Navigating Comm Ave

Strategies for surviving one of Boston’s busiest thoroughfares

September 25, 2014
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The road that divides the Charles River Campus in two—Commonwealth Avenue—is one of Boston’s most heavily traveled. Each day, an estimated 20,000 pedestrians, 3,000 cyclists, and 36,000 cars trek along the BU section alone. Add to that the 28,000 MBTA Green Line B trolley riders, the 11,500 people taking the MBTA 57 bus, and the estimated 5,800 daily users of the BU Shuttle (BUS), and you get the sense of just how tricky it can be to navigate Comm Ave.

We set out to find out what strategies and advice people have for handling a roadway where so much foot, bike, bus, trolley, and automobile traffic converge. Their tips could make Comm Ave easier and safer for everyone.

Have your own tips for getting around? Share them with us in the Comment section below.

This story was originally published on September 25, 2014.

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Navigating Comm Ave

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Comments & Discussion

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There are 15 comments on Navigating Comm Ave

  3. Can there be a requisite Orientation event about this sort of thing? I think things like crowding the T with backpacks etc is bad public relations for the University. So many of the students are from the suburbs and are taking public transportation for the first time, and they don’t realize what’s expected.

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  4. I agree with Jon. There should be an orientation about all of this as soon as students get here. They need to learn the lights. The light at Comm Ave and St Paul is one example. They need to understand that it’s stupid to cross the street while looking at a cellphone. Backpacks on the T? Take them off when the train is crowded. And walk to the back of the car. Comm Ave 101.

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    1. Interestingly, all new BU staff members get exactly this information in their required orientation! If grownups need to be told how to cross the street safely, surely kids do too. And a primer on T etiquette, pedestrian etiquette, bike etiquette, general sense that there are other people in the world besides oneself — boy, could a lot of students use that.

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  5. My best tip as a cyclist: just assume everyone else is an idiot. Assume cars won’t use their turn signals and assume pedestrians won’t look before jaywalking. The one time I trusted that a person was paying attention, she stepped backwards into the bike lane and ran right into me.

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    1. And we as drivers and pedestrians must assume that every bicyclist is not paying attention, will run every red light and stop sign, and not see, or care, about any pedestrians.

      In other words, ALL people using Comm Ave must assume that nobody else is looking out for them and take precautions to be safe.
      1) Get off the phone and drive/bike/walk/cross!!!
      2) Look both ways (even on one-way streets) before crossing any street, anywhere at any time.
      3) Never, ever step in front of cars and trolleys, assuming they can see you and will be able to stop in 2 feet.
      4) The side streets (St. Paul, Buick, University Road, etc.) are not “cross whenever you want without looking”. They can be just as dangerous as Comm Ave if you are not paying attention.

      Finally: Get off the phone and drive/bike/walk/cross!!!

      COM AVE 101 should be mandatory for everyone at BU!

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  6. Word of warning to pedestrians: at sundown, drivers heading towards West Campus CAN’T SEE YOU. The sun’s glare around 5-6 pm means that it takes everything you can do to see the other cars around you, and when someone shoots out across the street against the light, it’s almost impossible to spot them until they’re right in front of your car.

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  7. Walking inbound on the right there are several intersections, notably BU bridge, where the cars can make a right turn while the walk sign is on. Insane! Lotsa luck with the “Yield to Pedestrians” sign. Be very careful crossing. Look out for cars making a right from the left lane – almost got hit by one I didn’t see that way.

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  8. Wow! These comments are wonderful. The overall sincerity is really appreciated; They seem to reflect a genuine concern (or sense of terror). I hope they get fed back into “Comm Ave 101” to whoever is trying to compile a set of “best practices”.

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  10. Each and every year since I started coming to BU (more than 15 years ago) there have been several traffic accidents involving one or more of you. Too many of these have ended tragically.
    To motorists:
    Please drive cautiously and courteously. Too many times students, running late for class or on their phones dart into the street without looking.
    Please slow and stop at red lights. Do not be that rude person who tries to beat the light and blocks traffic intersections where others, too, are trying to get somewhere.
    To pedestrians:
    Please take care to obey traffic signals. They are there for your safety. Do not cross while texting. Look both ways before starting to cross. AND be aware of the trollies transiting Commonwealth Ave. They too are on a schedule.
    To my friends the cyclists:
    Know the rules of the road, use hand signals and for goodness sake please wear a helmet! You, too, must stop for red lights and remain stopped until the light changes. This is the law. Please do not cross at any time where a car could not cross. This is very dangerous because no one expects it. It is really sad to see mangled bikes and cyclists along Comm. Ave. It happens EVERY year!
    Skaters and skateboarders’:
    See above paragraph
    Lastly, everyone who rides scooters:
    Scooters in Massachusettes are considered alongside bicycles. So please drive in accordance with bicycle rules. See above as well.
    We all need to live and work in the same spaces. Let’s all get there safely and calmly. Let’s be courteous to one another and make commuting a pleasure instead of a dreaded chore. Let’s take on, and combat road rage and get to our destinations in one piece!
    Sincerely,
    Your friend,
    Andrea

