An interview with the Philly Bike Party

Recently I wrote a post about the Philly Bike Party. Modeled after the San Jose Bike Party this a social ride about bikes and boom boxes. A night ride through Philadelphia with stops for dancing. Recently the creators of the Philly Bike Party, Steph and Karenina, were kind enough to answer some questions.

What inspired you to start holding Bike Parties in Philadelphia?

Steph and I met while working to organize Philly Naked Bike Ride 2011. We were both deeply impressed by the fact such a huge-seeming venture was really just a hand full of people who created a movement by simply putting up a website and using their own money to design and print some posters. It did, of course, take more than that to make it as well-oiled and fantastic as it is, but we saw first hand that it was possible.  During the Naked Bike Ride I could not get over how much fun I was having. I remarked out loud to no one in particular, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we could do this all the time?" and a girl on her bike responded, "Check out Bike Party!". I went home, read about San Jose's movement, , and fell instantly in love. At the PNBR wrap-up meeting I proposed the idea to Steph, and Philly Bike Party was officially born.

Did you work with the San Jose Bike Party to help create the Philly Bike Party and if yes what were some of the most important things you learned?

I emailed them to ask them for tips and the funniest part was how excited they were about it! It was this group of people who had been putting so much hard work and love into something they cared about for so long and suddenly someone 3,000 miles a way wanted to replicate it. They were bowled over by the possibility of making Bike Party coast to coast. Ultimately what we learned was:
a) Bike Party is very much an organic project - it's all about how much people want to do
b) it's totally place specific
c) you can't really teach someone how to do something until they try it out on their own.

At first they gave us all these details about how they organize their volunteers - and so far Steph and I are really the only regular ones! We have a few great people who have been able to chip in here and there, but so far it's mostly just the two of us handling the load. Since this is only the 2nd ride we're hoping that as popularity grows, so will support, but hey, if people don't want to help then they probably have more important things to do with their time, and most things in life should only happen if people want them to.

Do you have any themes you plan to incorporate into future rides?

For now we're sticking to more general themes. There are already so many rides that involve extra-special creativity (Tweed, Kinetic Sculpture Derby, even PNBR is starting to feature a lot of artistic expression) that we wanted to pare it down so that people didn't feel like they had to anything more than show up to have a good time. So, the first ride's theme was "Bike Party" because it was the first. This time it's Winter Edition/Feel the Love - it's cold out, so wear a jacket and come show Philly some love! But none of these require costumes. Personally, we like being able to dance in a our jeans and sneaks without being concerned about having enough paper mache or glitter.

What have you learned about planning Bike Parties since you first started?

1. Setting up a website is harder than we thought it would be, but Karenina has had a lot of fun learning how to do it!
2. We need a better speaker system and it needs to be well prepared in advance. We're still working on that so if anyone knows anything about hooking up a PA speaker to a car battery, we would love you forever!
3. Stay longer at each dancing spot - we were kind of anxious the first time and would only stay for a song or 2 at each spot so we finished in less than 2 hours. This time we'll have about 8 dancing spots and we'll be staying for 4 or 5 songs at each spot. :)
4. People who love bike and dancing will be there and they will love it, and it will be great.

How do you handle crowd control and littering?

Well, the only issue we had at the first ride was a drunk guy on roller-blades who thought it was fun to annoy cars by getting in front of them. That is NOT what we're about, so we're working on having "corrallers", to keep people in the corral aka the bike lanes. Littering hasn't been a problem yet!

If someone wants to get involved in planning rides how can they do that?

Please contact us!! karenina@phillybikeparty.org, steph@phillybikeparty.org. We could use help with: encouraging riders to stay in the bike lanes by riding on the outside of the column, hooking up speaker systems,

What do you do when you are not planning Bike Parties?

