Mirror, mirror, on the wall

Fairfield Inn at 261 S. 13th has been using the bicycle lane on 13th St

as part of its valet parking after construction in the area allowed it to

reopen. Unfortunately this practice forced cyclists into the streets on a

regular basis. Whatever discussions that occurred with the Fairfield

and ParkOps valet were fruitless and calling them out on public media

was pointless.

But then there came a paradigm shift in the form of Stuart Leon,

Bicycle Attorney. In the form of a court order requiring Fairfield Inn and

ParkOps valet to stay out of the bike lane. There were those who felt

the following pictures were bad optics. Handing a court order to a hourly

employee. Court orders should be served to company management,

but also to those employees who are most likely to be implement it.

You know what is bad optics? Cyclists getting injured or killed because of

blocked bike lanes. Especially in light of this;

Do you know does not work? Public shaming through social media

and in person protests. They depend on on a sense of responsibility on

the part business owners and if they have none nothing will change.

It won’t matter how many tickets customers or suppliers get or

how professionally anyone advocates for change. Unless there is a

direct impact to a company's profit margin, nothing will change.

What has to change are toothless statements on the part of the

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and its representatives.

For far too many years we have seen attempts by the BCGP to educate

and work the system from the inside. The results of which have led to

greater difficulty in getting new bike lanes installed, faded bike lanes

repainted, and safety issues unaddressed.

That change will come in the form of court orders, when and where

they can be applied. I hope that what Stuart Leon achieved becomes the first of many.

Change is hard, excuses are easy.

On Saturday, March 17 the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia held a
Vision Zero Conference and I did not attend. I chose not to sit through yet
another conference listening to experts and activists talk about what should
be and could be. Or worse yet, politicians making empty promises or
excuses for why they have failed to take any action.

I was truly angry and frustrated with this paraphrased statement attributed to
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Change is hard, making excuses is easy and Mayor Kenney has really good one above.
When Kenney ran for the office he made two commitments that I was very impressed by,
“Stolen Sidewalks” and 30 miles of protected bike lanes.

In Philadelphia when buildings are being constructed or renovated the sidewalks are
often blocked off to pedestrian traffic with no safe alternative. For decades in
New York City this issue has been dealt with the creation of “sheds” scaffolding
running the length of the sidewalk with a roof on it to prevent construction debris
from falling on pedestrians. As part of Kenney’s campaign he committed to ending the
practice of stolen sidewalks. Two years later nothing has changed.

Kenney’s other campaign commitment was to build 30 miles of protected bike
lanes during his four year term. So far we only have two miles, along with multiple
attempts to install unprotected bike lanes shut down due to Councilmanic claims of
“neighborhood concerns”. Kenney’s announcement of two five block long protected
bike lanes along JFK Blvd. and Market St. should have been greeted with derisive
response of “this is the best you have to offer after two years??!!”

It does not matter how many posts on social media Mayor Kenney reads, his apology
for not making change as fast has have we wanted was misleading. Mayor Kenney
has deliberately withheld several million dollars in grants to improve bike lane safety,
claiming the money does not exist. He should be apologizing for deliberately refusing
to make changes, making him complicit.