Metro Philly: Protect Center City’s Bike Lanes

According to a columnist for Metro Philly, Center City is letting its once-ambitious bike lanes go to shambles. The buffered lanes on Spruce and Pine Streets have worn down, creating a lack of boundaries between bicyclists and passing traffic. Furthermore, Randy LoBasso insists, drivers are using the lanes as free parking spots and nobody is doing anything about it.

Over half the lanes on Spruce and Pine have been found to be deteriorated or nonexistent by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s new #FadedPHL map.

In this photo obtained by Metro Philly, a bike lane is blocked off for use as a valet parking area. This is just one example of the abuse of Center City bike lanes, says a columnist.

This has created dangerous conditions for people on bikes, including children, says Dena Driscoll, a South Philadelphia resident. “Spruce and Pine bike lanes are vital pieces of east/west infrastructure in the city for families bicycling to get to school, work and other destinations,” Driscoll commented to LoBasso, mentioning that she uses her bike to take her children to and from school. “However, the state of the bike lanes, including missing paint, sparse signage and lack of protection, make them an everyday challenge that is dangerous for families biking.”

There is a solution, says the columnist: the city needs to install physical barriers between bicyclists and traffic, so that the bike lanes cannot be used for anything but their intended purpose. LoBasso points out that other cities all around America have turned to this solution, but that Center City residents are blocking it from happening. Flyers put up by concerned citizens claimed that installing bike lane dividers would keep emergency vehicles from being able to go up and down the street, but that is simply not true.

LoBasso paints the issue as a simple one: the city’s most vulnerable road users need protection, and nobody is willing to step up and give it to them. Hopefully his column will sound a wake-up call to city officials to pay attention to this pressing matter.