Gray's Ferry Bridge Improvements

Thanks to Matt Bochansky, PennDot District 6 and Lynn Greer, Phila. Maintenance for getting the sewer inlets on the Gray's Ferry Bridge totally cleaned out. There are no more weeds growing in the dirt. They now allow water to flow off the bridge instead of being glorified planters.

A year of persistence has paid off.

hukk

Motorcade Madness

Governor Corzine is a champion of pedestrian safety but according to the Philadelphia Inquirer - "Gov. Corzine's SUV was flying along the Garden State Parkway at 91 m.p.h. in a 65-m.p.h. zone before it collided with another vehicle and slammed into a guardrail." The State Police has promised a full review of the Executive Protection Unit's driving practices.

Corzine's SUV isn't the first chief executive vehicle to scoff at the speed limit, the article points to Governor Rendell's need for speed and anyone who has been buzzed by the Presidential motorcade knows that the Secret Service travels through the city streets at life threatening speeds.

There has been an outcry for the Governor to pay the seat belt fine. How about fining the State Trooper for speeding? The message seems to be that government officials can drive as reckless as they need to but just make sure you are buckled up.

We wish the Governor well and a full recovery.

Bike Philly September 9

Philadelphia will close 20 miles of streets for Bike Philly, a family-friendly bike tour celebrating the freedom of car-free Philadelphia streets, bicyclists will ride through historic neighborhoods, take over the Parkway, passing through Old City and exploring hidden corners of Fairmount Park on Sunday September 9th.

















You can register online Bike Philly begins at 8AM at the Art Museum Steps.

Bike Culture Typology

What is Bike Culture? What are the subgroups? What should we call them? Does Bike Culture in Portland mean something different than in Santa Barbara?

Shimano has done research asking why people don't ride bicycles and what it would take to get them back into bicycling, the results of this is a bicycle product line called coasting. However there are no grand marketing research activities that profiles the wide span of the cycling public. The textbook like non-fiction - The Clustered World : How We Live, What We Buy, and What It All Means About Who We Are neatly divides the population into clusters or distinctive lifestyle types such as New Bohemians and Shotguns and Pickups; two groups that react very differently to bicycling policies.

The Portland based Bicycle Transportation Alliance - Has done some research dividing up the general population attitudes towards cycling.

Group A = 1% - ride anywhere, anytime; the true lunatic fringe;
Group B = 7% - “enthused and confident” cyclists
Group D = 30% - don’t ride no matter what; they claim to be either too old, their moms won’t let them ride, or whatever.
Group C = 60% - are folks who are “interested and concerned”, would ride if they thought it were safe, if they had access to bike paths without traffic, bike lanes with little or no traffic, etc.

Here is a preliminary list of what American adult bicyclists might fall into.There is a lot of crossover here, not everyone fits neatly into one category.

1 -Invisible or captive riders - This groups lacks automobile access due to income or legal constraints.

a – Service workers - Restaurants, hotels, these guys may work late hours. Hispanic men make up a large part o this group. Prefer sidewalks for shorter trips, but will bike anywhere they have to. Group makes up a significant portion of suburban and intermodal bike trips. Overrepresented in bicycle crashes.

b - Urban Food delivery workers services mostly large cities, similar demographics and skills to other service workers.

c - Foreign Exchange Students - Resort areas, seasonal workers, large percentage from eastern Europe. More female than male

d – Hardscrabble - Older males, 40 and up. Blue collar, single or divorced, prefer intermodalism with transit.

e – Students – prefer sidewalks, used bikes to get around campus. In urban areas this group blends with the local bike community.

Urban Bike Community - This group is generally car free or car light many of whom bicycle by choice.

a -Bike Messengers – This industry has been shrunk somewhat by the Internet but this group it's still the bellwether of urban bike culture because the many miles they accumulate in downtown areas creates a strong bicycling presence. Many but not all ride fixed gear bikes.

b – Fixed Gear riders - this recent phenom is an outgrowth of the messenger community. Urban residents, generally young and diverse. Members of the group can also belong to the other subgroups.

d – Crosstown Commuters – these commuters travel short distances in urban core areas. In some cities this group is a large chunk of the journey to work census data. Group is about 30% female, 30% helmet use and mostly white. Strong support group for bicycle advocacy orgs.

