Sometimes 140 Characters is not Enough

Recently I engaged Philadelphia Inquirer writer Inga Saffron in a discussion on Twitter regarding her concerns over a bill being considered by Philadelphia City Council(http://tinyurl.com/pq8qyjd). One that would consolidate several city departments under a single authority, possibly under the authority of the City Council. Which could create a patchwork effect for future projects.

As you can see from the Twitter exchange Ms. Saffron seems to be under the impression that Mayor Nutter’s administration bears some responsibility for the lack of new bike lanes since 2012. The dialogue reached a point where I felt that a 140 character sound bite was not going to communicate what I had to say.

https://twitter.com/IngaSaffron/status/572438262075293696

So let me be blunt, Mayor Nutter’s administration is not responsible for the lack of new bicycle lanes since 2012. That honor is bestowed upon the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Who in 2012 thought that giving City Council approval over the installation of future bike lanes that would replace parking or an existing lane of traffic in exchange for the Complete Streets Bill. This was the same deal that the BCGP fought against in 2011.

I don’t know what the BCGP was thinking when they made this deal. The City Council has history of trying to pass punitive bills against cyclists and to think that a City Council member would not use this option was delusional.

This point was driven home Council-Man at Large Bill Greenlee (http://tinyurl.com/kglwfwe) who declared that no bike lane would be installed on 22nd St, between Fairmont and Spring Garden. He claimed that the street needed two lanes of traffic, even though the Streets Department stated that two lanes would not fit. He also claimed that local constituents objected. But refused to allow a public hearing. The frightening thing about this is that a Council-Man at Large has no defined district. They are free to take action in district they chose, even though each district has its own councilman.

There are things I do blame the Nutter administration for. Their failure to deal with the police turning the bike lane at 13th & Arch into police parking. Even though there is public garage and a police parking lot available. Or their unwillingness to get religious institutions to stop using the Pine St. bike lane as on street parking. As most of them have arrangements for off street parking.

But at the end of the day the reason there have been no new bike lanes in Philadelphia since 2012 is because of the deal the BCGP made with City Council for the Safe Streets Bill. Not because of a failure on the part of the Nutter Administration.

If Ms. Saffron feels otherwise she can write something more than 140 characters long about how the Nutter Administration is partly or fully responsible for the lack of new bike lanes since 2012.

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2014 - A year in review

Social Rides

The social ride scene in Philadelphia still mystifies me. There are several rides now with consistent schedules; Take Your Time Bike Rides, Philly Bike Party, and the Philly Full Moon Bike Ride. The question seems to be whether the ridership is going to grow? Take the Baltimore Bike Party; its first ride had 50 riders and within a few months it had grown to hundreds and in some cases thousands of riders. While this many riders creates its own specific challenges, it still leaves me wondering why Philadelphia residents and college students seem to be uninterested in any type of social ride.

Velodrome - Just another 6000 seat stadium

One announcement that drew some attention was the intent to build a velodrome in Philadelphia. A world class indoor  facility that could be used by Olympic athletes. There are two slight problems. First the developers behind this project have to raise 100 million dollars and they have pledged to do this with any government funding. Second, they will make it a profitable business.

As much as I would love to have an all weather velodrome in the heart Philadelphia. Lets face it a velodrome is never going to be profitable. Fortunately the developers have a back up plan. The velodrome will also be able to function as a 6000 seat concert venue. So is this really a group of altruistic developers who want to build a world class velodrome? Or this this just an attempt to open another 6000 seat arena? I’m not betting on altruism.

Mayors Bicycle Advocacy Board - All racing all the time

Mayor Nutter in attempt make Philadelphia bicycle friendly city created a Bicycle Advisory Board. The BAB team’s job is to find ways to promote cycling within Philadelphia to residents and businesses. While promoting cycling to the residents and business owners of Philadelphia all very well and good, the backgrounds members of the board say other wise and is more focused on the other goal; Their other goal is “to create, market, and promote national and international cycling races in Philadelphia to attract the finest and most highly-rated bicycle riders to compete in our City, including supporting and raising funds for the annual Philly Bicycling Classic.”

