualified as an adventure. Rolling out in the parking lot preparing to head for Gettysburg, I found my rear tire was going flat. It didn’t take long to discover I had been riding with a sizeable thorn planted in the tread from one of our median crossings.

So, it turned out something had gone wrong on our Turnpike trek. But thankfully, the cycling gods had chosen to smile on us this time.

If you want to learn more about the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike and see more photos, visit the Exploring the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike page on PAbucketlist.com here: https://pabucketlist.com/exploring-the-abandoned-pennsylvania-turnpike/

This was orignally an email to the membership. We are repeating it here to secure the widest possible circulation.

The Board seeks to refresh the club media kit of logo, colors, & font with the goals of consistent use, easy association with the club across media & gear, and recognizable clear bold lines & colors.

Logos are the face of organizations used to visually communicate our unique identity, activities, & services. Logos create a first impression of an organization and express its values. CRW has had the same logo for many years and it has served the club well. But times are changing, with new concerns and objectives. The current logo shows three riders, and we wanted to move away from an image of individual riders to a focus on the larger cycling community.

As we expanded the club's presence on social media, we found requirements to apply the logo in small icons, club profile, wide banners, & event pictures. The current logo, with its fine intricate lines & intertwined shapes, becomes distorted in smaller sizes and in many digital formats. Similarly, we wanted to produce custom club gear with a distinct color scheme, recognizable logo, & feasible manufacturing options. Intricate, complex lines in the current logo make it difficult to print, stitch, or engrave. In addition, the use of five colors in the current logo can be costly to print as each color adds a fee. Consequently, we have often resorted to being creative in slightly adjusting the logo to fit manufacturing needs, reducing the consistency of truly one logo.

A task group of graphic designers, Board members, & volunteers met over several weeks to exchange ideas, concepts, & approaches. Below are the results of their hard work. We are grateful for their time, energy, & creativity. While we understand that no design effort will please everyone, we hope all members will be excited and inspired by their resulting product.

In March we made a soft launch of a new logo to see how it worked & get preliminary feedback. It appears that the new logo has generated a generally favorable reaction so the Board is moving to the next step.

The full deck that explains the design concept is available at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jfZTOVujIsZzeJ_tTxqviRaMOXQ7-Jh_cq-8-BdTlHU

We request your feedback & thoughts about this new media kit through a poll. Please take a moment to complete this form https://forms.office.com/r/sRNt3BmJVX

This survey will close on Friday 30 April 2021. The Board will then vote on the new design during our meeting on 10 May 2021.

Last year at this time I wrote a column about underinsured motorist coverage (UIM). This coverage accompanies all motor vehicle insurance policies in Massachusetts.  It covers cyclists and pedestrians in the household of the insured driver if they are injured when hit by a motor vehicle while cycling, jogging or walking. In my column I emphasized that without high limits for UIM coverage injured cyclists could end up in financial difficulty, if not disaster, if they were hit by minimally insured drivers.

I am starting this year's column by reemphasizing that point because I have been presented with cases recently in which cyclists were seriously injured by minimally insured drivers AND did not have adequate UIM coverage on their own vehicles to protect themselves. In some cases, the cyclists were under insured because they had not reviewed their automobile insurance policy for many years.  They disregarded renewal letters that were sent to them by their insurance companies year after year, and maintained the same levels of  underinsured motorist coverage in spite of the fact that their life circumstances had changed. They insured themselves well for liability, in the event that they injured someone with their car, but failed to buy sufficient underinsured motorist coverage that would protect them if they were seriously injured while they were riding a bike or walking across a street.  I hope that this reminder will motivate people to review their automobile insurance policies to determine whether it makes sense for them to increase their levels of UIM coverage so that if an unfortunate accident occurs, they will be protected from financial hardship.  And remember, it is inexpensive coverage. The link to last year’s column can be found below.  Please contact me if you have any questions about this type of coverage.Click here for column.

