SPOKE magazine Issue Four

Issue 004

m a g a z i n e for the cycling citizen of Philadelphia

FREE

NOW LEASING NEW PENTHOUSES WITH CUSTOM HOME FINISHES

1-BEDROOM PENTHOUSES starting from $2,300s

2-BEDROOM PENTHOUSES starting from $3,600s

editors ALEX VUOCOLO alex@spokemag.bike MATT BEVILACQUA matt@spokemag.bike creative director ELLIOTT LAMBORN elliott@spokemag.bike staff designer JOHN CARDONE john@spokemag.bike marketing director HILLARY WICKLINE hillary@spokemag.bike outreach manager KATIE BOHRI katie@spokemag.bike

contributing writers ANDREW ZALESKI, JAKE BLUMGART, CASSIE OWENS, BRADLEY MAULE, TYLER HORST, LEIGH GOLDENBERG cover illustration GRACE HWANG contributing artists DAN LIDON, TIM PACIFIC, RACHEL LINCOLN, HANNAH CANDELARIA, MIGUEL CO, SALEEM AHMED, JUSTIN DURNER send all inquiries to: spokemagazine@gmail.com our online home: WWW.SPOKEMAG.BIKE printed by Evergreen Printing Company Bellmawr, NJ

spoke magazine

ISSUE FOUR

Table of Contents The Thin Green Line

6

Why crowdsource a bike route?

Andrew Zaleski

Where the Bike Share Ends

11

Checking in on Indego’s diversity goals

14

Should credit unions finance your bike?

16 20

Cassie Owens

The Borrowers

Jake Blumgart

The Nutter Years

A look at the mayor’s bike legacy Alex Vuocolo

Exit Interview: Michael Nutter Alex Vuocolo

Mean Street

22

The saga of Washington Avenue

27

Bike parking: the good, the bad and the strange

Tyler Horst

Art Rack Confidential Matt Bevilacqua

31

Upriver

34 38

Building the Northeast’s waterfront trail

Bradley Maule

Precious Cargo

The joys of riding while pregnant Leigh Goldenberg

Exit Interview: Alex Doty Matt Bevilacqua

spoke magazine

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

J

ust a few months ago, the idea of a car-free Center City was an urbanist fantasy.

Then Pope Francis came to town, and for a few short days thousands of Philadelphians walked, biked and pushed their strollers down streets emptied of traffic. For many, it was a pleasant change to step off the curb without the fear of cars or trucks running them down. At least for a little while, the dull and continuous stress of moving through streets riddled with dangerous thresholds was lifted.

The success of the no-vehicle zone was not lost on City Hall. Within weeks of the papal visit, the mayor’s office announced its intention to hold “Open Streets” events on a regular basis. Next time, though, the streets won’t close to cars as a security measure. It will happen for its own sake, because regular Philadelphians asked for it. That’s how quickly the supposedly impossible becomes policy.

For cyclists, finding a balance between what’s ideal and what’s politically realistic is a constant negotiation.

Yet as Mayor Nutter nears the end of his second term and mayor-elect Jim Kenney prepares to replace him, it is as good a time as ever to start thinking big. Bike share took seven years. Open Streets took a visiting pontiff. What’s the next ambitious vision for cycling in Philadelphia? How can we get there?

There are a number of legitimate and possibly urgent answers, ranging from culture and policy to concrete

Thank you for reading and riding,

Alex Vuocolo Founding Editor

improvements on the street. In this issue, Tyler Horst reports on the long and complicated effort to make one of the city’s most contested commercial corridors friendlier to bikes. Leigh Goldenberg, drawing from personal experience, argues against the stigma of riding a bike while pregnant. And Bradley Maule tackles the gradual pace of trail development in Northeast Philly.

Each of these stories expands the idea of what cycling in Philadelphia is and can be. They also involve years of advocacy, compromise, gains and setbacks. In Issue Four, SPOKE looks ahead at what the dreams of today’s cycling community will yield tomorrow.

T H E R E F L E C TO R D E VE LOPME NTS IN TH E U N I T E D STAT E S O F B I C YC LES The Schuylkill River Trail experiences CAMDEN has a freshly

buffered bike lane stretching 4.3 miles along its riverfront and through its eastern neighborhoods. SPOKE took a spin on this back in October as part of the Bikesploration tour series with Hidden City. See? We go to New Jersey.

Philadelphia lands a $10.2 million federal grant, part of which will go toward retrofitting an abandoned railroad bridge into a bike and pedestrian path connecting Southwest Philly to Center City. The bridge is among the costliest of the upcoming additions to the Schuylkill River Trail, making the grant a big win for the city’s trail network.

Neighborhood Bike Works, the activism-tinged

educational non-profit, closes its North Philly and University City locations. But it opens a new spot on Lancaster Avenue, so, hooray!

an uptick in reported cases of assault and harassment, leaving officials scrambling to ramp up enforcement.

Physical improvements to the trail, such as solar lights on lampposts, are also in consideration.

Seattle’s municipal government announces that

it will take over and expand the city’s year-old bike share system, Pronto.

(No, no, Pronto is the system’s name. The Seattle Department of Transportation is still negotiating with the current manager, a non-profit.)

