Judge dismisses group’s call to undo bike lanes
A bicyclist uses a lane in North Cambridge in January 2022. (Photo: Marc Levy)
The Superior Court dismissed on Tuesday a lawsuit against the city over parking-space changes brought on by its Cycling Safety Ordinance.
The plaintiffs, a group called Cambridge Streets for All, went to court in June 2022 in hopes of stopping the city from adding more protected bike lanes under the CSO and removing existing lanes that took away parking spaces. In November, the city made a motion to Judge Maureen B. Hogan to dismiss the suit.
The Tuesday decision found that Cambridge Streets for All hadn’t supported its claims adequately, according to the city’s Law Department. Cambridge Streets for All had argued that Cambridge was making changes to Massachusetts Avenue that it could not because the avenue belongs to the state; that the City Council lacked the authority to pass its Cycling Safety Ordinance in 2019 and an amendment the next year setting a timeline for bike lane installation, and that the city lacked a required traffic board to hear appeals; that having bike lanes “interferes with the right to free movement”; that there was a lack of due process in the passage of the law in 2020; and more. The city has since reinstated a traffic board.
The judge’s decision “upholds the CSO and the city’s inherent authority to regulate its public ways. This decision also allows the city’s ongoing and future bike lane projects to continue to move forward,” the Law Department said in a memo shared with Cambridge Day. The city said it was “pleased with the decision.”
The group could yet appeal, but was not ready to say if it would when reached Tuesday.
“Clearly we’re disappointed by the court’s decision,” said Joan Pickett, chair of the group, who was reviewing the finding and other materials when contacted. More information would be available later, Pickett said.
The city also faces a second legal action against the bike lanes with similar arguments. It was filed in August 2022 by 20 new taxpayer plaintiffs led by Madeleine Aster.
Whenever a group complains about a “lack of due process” for an administrative manner (vs something in criminal law), you can with near certainty just write “I usually get my way when I complain about stuff but didn’t this time”
How plaintiffs imagine people riding bikes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfvYMME2zaI
Actual reality: https://youtu.be/34FyWCutqvw?t=76
I’m sure the law firm these people hired are eagerly encouraging them to file an appeal, knowing suckers when they see them
This morning the preliminary injunction for the second lawsuit, to stop construction of bike lanes on Garden St and Brattle St, was denied by the same judge.
Good, these delusional plaintiffs need to get a grip and realize they are in the minority here, and that moving towards more equitable division of resources doesn’t equate to them being “discriminated against.” Sorry Lee, time to take a nap.
@cambridgeresident +1
This is the second time this group has tried. I’m sure the lawyers will be happy to keep taking their money.
It is said that when you are used to entitlement, equality feels like oppression.
@cport88
You mean the same administration that lacked an actual traffic board (until very recently and months after the lawsuits) to conduct the appropriate topographic surveys and economic impacts? The same ones they promised to do?
I’ll be frank, arguing the city had no legal right was a futile endeavor. They should have instead focused on the lack of diligence by the city to calculate the most equitable and sound solution.
I live on a side street of the Porter section, and believe me the few months after their placement was far from ideal. Traffic overflow, rage incidents, and damage to our parked cars skyrocketed.
I reckon the Traffic Board was reinstated in response to these lawsuits for the sake of preservation.
@AdamL the Traffic Board does none of the things you think it does. It doesn’t do topographic surveys. It doesn’t do economic impact studies.
It has exactly one form of authority per the law that created it: if there is a new traffic rule or regulation published, you can appeal to the Board.
Traffic project design is not a rule or regulation, and therefore not subject to appeal; this is the plain English reading of the law, this is the City’s legal claim, and the judge agreed with the city.
Thus the existence of the Traffic Board is irrelevant to these projects, and more broadly it withered away because literally no one bothered to file an appeal for decades.
(The City can also ask it for advice, but these days every bike lane projects gets advice from multiple city committees, and 3 or 4 public meetings, surveys, and sometimes gets discussed in the council, so potentially hundreds or thousands of people can weigh in. Adding feedback from 3 more people wouldn’t make a difference.)
Yes that very same one.
Others can comment on it, but I don’t think this ‘Traffic Board’ is supposed to do those studies, nor to my understanding would it actually have anything to do with bike lane installation. But if you want another unelected board to siphon complaints to at ~6:30 pm on a weekday, have at it.
A lot of our existing infrastructure is actively dangerous to pedestrians and bikers, so I do have an issue with endless studies “to calculate the most equitable and sound solution”. Mainly because there is finite amount of space in our roads, so making them safer by providing more space for pedestrians and bikers will almost definitely reduce space available for cars to drive or park. So we will spend months (years?) studying stuff all the while our roads are actively dangerous especially for a growing population that bikes, and in the end people will still be upset about the outcome if it reduces parking.
And my man, I will let you ponder what it says about your values if “damage to our parked cars” is a reason to take away bike lines…
To the privileged, a step towards equality feels like oppression. I like this
A small group of people has taken over the City. If there was a fair ballot question about bike lanes and bus lanes, this would never happen.
Everybody knows what’s going on and it’s all about the money. It’s too bad some Cambridge politicians aren’t honest so residents end up suffering. It’s time to leave Cambridge.