As a recent transplant to Boston, and a Boston University graduate student, I am shocked at how many people lose their lives on Commonwealth Avenue (“Bicyclist dies in crash in city: BU grad student becomes 5th such victim this year,” Metro, Dec. 7). I am also shocked by the propensity of many people to blame the victims for their own deaths, rather than the horrid city planning that facilitates it.
Commonwealth Avenue is a death trap. All on the same street, there is a major university campus with classroom buildings on either side, a major east-west transportation artery, one of the most heavily traveled overground transit lines, one of the most cycled routes in the city, and a hub of restaurants and shops requiring delivery services. And I do not even mention Red Sox games, when Comm. Ave. becomes the Thunderdome.
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The police blocked the intersection for hours, standing around staring at the ground and playing at their version of CSI, but surely must have come to some conclusions about who was at fault. Did they? Apparently not. In this case, the bicyclist would appear to have been going too fast and not paying attention to potential hazards. The fact that he failed to notice a huge truck making a turn would tend to support this theory. This not a matter of blaming the victim; as much as the loss of this life is tragic, the blame does not necessarily fall upon the truck driver. Careless bikers need to remember that while they can see cars, trucks and buses, those drivers can’t always see you. This whole section of Comm ave. is one to be avoided for a number of reasons. These include B.U. students jaywalking, bicyclists flouting the traffic laws, and drivers trying to make sense of the traffic patterns and lights.
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