Bike Parking Scarce at Expanded Convention Center

The expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center opened nearly two years after the city's bicycle parking ordinance was adopted. But the bike parking for this enormous facility is scarce, very scarce. Meter poles along Arch Street that could have anchored the circle racks have been extracted. An exhaustive search of every block found only 2 spiral bike racks - one under the cover Convention Center on the 13th Street underpass and a second one tucked behind a corner of the building on Arch just west of 13th. Total capacity = 8 bikes

Philadelphia Code 14-1401 (4) requires 1 bike parking space per every 10,000 square feet or fraction thereof. The expansion at 986,000 square feet should have supplied no less than 99 bike parking spaces.

It is possible that the Convention Center, an independent authority created by the State obtained all of its approvals before the bike parking ordinance took effect. Still installing 50 inverted U bike racks would have only added about $10,000 to the $786,000,000 price tag. Its interesting to note that the Authority is pursuing LEED Certification through its "Green Commitment" program and adding bicycle parking ranks among the most effective LEED Certification point strategies that one can pursue.