Following the death of Bernard “Joe” Lavins in Porter Square on Oct. 5, city residents, members of the Boston area bicycling community and Cambridge city councilors are saying enough is enough.

At a meeting on Oct. 17, City Council members unanimously passed a number of measures aimed at improving bike safety in the city.

Seven policy orders were on the docket for the meeting, which proposed that the city look into or implement the following solutions to dangerous biking conditions: flex-post separated bike lanes, adding a bike/bus lane to Pearl Street, adopting a pilot program of protected bike lanes on Cambridge Street and Broadway, separated bike facilities on Massachusetts Avenue, protected bike lanes on Huron Avenue, further restriction of truck routes and a study to determine what other measures should be taken.

The meeting was preceded by a Protest for Safer Streets in Cambridge, which took place in front of City Hall. Many of those attending arrived by bike, and could be seen wearing neon colors for visibility, as well as the rally's bright green stickers bearing the slogan “Safe Streets Now.”

Impassioned pleas for action

The meeting drew an intense response from Cambridge residents. More than 44 people signed up to speak during the public comment section of the meeting, said Mayor E. Denise Simmons, most of whom urged the council to pass the package of proposed cycling safety measures.

“It's time to get going. People are dying in the street,” said Cambridge resident Thomas Meek.

“Last time I was here was at a meeting after Amanda Phillips' death,” said Lindsey Sudbury, referring to the victim of a crash in Inman Square in June. “And here we are again, after another senseless death. So why do I continue to do it?”

Sudbury and other Cantabrigians spoke of their reasons for continuing to ride their bicycles despite dangerous conditions. They cited the expense of owning a car, as well as a wish to have a lower carbon footprint, as well as convenience and the benefits of being active. Many who regularly bike in the city had their own tales of crashes, often ones that could easily have been fatal.

Some speakers urged the city to build new cycling infrastructure that offered more protections for cyclists.

“I promised Joe's widow we would do something,” said Ken Carlson, a colleague of Lavins at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. “Joe was a model commuter. He stopped at every stop sign and every traffic light. That could be any of us."

The majority of those speaking expressed that with improved infrastructure, more residents would be encouraged to bike in Cambridge, reducing the overall traffic in the city, to the benefit of all.

“If we're not biking, we're also in cars, and we're just creating more traffic,” said resident Anne Callahan.

Councilors echo public

City Councilor Nadeem Mazen said that he himself has been hit by opening car doors while biking, and speculated that many such incidents went unreported.

"I hit a car the other day that pulled a U-turn right in front of me,” City Councilor and frequent bike commuter Craig Kelley said.

Multiple council members endorsed the idea of moving quickly on these issues.

“We have had a Bike Master Plan for some time, but somehow it falls by the wayside,” Mazen said, urging the council to implement measures in the immediate future as well as create a timeline for the longer term.

Implementing will be 'complicated'

Despite strong support among speakers at the council meeting for fast action on improving bike safety, council members sounded a note of caution about how fast the city could move.

“This is a much more complicated discussion than just 'do it tomorrow,'” Kelley said.

Building safer bike infrastructure will involve many pieces, he said, and warned that in altering roads, traffic could inadvertently be diverted to other streets, causing new issues.

Councilor Marc McGovern said the conversation on improving bike safety should not end once the policy orders were passed, as it would surely be a long process toward understanding the complex traffic and cyclist patterns of the city, and balancing the needs of all.

Councilor Leland Cheung spoke of adopting not only the policy orders but a new perspective, calling for “a fundamental shift in our thinking.” Cheung added that the narrow streets of Cambridge were in many cases not originally built for cars, and that in a city of these dimensions, pedestrians and bicycles should be the first priority, not cars.

“We need the bike perspective to come to every single meeting,” he said. “Let's make this a 'people-first' city.”

“This is a much bigger community education project than just the city of Cambridge,” said Councilor David Maher, pointing out that efforts to educate drivers would have to extend to those in communities outside Cambridge who drive through the city each day.

“If we protect people, we don't have to rely on education as much,” countered Devereux.