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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Philadelphia's bike only lanes to open after Labor Day
Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 11:41 am - by Alan Tu. Filed under: Community.
KYW reports that Philadelphia’s bike-only lanes planned for Spruce and Pine streets should be operational in early September. The city’s Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler says this experiment will only work if both drivers and bikers cooperate.
This cooperation will take many forms, she says. For example, drivers turning right from Spruce onto a northbound street will have to cross the bicycle lane, and they will have to do so carefully to avoid hitting anyone on two wheels…We’re really going to need to educate folks that this is different than what they’re used to.”
I’m impressed that the city is really moving ahead with this. I hope the bike only lanes will have a traffic calming effect and make walking Society Hill more pleasant. I’d love to get the big buses off the streets but that’s just the opinion of someone who once rented an apartment at 5th and Spruce. My front window would rattle when a SEPTA bus went by.
Hey, does anyone think that the nearby like Lombard and Locust are going to be become more congested?
To go one step further, If these bike lanes become permanent could they actually increase the property values of homes along Pine and Spruce?
August 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I should be careful commenting on a bike-related site. Might lose my Harvard cred again
I think that stories about congestion in Center City are over played. I find it, on average, to be easy to get around by car or by bike. Lombard and Locust both move pretty quickly and as long as enforcement against double parking (especially of delivery vehicles) continues, then losing one lane each on Spruce and Pine won’t be all that big a deal.
Heck, I remember making it from the WHYY offices to 17th and Locust (the Warwick Hotel) in 8 minutes by car at rush hour. Couldn’t be that congested, right?
Alan, I sympathize with your bus experience. I’m praying for some stimulus money to come along and turn the Route 23 back into the nation’s longest streetcar line so that the bus that passes right by my house every 10 minutes gets replaced by the nice quiet clang, clang, clang of the trolley.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Dan…You bring up my biggest complaint about city driving. Double Parking. When did it become OK to stop in the middle of a traffic lane? This probably creates the most dangerous conditions for everyone. Why don’t they say “No double parking” on streets with dedicated bike lanes.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I’m a cyclist, but I drive in town, too, and I am a doubting Thomas when it comes to this plan. Until such time as the # of cars driving through Center City is reduced, I fail to see how this will not increase traffic along Locust, Lombard and South. Society Hill might become more pleasant, but will it be at the cost of Lombard and South streets’ becoming less pleasant? (Apologies for being so negative…)
August 10th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I believe this is long over due. As a former bicycle courier and current cycle commuter, I would call the cities previous attempts at making Philadelphia more bike friendly ineffective. Marking the right hand lane of Chestnut St. as a bike/ bus lane has done nothing to make it more bike friendly. It is still one of the most dangerous streets to ride a bike on in the city.l would love to see this city follow cities like Montreal and NYC and make protected lanes separated by a curb. Drivers will still cut off cyclists when turning across the lanes, but at least it will keep out the double parkers and protect riders until they reach the interesctions.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I live on Pine in Society Hill, and I think it’s a bad idea. The chance of finding a parking spot on my block (or any neighboring block) is almost nil, so double-parking is a necessity for loading and unloading everything from passengers to groceries to furniture.
I also think it’s wishful thinking by bikers to imagine that, because the lane is marked, they will be safe. Philly drivers don’t follow the obvious rules, like red lights. Many don’t have licenses. What makes you think that they won’t turn right through the bike lane and take you out? May your self-righteousness protect you.
(I should add, I don’t own a car or a bike.)
August 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
SoHill-
Your comment makes no sense to me.
Parking will get no worse - double parking is already illegal. If this makes no difference to car owners now, why would this ‘necessity’ be any different in September?
Also, I think you would be hard pressed to find any cyclist (’self-righteous’ or not) who thinks that painted lines will fully protect them. This is a straw man argument.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
That comment about Pine and Spruce property values is overly optimistic. I am glad to see that the Society Hill folk who are concerned about people who “bike” to work (to echo the Society Hill newsletter), are not going to succeed in standing in the way of this development. But, as SoHill states that positive attitude is just not shared, at least in the Society Hill portion of Pine and Spruce.
And it’s a shame. When I read about the bike lanes I was really excited to see it! Maybe I will finally start biking in the city since the lanes go right by my apartment. Sure, drivers may still ignore bikers, but it’ll be harder to now. I think it will actually help drivers–I drive infrequently and still get nervous around bikers, are they in the lane? out of the lane? I don’t know! This will make it very clear.
Bike lanes in other parts of the city have had mixed success, but this appears to be an actual, full, lane not just a slice of the side of the road. Looking forward to testing it out.
