tom cotter

The experimental bike lanes installed on Spruce and Pine streets got preliminary approval for permanent installation. Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler was pleased with how well the two month experiment went. She will present her findings to the mayor. He wants the lanes as part of his Green Intiative, so barring something unforeseen the lanes look to be a done deal.

In typical government fashion, Cutler, a career bureaucrat and cast off from Penndot, was long on praise and short on facts to support the success of the bike lanes. Which is why, if you want something done you give it to the Cutler's of the world. They will find a way.

Rina pointed out that the city's goal of reducing motor vehicle traffic on these streets was achieved without saying where that traffic went. Being that the number of cars, trucks, and buses plying city streets hasn't been reduced, safe to say it's gone someplace else. The cyclist gain is someone elses loss. Most likely those living Lombard and South Streets.

Not everyone in these neighborhoods is jumping for joy over this. Society Hill was lined up against the lane with some residents calling them a poor use of resources. And there is still an active contingent of cyclist pestering residents about blocking the bike lanes, which, by the way, is legal while loading or unloading, picking up or dropping off.

Rina was so busy patting herself on the back at delivering on of the mayor's babys she said the city would now start to look for additional east-west streets to add more lanes. Hmm, where is that traffic going to go?

Actually, the addition of north-south lanes might make sense. Problem is the distance involved.

Where i stand on the bike lanes:

I wouldn't dare stand in a bike lane!:lol

Seriously, i was for the lanes until I read about how the cyclist were treating the residents. I realize that the residents were breaking the law by blocking a bike lane, but you just don't do that. These people live here, the cyclist otoh are transient. You don't mistreat the people who live in the neighborhood. That's just wrong!

I believe that the cyclist, who could have shot themselves in the foot here by way of their bad behavior got lucky. The mayor really wants this to work. Thus the installation of a C level manager to get it done. He needed someone who would push it through and not make a career project out of it. A more competent manager might have subjected the project to a more strenuous review.

The lanes are in and will stay once the streets are repaved next year. It is my hope that the cyclist and residents will come to a place of mutual respect. One traffic patterns fully adjust, the neighborhoods will benefit from less traffic making them a more pleasant place to live.

Ngchen

Where was this article originally published? It seems like a classic, car-centric rant from regressive groups in society.

tom cotter

The info on the lane approval was obtained from KYW news radio. The info on Cutler was taken from various sources on the net.

Car-centric would describe the situation in Philly. The groups are hardly regressive. They are only non cyclist.

DX-MAN

Just my opinion, FTR, that non-cyclists are pretty regressive. As well as revisionist.

Mostly, though, just selfish. Little. Turds.

TuckertonRR

Not necessarily... read Jane Jacobs' "the death and life of great american cities". in it she discusses the fact that about 20% of traffic disappears when a street is closed.

The Human Car

There is a lot wrong with the op. First off in the world of motoring as transportation there is one universal constant: the right to go fast, with lots of traffic everywhere except in front of my house. In all fairness that should be the lack of speed and traffic in front of every ones house which is one of the aspects that is changing in recent years through complete streets and traffic calming. In short it is becoming an increasingly a local issue to remove traffic rather then us forcing other people to be less pro-car.

In getting people to eat healthy there is no requirement to prove where does all the unhealthy food go, likewise with traffic you don't have to prove where it does go. In fact closing some roads may improve the general traffic flow according to Braess's paradox So removing alternate routes is not always a bad thing.

Lastly a bad or poorly implemented bike facility does not equal cyclists treating local residents poorly. What gets implemented is at the discretion of planning (and possibly the backing of the Mayor.) While in all things some people win and some people lose generally compromises exist so only a few lose a little bit, That is one of the essences of good government...finding the solution that makes more people happy and only few upset. I also find it fairly ironic that expressways can go in displacing thousands of people but when a few lose their front door parking space for a bike lane that is something to get really upset about.

Anyway I hope one day most people will realize streets are for people and be more cooperative in tolerating a variety of uses, wither it's bike lanes or loading/unloading along side of the road, there is a way to do this so all can be accommodated antiquity.

bizzz111

**********? The only thing worse than no bikes lanes at all are bike lanes where it's legal for cars to block the lane. I would think residents would love to have their own parking lane and to have less traffic going up and down their street.

Digital_Cowboy

Here's a question for those who actually live in the affected areas. When it was discussed that the lanes would be going in, and then when they were put in and signed (I presume that they were signed) was anything said about how long residents could "stand" while loading/unloading their cars/pick-ups/SUVs?

tom cotter

The lanes were installed with the caveat that residents could use the lanes as a temporary loading and unloading area. I haven't seen an actual time limit in print. The friction takes place by abuse on both sides. There is wrong on both sides of the issue. Some residents and businesses put vehicles in the lanes for what could be considered longer than necessary to load or unload. Some cyclist OTOH get very abusive with the residents, verbally and by posting pix of license plates on the web. However, IMO, the cyclist need to be more flexible. Let the neighborhood adjust to the new reality. If it becomes a chronic problem with chronic abusers then take it to law enforcement.

Ajenkins

And how do you know this? You don't live in the city, you don't commute to/from the city, so clearly you don't frequently ride in the city. Were you told this? By whom? Or did you get this information from a news source? Which one?

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ngchen

And the reason is why? If I see a car stopped in the bike lane for loading/unloading, I simply pass it when safe.

mondaycurse

+ infinity. It's not rocket science.

tom cotter

For those not bright enough to find this on their own:

https://philly.mybikelane,com/

By the way, please post a link to your birth annoucement. Links, or it didn't happen.

tom cotter

ops, try this:

https://philly.mybikelane.com/

Wogster

Part of the bike lane problem, too many cyclists put up with it. If we started to all contact the police every time we saw a car parked in a bike lane, then the police would get tired of it and would likely start a tag/tow program. An officer here in Toronto found himself with a problem when he stopped for a donut and left his cruiser in the bike lane, someone snapped a photo and sent it to the newspaper, got the front page, embarrassed the heck out of police brass. You can bet officers were told the following day to stay out of bike lanes with cruisers.

mexipat

My gf lives in Phila so I"m there every month. She lives several blocks from the two streets that have the whole lane. We both ride bikes and both believe this is a bad idea and a waste of resources. There simply aren't enough bike riders to justify half of two streets in a busy area of town.