Your Fall Refresher Course on Bike Parking Rules in Philly

With the beautiful fall weather and resumption of school, there are thousands of bicycles parked everywhere. The time is right for a quick refresher course on Philadelphia's rules for bicycle parking:

Oliver senses a lot of public
misinformation about parking

Where You Can/Cannot Park Your Bicycle

1. You may lock to bike racks (on the sidewalk or in a bike corral). Obviously.
2. You may lock to public street poles or parking meters (unless prohibited by a government agency, and as long as you do not block the pedestrian right-of-way).
3. You may not lock to a tree (damages the tree, and encourages thieves to uproot or cut down the tree to steal your bike).
4. You may not lock to private property (railings or fences on private property).

Vespas, Motorcycles, and Scooters
According to Philadelphia's Traffic Code, scooters and motorcycles are not allowed on sidewalks.

§ 12-913. Prohibitions in Specified Places.
(1) Except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or to protect the safety of any person or vehicle or in compliance with law or the directions of a police officer or official traffic-control device, no person shall:
(a) Stop, stand or park a vehicle:
(ii) On a sidewalk except that a bicycle may be parked as provided in Section 12-807.

This means that Vespas are not allowed to be locked to in-sidewalk bike racks. If you see a scooter or motorcycle parked on a sidewalk, report it to the Parking Authority by posting a photo on PPA's Facebook page. PPA does monitor their own page. Use it!

Scooters and motorcycles are also not allowed to park inside bike corrals, which are specifically designed and installed for bicycles. There should be signs at each corral indicating that scooters/motorcycles are not permitted in bicycle corrals.

Concerning Private Owners Prohibiting Bike Parking in Front of Their Storefront/Building
According to state law, property owners are not allowed to post private signs on public poles:

75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6125
§ 6125. Display of unauthorized signs, signals or markings
(a) General rule.--No person shall place, maintain or display upon or in view of any highway any unauthorized sign, signal, marking or device which purports to be or is an imitation of or resembles an official traffic-control device or which attempts to direct the movement of traffic, or which hides from view or interferes with the effectiveness of an official traffic-control device.

This means you cannot put up a "no bike parking" sign on public property, or expect your sign to apply to public property like a street pole. We saw this play out over the summer in the Penn Square plaza in front of La Colombe and the Ritz Residences, across the street from City Hall. In July:

July 2013. Wrong.

We reported this to the Streets Department, and were glad to see that they had the sign taken down:

Late September 2013. Thank you, Streets Department!

We hope this is helpful as we all jostle for parking spaces this fall.

Amtrak's Bike Parking Situation at 30th St Station Is Embarrassing

This Monday morning some of our staff went through 30th Street Station on their way to Harrisburg. We arrived by bicycle, because bicycling the first and last mile of your journey is ohmygosh the new black. Here is the bike parking situation we discovered:

Abandoned bicycles and scooters taking up precious rack space

Desperate parking times call for desperate parking measures

The bicycle parking at 30th Street Station falls under the auspices of Amtrak. Bicyclists frequenting the station have been dealing with significantly less bicycle parking ever since the station's 30th Street side went under construction in late 2012. Amtrak had told us back in November 2012 that temporary parking would be placed on the 29th Street side to compensate for the lost parking. But that never came to pass.

The slow accumulation of abandoned bicycles, and the lack of enforcement (or dedicated space elsewhere) for Vespa parking, has made the situation worse. Monday, we found the wave rack on the 29th Street side bearing computer paper notes warning bicyclists not to park there this week (with no explanation).

If the papers flew off in the wind, what would be the consequences for unknowingly parking a bicycle here?

Our emails to Amtrak have so far gone unanswered.

Amtrak's seeming indifference to passengers arriving by bicycle is making 30th Street Station look like a retrograde outlier compared to other transit hubs in Philadelphia and elsewhere in this country.

We asked Amtrak to remedy this situation by taking the following three actions:

1. Tag and remove abandoned bicycles;
2. Provide Vespas with their own parking area and enforce bike racks as bicycle-only parking;
3. Add more temporary bike racks to accommodate the current severe unmet demand.

30th Street Station is too important of a transportation hub to so poorly accommodate travelers looking to begin or end their longer journeys on bicycle.

Checking In On The PPA Garage Overhaul At 8th & Filbert

Back in late May, the PPA unveiled designs for an overhaul of the dreary parking garage that straddles 8th street between Filbert and Arch. PlanPhilly covered the story, which features upgraded street-level retail, new lighting, and a design which will make the neighborhood look less like a set location from a Steven Seagal movie about a cop who doesn't play by the rules.

We are keeping an eye on the bike parking included in the final design. The Philadelphia Code requires 1 bicycle parking space for every 10 automobile parking spaces. Additionally, "bicycle parking spaces located in attended parking facilities shall be located next to the attendant booth or within an area under regular surveillance."

Monitored bicycle parking would help satiate the area's high demand for bicycle commuting parking. The design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd held a design charrette earlier this year which generated a word cloud for the project. Prominent in that word cloud was "bicycle parking."

Given the high level of design and creativity put into the plans for this project, and the sincere effort being made to obtain input from stakeholders, we hope the Philadelphia Parking Authority and Wallace Roberts & Todd will take this opportunity to provide innovative, high-quality, protected parking for bicycles. Renderings of the project unveiled at public meetings show a state of the art building. This gateway project deserves state of the art bicycle parking.