August 13th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
CC - With only one car lane, double-parking stops all traffic on the street. That’s a little different than blocking one of two lanes. I suppose if we can park in the bike lane, then I have less objection. The fact that double-parking is technically illegal doesn’t influence many people, including the police. Whatever the law says, the rule is that it’s ok for loading, as long as you aren’t disrupting traffic too much. Don’t forget your hazard lights.
Using 50% of the road for a few bikers is a poor allocation of resources. There is far more demand for car lanes than bike lanes. If it started to look like those old films of Chinese cities, as crowded with bikes as our streets are now crowded with cars, it would make sense. But that is wishful thinking; no American city has that many bikes; in fact, China doesn’t even look like that any more.
Erika - It’s great that you are excited and I hope you enjoy it. But why should the city cater to your hobby? The day I see a traffic jam of bikes on Pine, I’ll call it more than a hobby.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
SoHill - City Planning and changing societal behavior is a LONG term goal. It requires vision. If you want people to leave their car at home and bike to work, you have to make it appealing and safe. Imagine this future for your street: Many bikes, few cars: a nice parking spot in FRONT of your house. Get the picture? Peace.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Philadelphia is not Beijing, no matter how much some people want to make it that way. Turning an already chaotic/congested traffic area into a worse one is typical backwards Philadelphia policy. Pine and Spruce were bad before and now will be worse. Its beyond obvious. Long-term planning? How about helping to increase productivity and attracting commerce/business rather than wasting money on catering to the bicycling population? Trucks carry goods. Buses carry many people. Cars are a faster and (often) more efficient way to conduct BUSINESS. I love cycling but it is not (for many people) a substitute for driving, and trying to ‘force’ behaviors like this is unrealistic.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
i would love to see the traffic study the city commisioned. What do they plan to do about the amount of car traffic still using pine and spruce streets? ARE they REDIRECTING IT? Pine street and spruce are extremely congested streets during rush hour and at night in ritt square and society hill. weekends have not been a picnic either. They are now backed up with traffic jams with NOW twice as many cars using one lane. it takes twice as long with the same hundreds of cars now down to one lane, and a full lane dedicated to maybe 50 bicyclists a day. did anyone in the mayors office do a traffic study? did they forget the south st bridge is closed? is something now making sense here? are we trying to tie up center city traffic, because that is what is happening. where is the plan deputy mayor for all the cars using these streets daily that are now jamming the streets?? did you even commission a traffic study before you just closed your eyes and plopped your fingers down on these two streets??
did you even get feedback from residents or look at how much you would impact traffic congestion in center city? what about those of us who live on these streets? we can’t double park now to unload or discharge passengers, let alone groceries? how about moving vans, fedex, ups, and the post office? what is your plan for them since there are never open parking spaces on our streets not in society hill or rittenhouse square. bike lanes on streets with no open parking? what about the churches and temples on these streets that used to allow parking in what is now the bike lane. Can people not park and go to services on sunday morning because of the bike lanes? you made these streets. into one lane car usage… it’s not practical without rerouting the cars. these are residential streets where people LIVE… NOt Business only/commercial streets. it’s a half done, half baked plan and not well thought out. what was this a whim? perhaps center city street bike lanes are not the answer. AS TAXPAYERs AND PROPERTY OWNERs, the neighborhood is not enhanced when we hear traffic idylling outside of our living room windows and we live at the other end of the traffic light. in other words, on the weekend, the traffic is a backed up by a full block from the redlight. in short, these are not the streets without making other adjustments to traffic flow and parking.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:58 am
Hahahahaha “Pine Street Resident” is such an idiot. I am a pine street resident as well. I am also a cyclist. I pass 5-10 bikes each morning in the bike lane on my way to work down pine and even more than that on my way back home up spruce. It only takes me 10 minutes to get to work. Multiply that by the hours in the day and you have WAY more than 50 bikes using this lane. And, by the way, people still park there on a Sunday and Fed-Ex, UPS, ANY delivery truck, a taxi cab, a septa bus, a stopped car, a car with flashers on, a car without flashers on, a car picking up or dropping someone off ALL pull over there an sit there for as long as they like with no regard to bikes. Someone going to slowly in front of you, NO PROBLEM! Just cut them off by using the “bike lane”. (no need to check for bikes- there’s only about 50 of us a day, right?) You all make me laugh. You should think about reducing the amount of cars on the road, not how we can make it easier for cars to be on the road. AND SHARE THE ROAD. It’s our road too and we have legal right to full use of the lane. (both of them now).