2 days ago
Our loved ones died biking in Cambridge last year. Boston-area candidates need to follow the facts on bike lanes.
Meanwhile in Cambridge, during a June
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Here's what's not being stated frequently enough: Separated bike lanes reduce collisions and save lives.
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The Federal Highway Administration has
A year ago, we didn't know those statistics. Our grief has forced us to learn them, and more. Back then, all we knew was that we loved John Corcoran and Minh-Thi Nguyen, and they loved what biking gave them.
Minh-Thi Nguyen, an MIT graduate student who died in June 2024 after being struck while riding her bicycle in Cambridge.
courtesey photo
Biking was 62-year-old Newton resident John Corcoran's favorite hobby, and he especially relished long rides across Boston and Cambridge with his wife, Barbara, and their two children. He was such a slow, cautious cyclist that Barbara would joke she risked falling over when she biked beside him.
Biking was more of a means of transportation for 24-year-old Minh-Thi Nguyen. Although she had a car, biking between her Inman Square apartment and her MIT physics laboratory cut her commute by three times. The time she saved let Minh-Thi work diligently on her PhD while still caring for her friends and enjoying her many hobbies, from weightlifting to making sushi to crocheting while watching the Bravo hit show 'Below Deck.'
Motor vehicles hit
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John Corcoran's wife, Barbara, laid down a candle after a ghost bike ceremony held by cyclists and bike safety advocates on Sept. 28, 2024, on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, where he had been struck by a driver days earlier.
Kayla Bartkowski For The Boston
Their deaths violently pushed us into a numbness we're only now beginning to climb out of. To better understand how John and Minh-Thi died, we started learning about bike safety and transportation policy. The three of us come from very different biking backgrounds. But our reading led us to the same conclusion, which is overwhelmingly supported by years of studies: Safe street infrastructure and policies save lives, and separated bike lanes are one of the most important tools in this toolbox, alongside
Boston-area candidates raise important questions about how bike lanes will affect our cities. Common fears, however, aren't backed up by research. We hear that bike lanes will worsen congestion, but a study cited by the FHA
Cycling has recently become much more popular in
and
for pedestrians and drivers. A 2025 City of Boston analysis
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Some Boston-area candidates are ignoring the overwhelming research consensus on bike lanes and displaying a staggering lack of regard for people who cycle, victims of traffic violence, and everyone who cares about safer roads. Fortunately, in November, voters can choose who governs our streets. For the loved ones of bicyclists who died after being struck by vehicles, every death of a vulnerable road user reopens a deep wound. We urge voters to do their best to ensure no one else joins us in the grief we've known.
