Bicycle City: The Future Has Two Wheels

By Elise Vider

The story of bicycling in Philadelphia can be told as a tale of two bridges.

In 1990, at the ribbon cutting for the reconstructed Walnut Street Bridge, bicycle advocates lay down on the span to protest the lack of bicycle lanes. It took until 2004 to get a bike lane painted.

Eighteen years later and less than a mile south, community groups, with the support of Mayor Nutter, forced changes to the design of the South Street Bridge to better accommodate bicycles (and pedestrians.) When it reopens late this year, the new bridge will have a reduced 25-mph speed limit and a dedicated bicycle/pedestrian crosswalk with the Schuylkill River Trail, itself a major bicycle amenity.

In 1987, Bicycling Magazine named Philadelphia the worst city for bicycling in the country. In 2009, the League of American Bicyclists gave us a bronze plaque - and, says the mayor, we're aiming for platinum.

Even the AAA is riding the handlebars: in 1972 a spokesman told the Philadelphia Bulletin, "If more bicyclists started using Center City streets, there would be a dramatic increase in accidents." Today the organization (significantly, no longer officially called the Automobile Association of America) emphasizes that bicycles have a legal right to the road and preaches the need for all users - motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians - to safely and courteously share the road.

What changed? Everything. Rising gasoline prices, the green movement, an influx of young people to Center City and adjoining neighborhoods, an emphasis on health and fitness, more congestion and more sophisticated bicycle advocacy have all brought us to the tipping point. The number of bicyclists on the streets of Philadelphia is increasing exponentially.

The numbers tell the story:

• Using Census and Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission data, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia estimates 75,000 daily bike trips are made throughout the city, covering 260,000 miles a day.
• In Center City and University City, the Coalition reports that bicycling rose roughly 35 percent per year between 2005 and 2008 and is up 300 percent since 1990.
• The Census Bureau recently reported that Philadelphia, at 1.6 percent, has the most bicycle commuters per capita of the nation's largest cities.

Love them or hate them, the reality is that Philadelphia is becoming a Bicycle City.

No surprise, then, that incorporating bicycle interests is an accepted part of transportation and urban planning and Philadelphia is playing major catch-up. "The Nutter administration understands bicycling completely as one element of transportation and transportation as one element of quality of life," says architect Bob Thomas, who has been plying Philadelphia streets on a two-wheeler since the 1950s. (During a late '60s SEPTA strike, he was featured as an oddball in a newspaper piece because he biked from Mt. Airy to his Center City job.)

Among the city's major steps so far: the new, east/west bicycle lanes along Spruce and Pine streets, hiring the city's first pedestrian and bicycle coordinator in the resurrected Mayor's Office of Transportation, widespread installation of new bike racks, and a new law that requires large real estate developments, including parking lots, to incorporate bicycle parking.

In June, Nutter signed a "Complete Streets" executive order requiring all city departments to give full consideration to bicycles, among other means of transit, in making transportation and development decisions. And the City Planning Commission is at work on a new bicycle plan, expected to be released this spring.

"As cities actively look for ways to reduce congestion and their carbon footprint, bicycling offers a compelling 'green' alternative to getting around the city," says Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Alan Greenberger.  Accommodating the bicycle is essential for the city's economic growth, argues Center City District President Paul Levy: "Bicycle commuting five years ago was a marginal issue," he says. "Now [supporting bike travel] is what cities need to do to be attractive and competitive."

It hasn't all been easy coasting, however. Several well-publicized fatalities and, the new Spruce/Pine bike lanes have raised a virulent anti-biking backlash among some motorists, with Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky leading the charge. Reports of drivers harassing bicyclists - and worse - and of obnoxious bike riding behavior are a cottage industry on relevant blogs.

Hoping to cool tempers, most bike advocates, like Andrew Stober of the Mayor's Office of Transportation, argue that no one mode of transportation has inherent supremacy over the streets.

"Our goal," he says, "is to make Philadelphia a city where you have options about travel. We want it to be safe, efficient and convenient for people to bike, to walk, to drive or to take transit."

Tomorrow: Mutual loathing by bikers and drivers fuels tension on the streets.