State and Federal Legislative Update

Massachusetts lawmakers have been presented with proposed legislation, which, if passed into law, would provide additional protection to bicyclists who are involved in collisions with large trucks.

“An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities” would require state- contracted trucks to be outfitted with safety sideguards, crossover mirrors, convex mirrors and blind spot decals to reduce the risk of cyclists being swept underneath the tall carriage of large vehicles.  These sideswipe truck accidents are often fatal for cyclists and pedestrians. The convex mirrors would expand the truck driver’s view of cyclists. The version of the bill proposed to the House of Representatives would also require use of backup cameras.  The bills are HD.1888 and SD.1613.

Legislation to require sideguards on trucks has been proposed in Massachusetts on prior occasions. In 2014, the City of Boston passed the first sideguard ordinance in the nation. The ordinance requires truckers with contracts with the City of Boston to equip their trucks with sideguards, crossover mirrors, convex mirrors and blind- spot awareness decals. 

These legislative proposals came about as direct result of fatalities and serious injuries in Massachusetts and other states around the country.  My involvement in several cases where this has occurred revealed a disturbing tendency of police departments which investigated the accidents to place primary blame on the cyclist. The reason most frequently given is that the cyclist put him or herself in a position where the truck driver could not see them: the trucker’s blind spot. These cases typically involve large trucks making right turns when the cyclist is on the right side of the truck. If the safety enhancements which would be required if the legislation passes were present on the trucks, and IF the drivers made use of all of them, the injuries and deaths may very well have been avoided. 

The legislation that is proposed applies only to trucks that are operating under a contract with the state.  The most effective legislation would be analogous to seat belt legislation which became federal law in 1966 and required all manufacturers to equip cars with seat belts or air bag legislation that passed in 1998 which required all vehicle manufacturers to equip cars and light trucks with airbags.       

Federal legislation has been introduced to strengthen standards intended to prevent deadly underride accidents involving tractor- trailers and straight trucks. The Stop Underrides Act would require underride guards on the sides and front of all new trucks.  Under current federal law underride guards are only required to be on the back of a truck. The trucking industry and trailer makers expressed concern previously when similar bills were introduced in 2017 and 2019 about issues such as cost and weight.  The legislation would not apply to trucks currently in existence.  It will be interesting to track this legislation during the current congressional term.  

As I have written in the past, the safest way to avoid serious injuries or worse from a collision with a truck is to stay away from them whenever possible.   Assume that the driver cannot see you. Often the trucks are not equipped with sufficient mirroring to reduce the dangers of blind spots.  In addition, truck drivers sometimes fail to properly check to make sure cyclists are not on the right side of the truck before making right turns.  Protect yourself and avoid these situations whenever possible.

Stay well and safe riding!
 

If you have questions about a particular incident or more generally about the subject matter of this column, feel free to contact Ron Gluck at gluck [at] bwglaw.com. 

Ron Gluck is a founder and principal at Breakstone White and Gluck in Boston. Throughout his 35 year legal career Ron has represented seriously injured individuals in a variety of cases including cycling accidents involving catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Ron is a CRW member.

The following report was sent to participants in the Winter Ride Challenge. The venture attracted a great many members and was a success by any measure. It will be back next year.

Good Day Fellow Winter Riders!

Spring officially started on March 20, so sadly, we felt it was time to put an end to our Charles River Wheelers Winter Challenge.  Yes, CRW’s winter is officially over!!

But what a winter we had!  Miles, Elevation, Fitness and Shots ..kind-of sums it up, right?

I am totally impressed with how this team of hardy riders responded to the challenge.  We had 220 participants with nearly everyone logging at least a few miles.  

Yeap, we burned up the road for a total of 106,478 miles.  That is 3.7 times around the planet earth!  That mileage was split up between 125 road riders at 57,733 miles and 95 trainer riders for 48,744 miles.  Trainers won the average with 728 miles per person, verses road riders with an average 583 miles per person.  

Not everyone found those flat routes, either!   We hit 3,061,007 feet in elevation gain which is equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest a total of 105 times.  Phew!!