E – Intermodal Commuters similar to d but live in outer neighborhoods or inner suburbs and rely on transit to complete part of their trip to the urban core. The day-trippers of urban bike culture.

F - Lowriders - Bicycle Artists or Hobbyists. Their pimped up bicycles are rarely seen outside of Hispanic neighborhoods or shows.

G - White Guys with Beards - 1970's Gas Crisis veterans who helped pioneer modern North American bike culture movement some are vehicular cyclists

H - Self made mechanics - Build and ride bicycles with discarded parts,

G - Tall Bike Riders a subgroup of H they create and ride bikes built with multiple frames built on top of each other.

Transportation Cyclists

Intercity commuters – High helmet use, well equipped, to travel long distances. Affluent. Cross Pollination with recreational sport cyclists. Urban and suburban.

Vehicular Cyclists – Subgroup of Intercity Commuters, Recreational Sport, Touring and White Guys with Beards with strong cycling skills and ideological values, generally older and male. Some oppose bicycle facilities and strongly identify themselves with the teachings of the controversial John Forester.

Recreational Riders – All four subgroups could come under road and mountain bike

a - Recreational sport – Good equipment with high helmet use, many but not all belong to bike clubs. Prefer long rides.

b - Recreational casual - largest share of bicyclists, generally not members of bicycle clubs. Families or couples, prefer off road paths, beach boardwalks, park roads or low traffic residential streets.

c - Recreational casual fitness - this group falls between a and b, not club bicycle club members-similar demographics to rollerbladers. Young and fitness oriented riding fast on paved paths.

d – Sport riders – Competitors, such as triathletes and cross country racers

e - Extreme riders - Subgroup of d - Downhill racers, BMX etc.

f - Touring - Long distance cyclists, generally older and male

g - Recumbent riders

Other Institutional Bicycling Groups

a - Mormon Missionaries - Conservatively dressed, this group dutifully wear their helmets and generally required by the church to obey the rules of the road.

b - Police on Bikes

c - Business Improvement District Ambassadors

d - Pedicab operators - Often part of the Urban Bike Community but also popular in resort communities. Pedicabs have been banned on the Las Vegas Strip and in Hoboken, NJ
A recent attempt to limit pedicab operators in New York has failed

e - Large Commercial Delivery Services - Rare in the US Airborne Express in NY City and UPS in Burlington VT have experimented with bicycle delivery

f - Drug couriers - An illegal cousin of the delivery subgenre

Fattah's Transportation Plans

Released earlier this year, Fattah's transportation plans include a new Office of Transportation:

RE-ESTABLISH THE OFFICE OF TRANSPORTATION Re-Establish the Office of
Transportation. As Mayor, Chaka Fattah will re-establish the Office of
Transportation and will appoint a leading transportation professional as
Director. Under Mayor Rendell, the Office of Transportation served as the focal
point for all city policy related to transportation. Mayor Fattah will
re-establish this office and rely on its director as his chief transportation
advisor, responsible for the planning and implementation of city transportation
policy. The Director of Transportation will work with other area governments to
take a regional approach to transportation, representing the city to the public
and funding and regulatory bodies on issues of transportation and work
with Philadelphia residents and businesses on issues of concern to them
involving transportation.

And Fattah's plans for biking:

Turn Philadelphia into the Most Bicycle-Friendly City on the East Coast. Chaka
Fattah believes that with some small investments and changes to traffic
planning, Philadelphia can be the safest and best place to cycle in the eastern
United States. Fattah will fight to extend the Schuylkill River Trail as a
continuous path along the entire river, from north to south, enact the North
Delaware Riverfront Greenway Plan with its planned miles of new bike trails and
seek to connect these two bicycle thoroughfares. The Fattah Administration will
seek ways to expand designated bicycle lanes consistent with city's Bicycle
Network Plan. The priority will be to maximize linkages between existing lanes
and expand bike lanes into areas of the city not currently served by designated
lanes. Additionally, Chaka Fattah will insist that any streetscape improvements
made during his administration include sufficient racks on which to park
bicycles. The city will also build bicycle parking stations, with air pumps and
water fountains at major destinations throughout the city to give an additional
boost to cycling in our city.

