View or submit bike blockers on:

Why do this?

We got frustrated enough having to regularly try to merge into car traffic or get in the way of pedestrians on the sidewalk (and see the same happen to kids and less experienced cyclists) every time a driver decided to park in the bike lane instead of finding a parking space, and it turns out many people we know feel the same. (And then, after starting Boston Bike Blockers, we found many people we didn't know also felt the same!)By logging cases of drivers blocking bike lanes in the area, we hope to highlight areas where this is a recurring problem with hard evidence that can be brought up in city meetings. If relevant city officials are on social media you can even tag them there!Additionally, some drivers have become verbally or even physically aggressive against cyclists who remind them not to park in bike lanes. Snapping a photo and quickly riding on can be a safer option for cyclists who don't want to risk that sort of confrontation.

Is this like Bike Lane Uprising?

Bike Lane Uprising does fantastic work, and it would be great if folks who submit photos to BBB submit them there as well! BLU's heatmap, for instance, is an outstanding way to identify problem areas. My hope is for BBB to fill in a few gaps: most notably, BLU takes exclusive ownership of submitted images and prohibits other activist groups using submitted photos for advocacy; by posting them across social media platforms, BBB encourages tagging in elected officials and community members to discuss problem areas, tagging corporate accounts to address issues with commercial vehicles, and generally using them to advocate for better infrastructure. Additionally, since submitting to BBB only requires sending a quick DM on existing social platforms, hopefully people who don't want to install the BLU app will find it easy enough to at least send photos to BBB.

How can I help?

The easiest thing you can do to help is take photos of vehicles blocking bike lanes. If possible, make it clear how the car is obstructing the lane, and get any relevant signage in a photo too, but if you're in a hurry, anything is fine! We also ask to be reasonable—if they are blocking for less than 30 seconds (e.g., pulling into a parallel parking space) or there are common sense indicators there was an emergency, cut them some slack.If you want to do more, consider emailing, calling, or writing to your city councillor, mayor, or others in your city government about areas that get a lot of bike blockers. Even if they don't have the budget or contractor availability to install curbs or flex posts in the short term, it keeps the issue on their radar, and they might even be able to put up cones or other temporary protections!

Why those restrictions on photos?

Emergencies happen, and plenty of us need to do a questionably legal maneuver once in a while (especially with some of the odd street configurations in the Boston area). Let's keep the focus on cars that willfully block bike lanes with no apparent consideration for cyclists. If we get to the point those are no longer a constant problem for cyclists in the Boston area, we can consider whether we need to address the driver who pulls over for 5 seconds to send a text, attend to a child, etc., and then gets out of the way. If we get better bike infrastructure built, it will likely reduce many of those cases too!

What other considerations do you take?

This is done by volunteers in our spare time, and we aren't perfect, but we generally try to:

  • Blur faces and license plates of people who aren't the bike blocker(s)

  • Erase camera metadata that might identify the person who submitted a photo

  • Schedule posts at standard intervals, and not always in the order received, so a submitter's movements can't be followed

What about drivers who need to park?!

While some street parking may get removed to build bike lanes in some areas, many BBB photos show cars beside available street parking! Additionally, many show drivers just around the corner from a parking lot, garage, driveway, or street with parking, so in addition to reaching out to city officials about better bike infrastructure, you may want to ask about improving signage helping drivers find legal parking!And with any luck, better bike infrastructure will get more people to choose bikes (and other micromobility options) over cars and leave you with less competition for parking spaces!