12/21/2017
Cambridge Main Library at Broadway / Trowbridge St (8:39 pm)
Charles Circle - Charles St at Cambridge St (8:56 pm)
Every once in a while, I’ll use a urinal that has a small drawing or image printed on the inside, just above the drain. The exact image varies. It isn’t uncommon to see a small bug but sometimes it’s a simple shape like a circle or a square. The placement makes it look almost like a target and that's how I treat it.
I’ve learned recently that these little urinal drawings are, indeed, meant to serve as targets. Apparently, someone studied urinals for a while and found that there was less cleanup around urinals with a small ‘target’ printed on the inside. I guess men just aim better when there are arbitrary markers to work with.
This ‘research’ came to mind on this Hubway ride in late December 2017. The Longfellow Bridge, the last leg of my ride home from Cambridge, has recently started renovating the Boston-bound side. The construction has required repainting along various points and, starting around one-third of the way across, the bike lane disappears into the generic darkness of new asphalt. And wouldn’t you know it, reader, but to my untrained eye, the cars just seem to drive a little closer to the bikes on this unmarked stretch of the bridge.
I don’t have many theories on this phenomenon, reader. My best guess is that a bike lane helps a driver ‘aim straight’ by defining a right-hand boundary. Of course, it could just as easily be on me, as well – perhaps I’m drifting into the driving path on this stretch of bridge where there is no line to help me 'aim'.
Either way, I think it’s an application of the same finding I see at certain urinals around town – if you help people aim, their aim will improve. Personally, I’d like to see it applied a little more widely to keep people safe on the streets, but, hey, having clean floors in public restrooms isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either.