Ease Restrictions on Taking Bicycles on Public Transit.
Chaka Fattah will work with SEPTA to ease the restrictions on taking bicycles on public transit. While most SEPTA buses are equipped with racks that hold up to two bikes, on other modes of transportation
-- including regional rail, the Market-Frankford El and the Broad Street Subway
-- bicycles are not allowed during peak hours. In fact, on regional rail, bicycles must be kept in seats reserved for wheelchairs. Chaka Fattah will work with SEPTA to design innovative ways to store bicycles on trains and allow bicycles on trains during peak hours.

Read all of the candidates' answers to the Bicycle Coalition's Mayoral Questionnaire.

Nutter Transportation Plans

Nutter recently released his transportation plans.

His plans for a Department of Transportation:

As Mayor, I will re-establish the Department of Transportation and make the head a member of my Cabinet. The Department would conduct formal planning, coordinate decision making, and articulate a shared vision among all the entities that comprise the City’s transportation including Streets, Commerce, Public Property, Traffic Police, City Planning, the School District, Fairmount Park, the Airport, the waterfront and ports agencies, SEPTA, PATCO, PennDOT, Amtrak, and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

The new Department would save money through coordination, increase the share of existing resources going to the City through better advocacy, and increase the total amount of resources going the Philadelphia metropolitan area by developing a shared vision for regional investment. Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles all have departments that are implementing focused and integrated agendas for their cities and regions.

His plans for bicycling:

Maintain and extend the City’s bicycle network of lanes and signs. As
demonstrated by the Chicago 2010 Plan, much of the planning and
implementation of bicycle transportation can be funding by federal programs in support of congestion mitigation and transportation enhancements. By capitalizing on the presence of the nation’s largest one-day bicycling event, the City can leverage the expanded bicycle network into Recreation and Health policy goals.

Read all of the candidates' responses to the Bicycle Coalition Mayoral Questionnaire.

Gray's Ferry Bridge Maintenance

As you all you I went in circles last spring trying to get the Bridge Bike Lanes cleaned and the sewer inlets cleaned out so rain water could flow freely.

Because bridges belong to the state, maintenance is done by the Phila streets dept, and sewer inlets are done by the Phila water department, nobody is doing anything. Call your local rep and complain if you use this bridge.

jill

PENNDOT's New Directive For Bicycles and Pedestrians

Effective May 15 PENNDOT will require that all new projects evaluate the accommodation of bicyclists and pedestrians. PENNDOT will be issueing a Strike Off Letter which is a directive which will be delivered to all district executives and inserted in the PENNDOT design manuals.

Effective May 15, 2007, Department policy requires the evaluation of the access and mobility needs of pedestrians and bicycle users in highway and bridge transportation corridors. This revised policy mandates that highway and bridge projects must evaluate the existing, latent, and projected needs of pedestrians and bicycle users. It requires the integration of the identified needs into project planning and design processes. This revised policy also clarifies that bicycle users are vehicles*, and that pedestrians are classified as traffic in accordance with the Vehicle Code.** The intent of this policy is to bolster the importance of pedestrians and bicycle travel as viable and connective modes of transportation. Previous policy allowed the evaluation of the access and mobility needs of pedestrians and bicycle users to be a design and planning option, not as a process requirement.

This change of policy applies to all projects that are programmed on their respective Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) after May 15, 2007. Efforts should be made to evaluate and accommodate all existing projects, including existing projects that have not received environmental clearance in the design process, and projects that were placed on the TIP prior to the effective date. This change in Department policy is also applicable to all Highway Occupancy Permit requests for access to Department highways.

This change in Department policy is achieved by implementing the changes to the Department Design Manual Series listed in Appendix A of this document. The primary evaluation tool of access and mobility needs of pedestrians and bicycle users is the Bicycle and Pedestrian Checklist, which, when combined with sound engineering judgment, will address a wide range of pedestrian and bicycle solutions and accommodations.

A brief explanation of how to use the Bicycle and Pedestrian Checklist is also included in Design Manual 1A, Appendix J.

Supporting documentation for this revised policy is contained in Appendix A.

*Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, Title 75 “Vehicles” (Vehicle Code), Chapter 35, Part 3, Subchapter A “Operation of Pedalcycles”

**Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, Title 75 “Vehicles” (Vehicle Code), Chapter 1,Part 1, Section 102 Definitions, under the term Traffic