Neighbors of Pine and Spruce streets file lawsuit to block Philadelphia’s new bicycle lane rules

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A group of Center City residents filed a lawsuit this week seeking to halt plans to add concrete barriers along bike lanes and eliminate permit parking on parts of Spruce and Pine streets to make room for new loading zones.

On June 2, the group Friends of Pine and Spruce sued Philadelphia officials, hoping to stop the city from installing signs designating new neighborhood loading zones, which would remove about 30% of residential parking.

The zones are meant to give residents and visitors a legal option to stop along Spruce and Pine streets while not blocking the bicycle lane or halting the flow of traffic. Signs are being installed for the next two weeks starting today.

That’s because there’s a new law that prohibits all vehicles from stopping in bicycle lanes across the city. The Philadelphia Parking Authority will begin enforcement June 19.

For the first two weeks, any idling vehicles in bicycle lanes will be issued warnings.

After that, violators are subject to $125 fines in Center City and University City. In other neighborhoods, the fine for vehicles idling in bicycle lanes drops to $75 per violation.

Attorneys for Friends of Pine and Spruce contend that the city’s transportation department overstepped its authority in creating new loading zones and eliminating permit parking, arguing that the residential parking program was an ordinance created by City Council asserting that any alterations must be made through legislation, not administrative action.

“If the city really wants to enact this new scheme, they have to go back to City Council. They can’t do it administratively,” said George Bochetto, attorney with Bochetto & Lentz, P.C., who lives on Spruce Street and is representing Friends of Pine and Spruce. “This is an easy challenge to a wrong-headed city regulation action.”

Bochetto said he expects more lawsuits to come soon.

“I believe the city’s plan is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, because how does a disabled person get sent to the end of the block, which could be blocked off anyway because an Amazon truck is in the neighborhood loading zone?” he said.

A representative for the city did not respond to an interview request by WHYY News for this story.

But the city disputed that the loading zones require a City Council ordinance during a public hearing, asserting that the transportation department has been managing streets, including loading zones and permit parking, for decades.

“The department does not foresee undue congestion of contractor and delivery vehicles as a result of the regulation change,” according to a Philadelphia Department of Streets public hearing summary included in the lawsuit. “Instead, the changes alleviate those prospects.”

But Bochetto worries about congestion, emergency vehicle access, contractors, disabled individuals and many more potential issues, including trash pickup.

“It’s not that cars occasionally pull over and unload or load in the bike zones that creates danger to bicyclists. What creates danger is vehicular speed. And these regulations aren’t going to change that,” Bochetto said. “Speed bumps should be installed. That would slow vehicular traffic down to 15 or 20 miles an hour. It would be far better in the interest of bicyclist safety.”

There are several sections along Spruce Street which may get speed bumps, near 18th Street, 11th Street and 22nd Street, according to the city’s traffic-calming request map. The stretch along Spruce Street between 13th and Broad streets was decided to not need speed bumps, the map shows.

For years, residents along those streets were permitted to temporarily idle in the street to load and unload items in front of their homes as a compromise for losing permit parking to a bicycle lane on a one-way street.

But last year, a bicyclist died on the 1800 block of Spruce Street after being struck by a reckless drunk driver. That prompted months of protests and rallies to demand more bicycle safety protections from the city along designated bike routes.

The bicycle lanes on Pine and Spruce streets have painted lines and flexible posts for the stretch between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers — but would receive permanent concrete barriers under Mayor Cherelle Parker’s budget.

“All these measures — the no-stopping zone, the removal of permitted parking and everything — are all precedents to the ultimate goal of the bicyclist lobby, which is to have concrete barriers installed on Pine and Spruce streets,” Bochetto said. “And that will be a disaster.”

The city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems held community meetings to discuss the pilot program and other bicycle safety improvements, including an open house with nearly 400 attendees last October. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission used cameras to monitor which hours of the day were most in need for loading zones.

Since January, the city has hosted monthly working group meetings with neighborhood organizations such as the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Center City Residents Association, Families for Safe Streets, Friends of Pine and Spruce, Philly Bike Action!, Society Hill Civic Association and Washington Square West Civic Association.

The next phase of the project includes traffic safety improvements like concrete barriers, as well as education and enforcement of the new rules. The city expects to release a report later this summer with the recommendations.

“This addresses the need for resident motorists, ride-hailing services, and delivery vehicles to make short-term pick-ups and drop-offs, which formerly may have taken place in the designated bike lanes,” said Mike Carroll, deputy managing director of transportation and infrastructure for the city, in a recent news release. “We feel this balances long-standing concerns over safety while doing our best to accommodate loading activity.”

Bicycle advocates argue that riders need more protection from motorists on the road.

“There are worse places to ride a bike in Philadelphia, but it’s a very unorganized, chaotic experience where there’s cars moving in and out of the [bicycle] lane,” said Jacob Russell, a Philly Bike Action! organizer.

Bochetto and Russell are neighbors on Spruce Street. Russell is both a bicyclist and driver who says it’s an “extremely rare luxury” to be able to stop in front of your home in the middle of a city with a car to load or unload.

He’s not opposed to speed bumps, but said it shouldn’t be the only option on the table.

“Until there’s a physical barrier separating the bike lane from the road, people are still going to use the bike lane for loading and unloading, regardless if there’s another loading zone on the other side of the street,” Russell said. “If this lawsuit is successful, all it’s going to do is deprive residents of a legal place to stop and load or unload along Spruce and Pine. I would like a place to be able to stop and legally unload my vehicle without endangering everyone on the road.”