Lets annoy Stu Bykofsky even more

An ancestor of Stu Bykofsky from a time when there were no bicycles

The Philadelphia Police Department is holding their annual traffic enforcement in Center City during June.  Focusing on specific areas in Center City, areas with high volumes of motor vehicle offenses. The campaign will be run until June 28th. The map below shows the locations where enforcement will be focused.

View Untitled in a larger map

The goal is to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes in Center City, increase motorist awareness through education and enforcement. There will be an increase in the number of citations given to motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians within the targeted zones.

This will also be a great way to truly annoy Stu Bykofsky. In 2009 Stu Bykofsky opinion writer and professional grumpy old man for the Philadelphia Daily News started writing anti-bicycle articles. According to Stu cyclists or as he likes to call them; bikeheads and pedalphiles.  They are all blatant lawbreakers who either ride on the sidewalks or run red lights and stop signs.  He says that this something every cyclist does, no exceptions and no amount of bike count data will convince him otherwise.

To make matters worse he also claims that because only 1.8% rides bikes three days a week so bike lanes are not needed and take away lanes for cars. What he leaves out is 1.8% of the population of Philadelphia is 27,856 cyclists per week. That doesn’t sound small. Now there is his latest claim, in 2011, 80 cyclists were ticketed and in 2012, the number rose to 88. By Stu’s logic he believes because large numbers of cyclists are not getting tickets there must be very few people riding bicycles. At no time does he even consider that cyclists are not the lawbreakers he thinks they are.

So how can you annoy you annoy Stu Bykofsky? Stay off the sidewalks unless you are walking your bicycle, don’t run stop signs, and wait for green lights. Lets see if we can get the number of tickets issued lower than 88 for 2013.

A Challenge to Stu Bykofsky

The true face of he who must not be named.

Finally spring has arrived in Philadelphia with a clear signal to all. It's not the first red robin or flower, nor is it the crack of the bat as the Phillies warm up for their first home game at Citizens Bank Park. No its a column from Stu Bykofsky columnist and professional grumpy old man for the Philadelphia Daily News about bicycles and bicycle lanes in Philadelphia.

While the specific nature of Mr. Bykofsky's column about the 10^th St. bicycle lane in Chinatown and the upcoming bill City Council members are trying to sneak through again is a separate blog post to be addressed at a later date. It's the vehemence and unsubstantiated opinion that he masquerades as fact Specifically his statement of;

I do have a problem with bicyclists who ignore the rules of the road to which they are subject as vehicles under Pennsylvania law. That means stay off the sidewalks, ride in the direction of traffic, full stops at stop signs and no blowing through red lights, the last two being things that nearly every pedalphile does.

It's not just the play on words of pedalphile, that's childish. It's his unproven and inflammatory statement how almost every cyclists does not stop at stop signs and run red lights. To which one can only say; ok Stu prove it. Provide a statically valid study which the results can be replicated. Or simply set a video camera on a tripod at a Philadelphia street corner that shows a high percentage of cyclists actively running red lights and stop signs within a given period of time. No editing and it must be stamped with a time code.

I'm sure Stu can convince some intern to do this, otherwise he should stick to yelling at clouds and telling small children to stay off his lawn.