Rendering courtesy of Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC 

Three of Eight In-Street Bike Corrals Installed In Philadelphia

People in perpetual search for bike parking received exciting news recently with the City's announcement of the installation of three bike corrals. They are three of eight scheduled for installation over the next two weeks (some are pending City Council approval):

Already Installed

• Filbert St in front of Reading Terminal Market
• South St in front of Whole Foods Market (betw 9th & 10th)
• South St in front of Tattooed Mom's Bar (betw 5th & 6th)

Coming Soon

• Baltimore Ave in front of Mariposa Co-op (betw 48th & 49th)
• Chestnut St in front of Drinker's Pub (betw 19th & 20th)
• Front & Thompson St in front of Kung Fu Necktie
• Girard Ave in front of Johnny Brenda's (at Frankford Ave intersection)
• 10th & Cherry in front of Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation

The Mayor's Office of Transportation solicited applications from local businesses and received eight completed applications. Huge thanks are due to Aaron Ritz at the Mayor's Office of Transportation, MOTU's contractor J. Fletcher Creamer, and the Streets Department for working together to make this project happen. And of course, a big thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy for making an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) to the Mayor's Office of Sustainability through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that made this project possible!

Below are some photos of the recent installations:

Making the Center City Bike Corrals Permanent (with a nod to Tinker Bell)

In Center City, transportation space is at a premium. There isn't enough car parking. There isn't enough bike parking. The streets and the sidewalks are narrow. To maximize the number of people who can get in and out of Center City, we need to get creative.

Here is an example of an unimaginative use of a parking space at the corner of Walnut & Sydenham St.

Here is our idea, on display beginning this morning and continuing until early November:

The difference? Increasing Center City parking capacity by 8-13 shoppers/workers/residents (depending on how many people ride in that Hummer. And let's be honest, Hummer owners these days are usually driving alone).

Stop by today and check out our two bike corrals (we've got tents up at both places, handing out literature and talking about bikes and bike parking). One at the above parking spot next to the Chipotle at Walnut & Sydenham St (Walnut between 15th and 16th). The other is atop subway grates on the East side of the 200 block of S. Broad Street.

These corrals securely hold 12-14 bikes each, increasing Center City's bike parking capacity at the cost of one car parking spot. For any local business with employees who commute by bike, or customers who arrive via bicycle, this is good for business. It also prevents creative but destructive bike parking solutions like the one below:

Check out more photos of our bike corrals on our Flickr site.

These installations are part of Park(ing) Day, but they will remain up until early November. Like them and want to see Philly adopt more progressive transportation solutions? Send an e-mail to aaron.ritz@phila.gov and let the City know! The more encouragement the Mayor's Office gets from bicycle-friendly residents and businesses, the more bicycling infrastructure we will see. (It's kind of like clapping to bring Tinker Bell back to life...but for belief in progressive transportation infrastructure. C'mon, everybody, clap!)

These racks are generously loaned to us for free from Dero Bike Racks and Saris Parking Systems, a division of Saris Cycling Group. We are looking for funds (several thousand dollars) to buy them and make them permanent. Contact sarah@bicyclecoalition.org if you can help keep them around post-November.

City Council Passes Bicycle Parking Bill

Starting January 1, 2010, the City's Zoning Code will require new developments (of certain size) to install bicycle parking spaces as part of its building permit. This is a terrific victory for sustainability and a significant advancement for making Philadelphia more bicycle friendly.

Bill No. 090190 passed unaminously today in City Council. The Bicycle Coalition thanks Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilman James Kenny and Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. for introducing the measure and Councilwoman Brown for sheparding it through the Rules Committee. Special thanks also to Streets Department, L&I and City Planning Commission staff for developing the bill in partnership with the Bicycle Coalition.

So, depending on when projects like American Commerce Center and Philly Live! (the complex that will replace the Spectrum) pull their building permit, they will have to install bicycle parking.

The bill also requires that Department of Licenses and Inspections and Streets Department develop standards for bicycle parking spaces and defines three classes of bicycle spaces. A summary of the bill is here.

Philadelphia's Bicycle Parking Legislation

On March 12th, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Councilman Kenney and Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. introduced Bill #090190 to amend Title 14 of The Philadelphia Code by adding a new Section providing for bicycle parking, under certain terms and conditions.

This bill defines several classes of bicycle parking spaces and requires bicycle parking spaces to be provided in office, retail and other commercial buildings, large multiple family units, parking lots and low-occupancy buildings that obtain a zoning permit. As an incentive for developers, bicycle parking can be installed in lieu of a percentage of motor vehicle parking spaces (5 bike parking spaces can replace one off street parking space).

This bill was prompted by the Bicycle Coalition's campaign to increase bicycle parking. The Bicycle Coalition worked with the Nutter Administration on this bill and praises Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Kenney and Jones for introducing this measure.

The bill will be presented to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission at its April 21st meeting (1pm, 18th Floor of 1515 Arch Street). City Council is expected to hold a hearing on the bill in May.

Phillies Go Green?

Citizens Bank Park has only space available for 32 bikes (2 wave racks (16 spaces each) at the first base gate and the right field gate) for the public. So it was with a sigh that I read about the Phillies going green in yesterday's Inquirer. It's certainly great that the Phillies decided to buy green power, but why can't they be truly green and accomodate those fans who want to produce no carbon emissions when getting to the park by providing more than 32 bike parking spaces in comparison to the 21,000 car parking spaces?

As pointed out in a previous post, the Washington Nationals new ballpark has 250 bike parking spaces. If the Phillies can pony up to wear green hats and buy wind power, they could hit a home run by installing 210 good bike racks (1% of their car parking spaces).