When we announced the challenge, the club promised the first 100 registrants that signed up AND who hit 150 miles by the end of March, would receive a special edition tee-shirt.  This would give everyone a chance to ride when you found the weather windows or as your schedule permitted.  68% of the registants hit over 150 miles!!  

The member sign-up sequences and mileage were recorded.   Please click HERE to see all results and to see if you have that shirt coming your way!!   If you did not snag a shirt, please start preparing for next winter (did I say that?) and sign up earlier!  With the challenge just completed, expect the shirts to arrive in the next 3 weeks or so. Oh, I added a few random raffle winners for the late-signer-uppers..how lucky for you!

BTW, everyone was totally in, but I must say, Barry Nelson with 2,427 road miles and Richard Taylor with 3,877 trainer miles took top mileage honors and full bragging rights.  They will be awarded with an event coffee mug along with their tee shirts. Guys, please kick-up your feet and relax with a nice cup of joe in your glory mug..you earned it!  But, absolutely a great job by all!

I hope we can expand the outreach next year and double the involvement and the prizes, but for now, let’s be thankful winter is over.

Special shout out to David Cooper for the shirt design and Jack Donohue for the technical support!

Hope to see you on the road soon,
Steve Carlson, Event Coordinator

Steve Carlson is currently serving his second term on the Board.

For this month’s Safety Corner, I take a look at the gap in the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington Center. The bikeway uses the route of the old Bedford commuter rail line, which was abandoned in 1981. It ran diagonally across the two main streets in the center of Arlington. 17 years of planning and political work led by Arlington Town Planner Alan McClennen got the trail designed, funded and constructed. But no trail connection was made through Arlington Center.

Until 2017, bicyclists had two options: to ride on streets or sidewalks. Bicyclists were supposed to follow rules for pedestrians or for drivers, one or the other. Many bicyclists using the trail were and are casual bicyclists and children. The sidewalk route was inconvenient and slow, as it required crossing two sides of an intersection using pedestrian signals. The best route through the intersection for bicyclists riding in the street was not at all obvious. Most westbound bicyclists rode to the right of motor vehicles waiting to turn right. Quite a bit of chaos ensued.

In 2017, changes were made to accommodate bicycle traffic. The video embedded below shows my rides westbound through this intersection in 2013 following driving rules and in 2017 following the designated route for bicyclists.

As the video shows, I chose my route in 2013 to avoid right-hook risks. In 2017, the right-hook risk was intended to be avoided through separate traffic-signal phases for right-turning motor vehicles and for bicyclists in a bike lane. Questions for today:

• What would you do along this route to avoid being “doored”?
• Would you trust motorists to wait before turning right across your line of travel?
• How would you forestall a potential right hook collision if you are headed to the far right corner of the intersection to continue on the bikeway?
• What lane position would you take if continuing straight on Massachusetts Avenue, to avoid the squeeze experienced by another bicyclist in the 2017 video clip?
• In choosing a route to avoid the risks I’ve mentioned, what other risks might you incur? Are they significant? How could you forestall them?
• Does legality conflict with safety in any of these choices? (Note: it is legal for a bicyclist to use any lane, and to control it, riding in its center, if passing is unsafe. However, it is legal only to turn right from a right-turn lane.)
• Are any of the applicable laws wrong, and if so, why?
• Do you disagree with anything I do in the video, and if so, why?

I’ll address these questions in next month’s Safety Corner, which will also show routes in the opposite direction through the same intersection.

And to finish, I’d like to repeat a suggestion I made in the January Safety Corner. It relates directly to the questions which I have just asked. How about spending a couple of hours prepping yourself the cycling season? You or a friend might sign up for the free online CyclingSavvy Essentials Short Course. If you take this material to heart, you will know how to avoid conflict situations like the ones I describe in the video.

You might go further and consider a session where the rubber actually hits the road. There’s one in Waltham in mid-May. It covers all the issues raised in this article, and much more. Check out https://cyclingsavvy.org/events/.