Haha I'm blushing - you're making me feel like a celebrity!
Steph is in her 3rd year of undergrad at Temple doing a double major in criminal justice and film/media arts. She also works 3 jobs: Dean's Office at Tyler School of Art, CVS, and the Print studio at Tyler. She also does a lot of work with the Temple section of Occupied Philly, volunteers for Alley Cats, helps with Philly Naked Bike Ride, helped organize the reprise of Critical Mass Philadelphia, and helps out with various projects at Neighborhood Bike Works.

Karenina is a law student at Temple, which eats most of her life. She also does all sorts of volunteering around the city for disadvantaged people including: case management and Spanish translation for Volunteers for the Indigent Program - a pro-bono legal org, fund raising for the Student Public Interest Program at Temple, volunteer recruitment for the local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program run by the Campaign for Working Families, and is currently doing an internship at the City Law Department of Philadelphia. She is also a principal organizer for the Philly Naked Bike Ride and is involved with the Safe Streets Philadelphia efforts through the Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition.
Oh for fun? Hmm for fun....when we can we each sleep, we each ride bikes, we each try to see our friends when we can, and Karenina plays a lot of video games to calm her tired brain.

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Philly Bike Party

In  “Where is Philadelphia's Bike Culture?”, I asked what kind of alternative was there to bicycle clubs and century rides. Where were the rides that were fun and social? There are some annual events that meet these criteria and have become part of Philadelphia's bike culture. Including The Bilenky Cyclocross, The Philly Tweed Ride, and Cranksgiving Philadelphia.

Now there is a new addition, a group planning monthly social rides, The Philly Bike Party (Facebook Page). Modeled after the San Jose Bike Party in California. These rides involve cyclists meeting at a predetermined location, following a route and making stops along the way to socialize, and enjoy music provided by audio systems transported by bicycle. Often with a theme to encourage participants to dress up.

The Philly Bike Party has been holding social rides since November 2011 and with warmer weather rapidly approaching I believe that the size of the rides will grow. I hope that the creativity and organization of the San Jose Bike Party will inspire these newcomers to create unique and exciting rides.

Stopping in the name of brotherly love

Whether I am walking, driving, or bicycling in Philadelphia it never ceases to amaze me how a minority of cyclists think that red lights and stop signs don't apply to them. Or worse yet how they believe that they will be the only one who will get hurt in the event a car hits them. Well its time that all of you learned that you are WRONG!

What these cyclists don't understand that when you run a red light and cross directly in front of a car you may force that driver to slam on their brakes, which may cause the drivers behind them to rear end that car. This point was made abundantly clear in Portland, Oregon on December 6, 2011 when a bicyclist ran a red light in front of a city public bus (Trimet), causing the driver to slam on the brakes and throwing passengers around the bus. You can see the video of what happened to the passengers by watching this video.

Unfortunately this was not the end of it, while one would have assumed that the passengers might have suffered some bumps and bruises, maybe a broken bone. For one passenger, William Coston this did not end well. When this article was published Mr. Coston had spent two weeks in intensive care, first in a trauma unit and then in a cardiac care unit. It was not known if he had insurance and Trimet's insurance did not cover his medical care since there was no negligence on their part. Given that the cost of intensive care starts at $100,000 a day, not including any surgery and tests may need to be done done. Mr. Coston may be facing a lifetime of debt because of the arrogance of cyclist.

Ladies and Gentlemen the next time you decide to run a red light, day or night, you may be putting other people at risk and you won't know until it happens. When you are riding your bicycle for pleasure or transportation you are not in the Tour de France. There is no yellow jersey if you get to your destination a little faster than the last time. Save that for your next Cat 6 race.

Philadelphia Bicycle Lanes 2012

When is a bike lane a not a bike lane........wait for it......when it's in Philadelphia.

In past columns I've addressed the problem that cyclists face in Philadelphia. Bicycle lanes are treated as parking spaces, loading zones, and lanes of travel for cars. This problem is not unique to Philadelphia, but so far most of the attempts to address this problem are nothing more than venting. That does nothing to shame or change the behavior of drivers. These include My Bike Lane, new addition BKME, and a website run by a tattoo shop whose storefront faces a bike lane. While all this allows cyclists to vent it does nothing to change the driver’s behavior.