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  11. Agree with Tom K, but further to that, just because the light says it’s OK to cross, it’s NOT TRUE. Example, Comm Ave and St Mary’s..pedestrians get the walk sign when there is a green light for those heading east on Comm so cars can take that right turn without stopping and cars heading west on Comm at that same light get a green light to go up St Mary’s when pedestrians also have the walk sign!!! What genius set it up like this???

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  12. A few notes from the perspective of a cyclist.

    For pedestrians:
    1) I get it, everyone j-walks. But PLEASE look up from your phone before you j-walk. Make eye contact so I know you see me.
    2) Give bikes more than a couple inches clearance as you cross next to them, because we may need room to navigate potholes (of which there are many near crosswalks) and also the person next to you may not be paying attention and may start to cross because you start to cross and then they step a bit ahead of you and yikes.

    For well-meaning drivers:
    1) When I have right of way and cross in front of you at a stop sign and you inch forward you stop my heart. You know your not actually going – I don’t. It’s terrifying.
    2) Based on a similar principle when we are at a 4-way stop and I motion for you to go, please just go. I often can’t see if you are motioning for me to go, and so I must assume you are not. I must assume you are checking Google Maps. You take 2 seconds to go through the intersection, (from rest) I take ten, so just go for it.
    3) And again say we are both zooming down the hill on Comm Ave and you have allowed me to pass in front of you. Your calculation of what is a safe distance is based on the (obvious) assumption that you are paying attention, but I probably won’t consider this a safe distance because I have to assume you are not paying attention.
    4) Finally, please give us as much room as we take. If I’m in the middle of the car lane it is because I feel I need the full car lane. We need lots of extra room when it is windy, or wet, or there are potholes.

    For the rest of the drivers:
    1) Don’t block the intersection. Nobody likes that.

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  13. In defense of cyclists (on occasion and with extreme caution) running red lights.

    There are times it is much safer to run a red light (though to be honest this doesn’t happen much on Comm Ave and I generally don’t run the reds on Comm Ave). For example if I’m at a red light and I see that on the next block there is someone parked in the bike lane (illegal) or there isn’t a bike lane. And there is a walk signal. I will carefully (at approximately the speed of a pedestrian and yielding to pedestrians) cross with the walk signal. It will be much safer for me to navigate the section of road ahead if there are no cars around me. It would be much less safe for me to try and assert my legal right of way as I squeeze past whoever parked in the bike lane.

    One great example, where I always run the red, is heading north on Mass Ave right after Harvard Sq where the road dips down. The cars go very fast here because they think they are on a runway. I need to cross three lanes of traffic to take a left to stay on Mass Ave. This is horrifying to do while cars are on the road. If I run the red there is little risk of a car coming out of nowhere and surprising me because the only other traffic that goes through that section essentially pulls a u-turn right before hand so I can see if they are coming without turning my head.

    Yes, I know it is illegal. But the laws are bad ones. Most of the laws for bikes stand because they are the laws for cars. They assume that I want to go 40 in residential zones. They assume that I can accelerate quickly. They assume I weigh over a ton. The laws are an accident. If you are a driver who does not regularly bike, do not use what is legal for cyclists as a proxy to judge what is safe for cyclists. The two often don’t coincide. Use your common sense (zooming through red lights IS a bad idea) and listen to those who have different experiences from you. (For the record I’ve never been a car commuter in Boston, but have spent a fair amount of time driving in Boston.)

    Find me a driver who has never endangered the life of a cyclist by stopping in a bike lane, and who has never endangered the lives of fellow drivers and passengers by going anything other than below the speed limit on the highway (both things I am certainly guilty of) and then I will gladly
    listen to a lecture on the rules of the road.

    At the end of the day my safety is my responsibility. If I am carried away on a stretcher I can’t file an appeal with the EMT noting that I had actually obeyed the law, and that it was the driver that parked in the bike lane and the driver looking at Facebook that plowed into me, failing to yield to my right of way as I navigated around the driver parked in the bike lane – it was they who disobeyed the law!

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