New Bike Lanes
I've known about the pending bike lanes coming to Pine St and Spruce St from river to river for a good while now. I can't believe it's actually happening. I was walking down Pine St on Friday and I saw this scene at 20th St. The biking dude (with helmet in this one) painted onto the right hand side of Pine St at the SE corner of each intersection. To the left of the bike lane were the markings of a 1 yard buffer zone which will be painted in westerly facing white arrow points.
I think Pine and Spruce Sts were perfectly fine without the dedicated bike lanes. Why? They were relatively low traffic compared to Chestnut/Walnut/South Sts and were wide enough to accommodate 2 traffic lanes, 1 lane of parking and the occasional cyclist. I never had a problem, but then again, I'm a fairly aggressive biker so I don't really need the city looking out for me too much.
I see the problems with the bike lanes as being a false sense of security for bikers who aren't accustomed to biking in city traffic. Cars will undoubtedly still take up 2 lanes a lot of the time, cabs will still park in the right lane, delivery trucks won't give 2 shits about new traffic patterns. In the end it's truly a matter of enforcement. I don't know under whose jurisdiction it falls under. Will it be a PPA matter since it'll be cars parked on the road? Will it be a PPD matter since they aren't in dedicated PPA-related spots? I don't know and somebody out there please inform me or point me to an article somewhere. I don't see anything on the Bicycle Coalition page or Philly.com or Plan Philly or anywhere else I've looked.
But anyways… I was walking home after drinks Saturday night and noticed that Spruce St was properly striped already with just the buffer arrows to be painted in. And according to this Bicycle Coalition blog post, the Mayor's Office of Transportation said the painting will be done by September 26th (next Saturday).
I'm hopeful, but woefully pessimistic as per usual. Chestnut St's right lane is supposed to be only for bikes and buses; just sayin.
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September 20th, 2009 @ 12:03 pm
I'm looking forward to it, for one. I say that as both a driver and cyclist who occasionally uses Pine and Spruce to traverse Center City.
I haven't had any real problems cycling on Spruce or Pine, either, but I feel this will make it a more comfortable experience. Agreed, this will only work as well as it's enforced. Hopefully, it'll work better than Chestnut St., precisely because it's not as heavily traveled.
September 21st, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
Even though I'm happy that they're trying to spread the word about biking, I think fixing Chestnut and Walnut should have been a little bit more of a priority (making them more clearly marked, or perhaps fixing them a little).
I usually use Chestnut St on my way back from work… the fact that it clearly says "BUSES AND BIKES" but plenty of arse***** use it just to pass people on the left lane makes it dangerous…but not only that, at this moment the right side lane, in specific, the bike lane, is in a worse state than that of an unpaved third world country road! No, wait even dirt roads seem smooth compared to Chestnut Street!
So not only do you have to watch out for idiot SUV-yellowtags drivers, you also have to make sure the potholes don't throw you from the bike….
Anyway, maybe they should start fining aggressive drivers first. There is plenty of those that really push bikers to almost go into the sidewalks (again, SUVs usually with yellowtags)…i think that would make it safer for bikers on the road, not a stripe on the road…
November 18th, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
my understanding was that the bus/bike-only nature of Chestnut expired with the federal funding that inspired it, and that enforcement essentially went to zero (with no intention of even repainting the guidelines). I thought it was heeded reasonably the first year or so that it was there, but now it's not even a token effort. but maybe I just heard a cynical joker and took him/her seriously…