Where have all the good times gone?

Recently the organizers of the Philadelphia Tweed Ride posted to Facebook that they are unable to plan this years ride and are looking of volunteers to take over. The Philadelphia Tweed ride brings out a collection of the dressiest cyclists in Philadelphia dressed in vintage looking clothing and bicycles. How often can you find a social ride where at the rest stop activities include playing croquet and badminton. As one of the few rides in Philadelphia that does not make a political statement, raise funds, sell anything, or involves a cycling club. I can only hope that the Philadelphia Tweed Ride does not fade away.

In the summer of 2011 the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia held two Bike-In movies on the rooftop of Whole Foods. They showed bicycle film classics “Breaking Away” and “Quicksilver”, each time drawing over 100 people who came and went by bicycle. But this year, nothing. This year they could have done a retrospective, comparing and contrasting “The Bicycle Thief” and Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure”. Instead the BCGP dropped the ball on yet another innovative idea that could have been used to build a community amongst Philadelphia based cyclists, as opposed to focusing on wealthy donors in the suburbs.

Yabba Dabba Do

Fred

A. 1) n. A man who spends a lot of money on his bike and clothing, but still can't ride. "What a fred -- too much Lycra and titanium and not enough skill." Female version is a “Wilma”.

I got into bicycling not for recreation, rather for transportation. By the time I entered middle school and through high school my bike liberated me, Instead of depending on a school bus, my bicycle allowed me to come and go when I was ready. To this day I still use a bicycle to run errands, travel around Philadelphia and commute. I rode in what ever was available; shorts, sneakers, white socks, and yes cotton t-shirts. This was the pre-spandex era, before clipless pedals, power taps (what ever those are) and I had the first commercially produced helmet for the consumer; a Bell Biker.

It wasn't until I moved to the Philadelphia did I discover bicycling clubs and century rides. It was also when I started encountering “serious” bicyclists. Clad head to toe in spandex with logos on it so they can pretend to be professional racers, high end bicycles with carbon or titanium frames, the trendiest components, and sucking on the latest performance enhancing gel. But there is the elite 1% within this group that gives the rest of us a bad name. And they are known as Fred's.

The problem is the their sense of ownership of the Schuylkill River Trail and how anyone who is in their path is an interloper. You see them all time riding two abreast in sections that don't allow for it and creating mini-pelotons that engage in high speed passing with no warning. Worse yet is the verbal abuse. I've heard from cyclists, joggers, and Rollerbladers about being told to get off the trail, called assholes and menaces or passes so close you could touch them as they went by.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are not training for the Tour de France, you won't receive a yellow jersey when you finish, and if you think you are then go out and do “A” rides with the hammerheads from one of the cycling clubs. Otherwise your not impressing anyone. The Schuylkill River Trail is multi-user path, not your personal race course.

Change I can believe in?

With the arrival warm weather you see a rapid explosion of century rides, rides that are 100 miles. The most prevalent are century rides designed to raise funds for a non-for profit. They all require a great deal of planning and logistics to execute these rides. But none more than the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia Bike Philly ride. Which includes 20 miles of car free streets in Philadelphia and thousands of riders. Over the years there have been growing problems the expense of permits and police to control traffic and deal with street closures. The added problem was the entry of $50.00 per person, made this event impossible to participate for the majority of Philadelphia residents.

So the BCGP is working on a new solution, a Ciclovia or as it is more commonly none in the United States, Summer Streets. Having attended Summer Streets in New York City on several occasions this is a much better solution than yet another century ride. Summer Streets are not a bicycle ride, they are street fair that stretches over miles full of activities. Its open to the public, is draw for tourists, and by leaving key cross streets open has a limited impact on traffic. If they start early in the morning there may be a chance to ride through the empty streets like I did at 7am at New York City's Summer Streets, but by 10am the streets were packed with wall to wall for the entire 7 mile length. An amazing sight that you have to see to believe.

I wish the BCGP good luck and hope that they are able to find the sponsorship to make this Ciclovia a success. As well as a new Philadelphia tradition.

http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/2012/05/important-announcement-concerning-bike.html

Stu Bykofksy Rides Again

 

It's official a bill on bicycle lanes that a minority of the city council tried to sneak past last year is back again in all its glory. Philadelphia City Council Bill 12037, a bill which will require all new bicycle lanes to get City Council approval first.  

This time the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia chose to negotiate with the City Council. The committee got what it wanted a requirement that all bicycle lanes be approved by an ordinance by the City Council. The caveat being that this would only apply if the bicycle took a way a lane of traffic or parking. Which describes every bicycle lane installed in Philadelphia. In addition if the City Council fails to pass an ordinance approving than the bicycle lane has to be removed, within 8 months of the lane being installed.

All in all the terms of this bill way very heavily in the favor of the Philadelphia City Council and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia seemed rather quiet about this. Until the BCGP announced that had made a deal in which Councilman Squilla agreed to introduce a safe streets bill. That would make Philadelphia's traffic code conform to PA traffic code in several ways:

• Makes the penalty for a bike running a red light $100;
• Allows two bikes to ride abreast & repeals the mandatory side path rule;
• Prohibits opening a car door in a travel lane unless it is safe to do so;
• Prohibits parking in bike lanes.

A convenient fact that Stu Bykofsky has left out of his tale of biking Philadelphia, on a protected bicycle lane. So gloat all you want Stu, but this time the bikeheads and pedalphiles got a better deal out of the Philadelphia City Council that far exceeds what you think is a win.

Philadelphia City Council's Three Blind Mice

 It seems that three blind mice from the Philadelphia City Council are causing mischief. Philadelphia is a city rife with serious issues in need of the city councils urgent attention. A murder rate from guns at an average of one per day, a school district that is facing a financial short fall of 200 million dollar due to mismanagement, and 40,000 abandoned properties with millions of dollars in taxes uncollected. These properties have blighted neighborhoods and recently caused the death of two Philadelphia fire fighters.

Instead the three blind mice of the city council, MarkSquilla, Bill Greenlee, and, Ciy Council President Darrel Clarke are intent on revisiting the past. Trying to enact a policy requiring all bicycle lanes within Philadelphia to get city council approval. In May 2011 the city council tried to enact a similar policy, in an underhanded, but expected manner for Philadelphia politics. The bill was announced just days before the Memorial Day weekend and fast tracked to be voted on just after the holiday weekend. When the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia mobilized its membership to speak at the meeting the time for the public to speak was moved up and when that didn’t work one council member tried to disqualify everyone who spoke against the bill by claiming they were members of the Bicycle Coalition were not part of the public.

A recent post on the BCGP website these council members are taking the same approach, with hearings to occur in late May, most likely using the identical bill from last year. This also means that we can expect more of the same hearing delays as last year. An aspect of this bill claims that it is trying to incorporate input from the local community. That is until the community disagrees with the politics and  lack of vision of city council members.

It's truly pathetic that the Philadelphia City Council continues to use bicycle infrastructure as way to distract from real issues that need to be addressed.