There's a story in today's Globe about cyclists getting ticketed in Cambridge.  And while I myself was once ticketed in Cambridge, the article is a little misleading.  The information is accurate enough, but if you didn't know better you might think that Cambridge PD are actually ticketing cyclists with some regularity. 

As the article states, the ticketing goes on at Central Square, where there are a series of several stop lights on a short span of Mass Ave.  That is about the only place in Cambridge police are ticketing cyclists, and they do it about once a month for about twenty minutes at rush hour.

The tickets are usually for "blowing a light," at about two miles an hour, and the fine is twenty bucks.  Since you don't need a license to ride a bike, if you don't have ID they basically have to take your word for it that your name is Haywood Jablome and you live on Woodcock Circle.  But don't even bother with a clever nom de cycliste. Since after writing you up and lecturing you about how the rules of the road — whatever those are — apply to cyclists, too, they're going to waive the fine anyway.

None of which is to say that ticketing cyclists is a bad idea.  It's cute.  But if you are going to ticket them, and you want them to take your little lecture to heart, it helps to at least make sure your city provides them with proper lanes to ride on. 

Mass Ave. is a mess.  Lanes appear and disappear at unpredictable intervals.  Central is a great place for the Cambridge Bike Cops to jump out at you, since everybody else is.  Junkies mingle with free-range Alzheimers patients wandering through traffic.  Militant vegans fresh from Harvest Co-op jaywalk at will.  Starbucks denizens with iphones to their ears stride into oncoming traffic without a care.  And with the bus hub and the subway and Massholes galore, it's a zombie clusterfuck.

Last year, after I got ticketed at Central Square, like in the article with about twelve other cyclists who had inched through a light at a side street, I took it as a teachable moment and resolved to find a better route, off the beaten path.  Taking the Charles River Bike Path probably adds half a mile to my commute, but it's been well worth it.