Cars and bikes will each have a dedicated lanes on Pine Street later this summer

By Dan Pohlig

Today is truly a great day for Philadelphia.  No, I’m not talking about the acquisition of diminutive (not so much these days) Dominican fireballer (also not so much) Pedro Martinez by the hometown Phillies.  Nope.  I’m referring to the decision by the Nutter Administration and the Streets Department to turn one full lane on Pine Street and Spruce Street into that nirvana known as “the dedicated bicycle traffic lane.”

6 foot bike lanes with 2 foot buffers are planned for Spruce and Pine Streets / Image Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

When you think about, the combination of a big win for cyclists and the arrival of another Spanish speaking laborer (albeit highly skilled) makes this a pretty crappy day for a certain cheesesteak purveyor in South Philadelphia.

The Pine/Spruce bike-o-fare is a move which is long overdue.  No more traveling all the way to Spring Garden Street or Washington Avenue just to use a flimsy, 4-foot wide cycling gang plank as an east-west thoroughfare!  No more sucking the exhaust of SEPTA and NJT buses on Market Street’s supremely logical “Bike, Bus and Right Turn Only” lanes!  (Chestnut Street allegedly has one of these Bike/Bus lanes too but like Market Street it’s a prohibition that’s rarely enforced and, as far as I’m concerned, a pretty dumb mix of David Bikes and Goliath Buses.)

Cyclists of the world, we have seen the future and it is 12-15 feet of asphalty goodness on two of William Penn’s arboreally named lanes right in the heart of Center City.  The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (whose post on the announcement came to me through at least three different Facebook friends) has been dreaming this dream since January.  I look forward to the day when the bikes are running like the salmon in Alaska used to before Sarah Palin shot them all from a helicopter.

But seriously folks, for a guy whose morning commute these days pretty much requires him to jump full speed into a the veritable drag race that is Spruce Street from 13th to 16th, this is the equivalent of inventing a transporter device that would instantly send my molecules to my office without so much of a hint of stray fly DNA.  Rina Cutler is quoted in the Inquirer assuring drivers that pulling over temporarily to drop off or pick up passengers will be tolerated but it remains to be seen what kind of treatment that delivery truck which pulls over in the right lane of Spruce between 15th and 16th every morning will be treated. (I swear, the thing probably shows up on Google Earth.)

And, of course, there’s a healthy dose of Philadelphia skepticism and complaints about Center City’s traffic congestion sprinkled into the article.  Nothing like the man (or woman) on the street to offer that expert opinion that clearly came with years of studying the issue.  It should be required for every resident of Philadelphia to spend at least one typical week day driving through the downtowns of New York, Boston, Baltimore, London, Tokyo and Beijing before they can ever call Center City congested.  In fact, it really wouldn’t hurt to send everyone on a term abroad to get perspective on a lot of things.  Refreshingly, the commenterati seem evenly divided between those who think this move will vault Philadelphia past Paris, London and New York as a world class city and those who think the bike lane will open up and swallow the entire city into the bowels of the netherworld.  Apparently for some, the road to perdition is paved with good intentions and cycling icons.

So to my former co-worker Alan Tu (you didn’t think I’d stay off this blog forever, did you Alan?) I say only this: today Spruce Street and Pine Street, tomorrow we’re taking half of whatever bucolic suburban lane you live on up there in central Jersey!

See ya on the road!

Dan Pohlig is a former WHYY blogger who spent a disproportionate amount of his time concerned with bike and pedestrian planning issues.