Eleven of the board members of are involved in racing and three in advocacy. The final BAB member is the most questionable of the group, Lisa Nutter, Mayor Nutter’s wife. It appears nepotism abounds in forming the BAB team. 

Given the high ratio of BAB members involved with racing and the utter lack of people representing the average cyclist in Philadelphia its is clear that the BAB’s primary mission will be promoting racing. Anything beyond racing I’ll wait to see how effective they really will be.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia scores a trifecta
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia has had a year to be thankful for. The Safe Streets bill has become an albatross around their neck equal to the story of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This year the BCGP scored a trifecta.

1. Bicycle Lanes vs Bill Greenlee
Remember when the BCGP thought that giving the Philadelphia City Council final decision making authority for the installation of new bike lanes would not cause any problems? So did we. (http://tinyurl.com/o3q5ce2) It didn’t take long for Councilman At Large Bill Greenlee to decide that that would be no bike lane would be installed along 6 blocks of 22nd St. Why? Because he said so. And there is nothing that can be done to change this thanks to the BCGP’s agreement with the Philadelphia City Council.

2. #Unblockbikelanes = #QuestionableResults
Then there is the #unblockbikelanes. The idea was that people could tweet the Philadelphia Parking Authority cars that were parked in bike lanes. In return the PPA would step up ticketing of these vehicles. Unfortunately that has not be  en the case.

In the first quarter (http://tinyurl.com/njbns95) the PPA wrote close to same number of tickets on 2013 as in 2014. So the BCGP leaped into action and talked to the PPA and the number of tickets issued by 96% over 2013 in the second quarter (http://tinyurl.com/prddy25). Fortunately the PPA counterbalanced this offset by issuing 20% fewer tickets (http://tinyurl.com/qjrrywz) in the third quarter of 2014 compared to 2013. I expect the fourth quarter numbers to be equally dismal.

Some have even joked that the #unblockbikelanes is some sort of bizarre drinking game. This is yet another example the BCGP negotiating a deal that lacks any protection if either party fails to uphold the agreement.

3. Getting less bang for the buck 
The final element of the trifecta was the $100,000 (http://tinyurl.com/kkp6xa5) spent to create ten artistic bike racks of questionable value. Lets hope that in 2015 the BCGP will be willing to raise half that for ordinary bikes racks of real benefit.

I told you so

In more than one post I have taken issue with with the deal the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia made with the Philadelphia City Council for the Safe Streets Bill. Which gave the Philadelphia City Council final approval on all new bike lanes, if they affected parking or traffic lanes. I’m sure the BCGP tried to rationalize this decision by thinking that they would be able to find reasonable accommodation. In the event the City Council tried to use their new political tool.

Now it looks like that choice has come back to haunt them. In this case it involves extending  the 22nd St bike lane. As part of Philadelphia’s 2012 Bike/Pedestrian plan this stretch of road was to be redeveloped to include a bike lane. Currently a five block section of 22nd St between Spring Garden and Fairmount is being resurfaced and new lane markers will be put in.

But that it not going to happen and if you cut through all of the doublespeak in the BCGP’s blog post (http://tinyurl.com/ktbelz5) it all boils down to one thing. City Councilman Bill Greenlee claims that there is community opposition to the bike lane and thus the City Council will shut down any development of the 22nd St bike lane extension. The BCGP will need to demonstrate that there is overwhelming support for the bike lane from the residents and business owners along this five block stretch. Even then I remain skeptical as Bill Greenlee will merely call in enough favors to make the process as difficult as possible. As he is the architect of the bill that gave City Council control over all future bicycle lanes.

While the BCGP might be able to marshal its resources this time to overcome the resistance of the Philadelphia City Council. What about the next time? Bicycle lanes in Philadelphia was part of the BCGP’s long term goals. Once achieved, the BCGP negotiated final decision making out of the hands of trained professionals, including Traffic Engineers. Into the hands of irrational professional politicians, all in the name of the Safe Streets Bill. I cringe to think what the BCGP will do to complete “The Circuit”.

The BCGP says that this is “an unfortunate complication”. I believe that this will be the first of many unfortunate complications to come. How many more sacrifices will Philadelphia cyclists have to make at the expense of the BCGP’s long term goals?