Philly bike advocates gather at Fairmount Park to remember fallen rider, call for safer streets

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To honor the life of a Philadelphian bike rider killed while riding in Fairmount Park earlier this year, a local group held a picnic near the site to call attention to speeding vehicles near bike lanes.

Philly Bike Action organized Sunday’s gathering. With bikes parked on trees, nearly a dozen cycling advocates and a rallying Elmo called attention to rider safety. They pointed speed radar guns at passing cars along Belmont Avenue near States Drive.

A tribute to Harry Fenton, a local bicyclist and advocate, was posted at the picnic after he was killed in early September while riding his bike through the park at the intersection of Belmont Avenue and the Avenue of the Republic. Since his passing, more than 1,000 people have signed a petition advocating for safer conditions at Fairmount Park.

“The culture of driving in the city is people just speed and drive recklessly — and it was a reckless driver, of course, who killed Harry,” organizer Caleb Holtmeyer said. “But more importantly, is the design that allows that to happen.”

Holtmeyer said riders often use the park as a shortcut to avoid the four-lane freeway next to it, and added he believes the road shouldn’t be for driving, but for people and recreation.

“We should never have streets designed, especially in a park, where people can achieve speeds of 50, 60, 70 miles an hour … and kill people,” Holtmeyer said. “This is definitely a problem of this road being too wide and too straight. There’s nothing to slow anybody down.”

At least 41 people have been killed in car crashes in or near the popular park, according to data collected by Philly Bike Action. Suzanne Hagner, a member of Families for Safe Streets, said it’s heartbreaking when families lose a loved one, but Sunday’s event showed there is strength in community when working toward the same goal.

“We have younger people who ride bikes,” Hagner said. “They have children, and the children are out at 2 years old on balance bikes. They’re going to be kids who are riding big bikes soon. We have to make our streets safer.”

Calls to improve safety for pedestrians and bikers have been longstanding in Philadelphia. But there has been a renewed effort for safer streets following Fenton’s death and the death of CHOP doctor Barbara Friedes, after she was fatally struck by a speeding drunk driver in Center City last year.

The city of Philadelphia has set aside $5 million for Vision Zero, an initiative aiming to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030 through safer street designs and traffic-calming measures.

Last month, PennDOT began a repaving project that will create a new bike lane encircling City Hall. The new lane will be marked with a green pavement coating and separated from traffic with flexible plastic posts.