One of the most egregious and ongoing problems is the parking permits that are issued by the Beth Zion-Beth Israel Synagogue at 300 South 18th Street  and the Tenth Presbyterian Church at 1701 Delancey Street . These permits make it appear that people attending services can legally park in the bicycle lanes, when in reality they can't. So how did this happen?

This is courtesy of Charles Carmalt, Pedestrian & Bicycle Coordinator, Office of Transportation & Utilities of the City of Philadelphia. Who in a letter (Scroll down to see it) to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia stated; During that period, my personal observations and my discussions with representatives of churches and synagogues made me realize that the issue was more complex than just allowing people to park for an hour or two on Sunday mornings. Services on religious holidays can create unexpected parking during the week.  Several Center City religious institutions generate a substantial amount of revenue from weddings, which are usually held on Saturday afternoons at churches and on Sunday afternoons at synagogues.  As a result, parking , including parking of limousines, will frequently occur in the afternoon.

Mr. Carmalt has opened a Pandora's box with this decision. By this logic any number of businesses, especially restaurants, could claim that they to need to use bicycle lanes for their customers because of the revenue they generate. No business or institution should be able to use bicycle lanes free of charge, when the parking is for revenue generation. Philadelphia is full of private and publicly operated parking lots that can accommodate these needs. Sharing the roads does not mean taking advantage of a loophole to fatten ones wallet.

So what steps are being taken to resolve this?

Recently a Facebook page has been created, The Philadelphia Bicycle Advocates, and plans to take on this issue with Mayor Nutter on Monday, January 23, 2012.

What would I do?

Any kind of counter protest will make cyclist appear as unreasonable towards religious institutions that only need a little extra parking one day a week. The religious institutions will parade elderly members who will need access to convenient parking.

The only viable solution will be to get some concessions from the Mayor’s office. Like extending the closure of River Dr. on Sunday mornings from 6am to 12:00pm to the full day for the entire length. As well as stepped  upped enforcement and ticketing of those people who park in the bicycle lanes the rest of the week.

Montgomery County closes parks and trails??

Recently Montgomery County has announced that it may have to take drastic measures to close its budget. By closing all of the parks and trails this will include maintenance and law enforcement needed to keep these facilities operational. At a meeting on December 7 over 50 people spoke in opposition of this measure and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia expressed the views of 1500 people who sent e-mails to the Montgomery County Commissioners.

The implications of this are very serious, park employees will lose their jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial grants will be at risk. If this does happen the parks and trails will be subject to vandalism, crime, litter, and overgrown with vegetation. These spaces are used by hundreds of thousands people every year and generate millions of dollars for businesses along the trail.

So what would I do?

While I do not have a solution for the budgetary issues that Montgomery County faces, I do have a challenge for the 1500 people who sent e-mails through BCGP, the over 50 people who spoke at the meeting, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and all of the bicycling clubs through out the region. It's time for their actions to speak louder than their words.

I challenge bicycle clubs and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia to commit one day of service to provide needed maintenance along the Schuylkill River Trail, Perkiomen Trail or one of the parks in Montgomery County in the Spring of 2012. Since these places are important and bicycle clubs have benefited them, then it is time to give back. You can find more information about volunteer opportunities by using this LINK.

Parks departments have a list of things they would like to do that go beyond what can be normally handled by the park employees. Over the years I have volunteered with various groups to help clear brush, clean out illegal dump sites, and remove litter from heavily used locations.

So which groups are going to step up and commit to a date this spring?  Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Bicycle Club of Philadelphia, Suburban Cyclists Unlimited, Quaker City Wheelmen, and Sturdy Girls Cycling. Five days of service would accomplish lot.