Blocked Bike Lanes in Cambridge, MA: Who’s Liable When You Have to Swerve Into Traffic

Cambridge has spent six years building out a network of physically separated bike lanes, but a large share of the city’s bike lane mileage is still just paint on asphalt, and paint does not stop a driver from parking on it. Any cyclist who commutes through Harvard Square, Central Square, or along Massachusetts Avenue has had the same experience: you are riding in the bike lane, a delivery van or a rideshare driver is stopped in it, and your only options are to stop completely or merge into the travel lane with cars passing at 25 or 30 miles an hour. When that merge ends in a crash, the legal question is not just who was driving the car that hit you. It is also whether the vehicle that forced you out of the bike lane bears some of the responsibility.

A Problem Cambridge Cyclists Are Now Documenting

This is not an occasional annoyance. A new phone app called Bike Bureau launched in Cambridge this summer to document how often it happens. Its founder built the tool after tracking his own ten minute commute from Boston to Kendall Square and finding that he passed an average of ten parked cars sitting in bike lanes along the way. The app lets a cyclist snap a photo of an obstruction, blurs faces and license plates automatically, and files an anonymized report directly to the city. Cambridge is one of the first cities to receive these reports, along with Medford. Cyclists interviewed about the app describe the same complaint: on streets like Massachusetts Avenue, where a bike lane runs between parked cars and moving traffic, a single obstruction leaves nowhere to go except into the door zone or into traffic.

Massachusetts Law Bans Parking in a Bike Lane

The state legislature addressed this directly. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 89, Section 4D provides that the operator of a motor vehicle shall not stand or park the vehicle upon an on-street path or lane designated by an official sign or marking for the exclusive use of bicycles, except in a case of emergency. There is no carve out for a quick delivery, a rideshare pickup, or a driver who could not find another spot. A vehicle sitting in a marked bike lane for any of those reasons is there in violation of state law, and that violation is not evidence you need to go looking for after a crash. It is already built into the statute.

It also matters what Massachusetts law does not require of cyclists. Chapter 85, Section 11B gives a bicycle operator the right to use all public ways in the Commonwealth, and it says only that a cyclist may keep to the right when passing a moving vehicle in the travel lane. That word is permissive, not mandatory. Unlike some states, Massachusetts does not require cyclists to hug the right edge of the road or ride within the door zone of parked cars. A cyclist who leaves a blocked bike lane and moves into the travel lane to get around an obstruction is exercising a right the statute already gives them, not creating a hazard that reduces their own claim.

Hit by a car while biking? Get a free case review from a Cambridge injury attorney. Call 617-683-1983.

Who Can Be Held Responsible When You’re Forced Into Traffic

Two vehicles are usually relevant after a crash like this, not one. The obvious defendant is the driver whose car actually struck you once you merged into traffic. Chapter 90, Section 14 requires a motor vehicle operator to pass a cyclist at a safe distance of not less than four feet and at a reasonable and proper speed, bars a driver who is overtaking a cyclist from then turning right across that cyclist’s path unless the turn can be made safely, and states plainly that it is not a defense for a driver who hits a cyclist that the cyclist was to the right of vehicular traffic. None of that changes because the cyclist merged left to get around an obstruction rather than starting the ride there.

The less obvious defendant is the vehicle that blocked the lane in the first place. Under ordinary Massachusetts negligence principles, a party does not have to make physical contact with you to share fault for your injuries. If parking illegally in a bike lane, in violation of Chapter 89, Section 4D, was a foreseeable and substantial factor in forcing you into a traffic lane where you were then struck, that vehicle’s operator can be a contributing cause of the crash alongside the driver who hit you. Massachusetts follows a modified comparative negligence rule under Chapter 231, Section 85, meaning you can still recover as long as you are not more than 50 percent at fault, and fault can be divided among more than one party. A blocked lane does not automatically make the striking driver less responsible, but it can add a second source of recovery when that driver’s insurance is not enough to cover your injuries.

Cambridge Is Building Protected Lanes, But Gaps Remain

The city’s own infrastructure plan is aimed at solving exactly this problem, just slowly. Cambridge’s Cycling Safety Ordinance, passed in 2019 and amended in 2020, requires the city to build 25 miles of physically separated bike lanes, the kind protected by curbs or bollards rather than paint alone, by November 1, 2026. As of this spring the city had built or begun roughly 18.78 miles since the ordinance passed, with another 3.28 miles added over the past year, leaving several miles still to finish before the deadline. A genuinely separated lane is largely immune to the parking problem, because there is no room for a car to pull in. A street that still relies on paint alone remains exactly as vulnerable as it was before the ordinance passed. A parked car is also not the only thing that can take a lane out of service. In winter a bike lane the city has not plowed forces the same merge into traffic, under a different set of legal rules.

What to Do If You’re Forced Into Traffic and Get Hit

If a blocked bike lane forces you into a crash, the same obstruction that caused the problem is also your best evidence, and it will not stay in place for long. Photograph the vehicle blocking the lane before you deal with anything else, including its position relative to the bike lane markings and, if visible, its license plate. Call the police to the scene so a report exists, get the contact information of the driver who struck you and any witnesses, and seek medical care even if you feel able to walk away, since some injuries do not announce themselves right away. If you have helmet camera footage, preserve it before it gets overwritten.

Insurance Coverage and Deadlines You Need to Know

Massachusetts personal injury protection coverage, or PIP, applies to a cyclist struck by a car regardless of fault. Under Chapter 90, Section 34M, PIP pays up to 8,000 dollars in medical expenses, or the first 2,000 dollars if you carry private health insurance, plus 75 percent of lost wages, paid by the insurer of the vehicle that struck you. As of July 1, 2025, Massachusetts also raised its compulsory minimum bodily injury liability coverage to 25,000 dollars per person and 50,000 dollars per accident, a floor that is often not enough on its own for a serious injury, which is another reason a second liable party can matter. You also have a limited window to act: under Chapter 260, Section 2A, a personal injury claim in Massachusetts generally must be filed within three years.

A blocked bike lane is a familiar frustration to nearly everyone who rides in Cambridge, but when it puts you in the path of a car, it stops being a minor inconvenience and becomes a legal question with real consequences. If you were hurt after being forced out of a bike lane and into traffic, Melanson Law Group offers a free consultation to walk through what happened and who may be responsible. Call 617-683-1983 to speak with a Cambridge bicycle accident attorney.