The public school district in Washington, D.C.

introduces a bike safety unit into its physical education program, which, aww. This counters the news of a D.C. church that opposes the installation of a bike lane in that city on the grounds of “religious freedom.”

Trolley tracks are to Philly

cyclists what shoelaces are to toddlers — the cause of both harmless tumbles and serious injuries. On 12th Street between South and Snyder, at least, those days are over. The defunct Route 23 trolley tracks are buried as part of a routine repaving in October, giving riders a safer southbound route out of Center City.

A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association finds that

the number of bicycle-related injuries increased by 28 percent, and that the incidence of hospital admissions among cyclists increased by 120 percent, between 1998 and 2013.

Older riders account for much of the increase. Hey, they said it, not us.

THE LEHIGH VALLEY launches its first

bike share program, sort of. Lehigh University in Bethlehem signs a deal with Zagster to maintain one station of 10 bikes for students, faculty and staff.

Gotta start somewhere.

The Manayunk Bridge reopens,

allowing cyclists and pedestrians to travel between the city and its westerly suburbs without worrying about cars.

But wait! Until some unspecified future date when officials can install lights on the bridge, it will only stay open during daylight hours (until 6 p.m. between November and April), rendering it useless to plenty of commuters.

spoke magazine

THE THIN GREEN LINE STORY BY ANDREW ZALESKI

L

ancaster Avenue, where it reaches Wayne, Pa., seven miles from the northwest border of Philadelphia, is a four-lane thoroughfare hectic with fast-moving cars and trucks. It’s not exactly a street prime for cycling.

But Rich Kerr remembers two years ago when he saw this stretch of Lancaster marked as “bike friendly” on Google Maps. “It’s the worst road you could imagine,” says Kerr, a retired New Jersey Transit engineer.

For Delaware County cyclists, however, dangerous routes are oftentimes their only option. Heavily trafficked roads with no shoulder are a standard sight throughout the county, and sometimes prove fatal. When Upper Darby resident and Haverford College professor Russell Garrett was struck by a car from behind in July 2010 — a hit resulting in head injuries that killed him later the same day — he was cycling in the westbound lane of Route 3.

Otherwise known as West Chester Pike, Route 3 isn’t the safest road for cyclists, but many in Delaware County use it because they aren’t aware of an east-west alternative.

While not a regular cyclist himself, Kerr noticed the problem and decided to start finding and demarcating safe bike routes in Delaware County. He began with his home of Haverford Township. Using a model called the Bicycle Level of Service — employed by state highway administrations and municipal departments across the U.S., including in Baltimore, Houston and Philadelphia — Kerr evaluated all major roads in the township for their bicycling suitability. He bolstered his calculations with traffic figures from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, images from Google Earth, and on-the-ground assessments made by driving around.

Google added bicycle routes, and the ability for people to suggest their own routes, to its mapping function in 2010. As a result, Kerr was able to make his findings available to the public, something virtually anyone with their own data and a rudimentary understanding of Google Map Maker can do.

But for Kerr, this method of essentially crowdsourcing bike routes can be a blessing and a curse.

“It’s kind of like Wikipedia,” Kerr says. “Anybody can get

TO: COMMUNITY PARK AT HAVERFORD RESERVE

BALA CYNWYD

NORTH PHILLY

FROM:

HAVERTOWN

PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL

HADDINGTON

MARPLE

distance

DREXEL HILL

time PHILADELPHIA

SPRINGFIELD

road quality

ELMWOOD

MEDIA

distance time FOLSOM

predetermined transit schedules

distance time

CHESTER

crowdsourced bicycle-friendly categorization The routes, broken down by transportation mode, that Google Maps recommends for traveling between Philadelphia and Haverford.

CROWDSOURCING BIKE ROUTES HAS ITS BENEFITS -AND DRAWBACKS DESIGNS BY HANNAH CANDELARIA

in there and mess things up and change things.”

When it comes to infrastructure, though, the stakes are a bit higher than a misleading fact on the Free Encyclopedia.

Bad information could lead to cyclists putting their lives at risk, unnecessarily, on dangerous roads. So who decides what makes a functional cycling route, let alone one that is safe?

Much like Wikipedia page moderators, trusted Google reviewers must approve all routes added to Google Maps.

But any assessment of the safety and convenience of cycling routes, according to John Boyle, research director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, is “totally subjective, and it does need to be vetted.”

In May, the Coalition tried its own hand at the vetting process. During a “Mapathon” hosted by Bike Delaware County, one of the Coalition’s three suburban committees, volunteers spent about two hours at Haverford College anonymously adding routes to an alternative mapping program called WikiMapping. Attendees brought their laptops and, in real time on a large digital map, overlaid walking and

cycling routes for roughly half of Delaware County.

“We’re going through this right now and we’re trying to finalize the routes we want to transfer onto Google Maps,” Boyle says.

While Kerr did not use WikiMapping in his independent analysis, he did rely on a buffer layer between analyzing routes and adding them to Google Maps. After conducting his survey of Haverford Township’s roads, each received a letter grade from A through F. Per the Bicycle Level of Service method, each grade responds to a combination of factors such as lane widths, striping, traffic volume, surface conditions and on-street parking.

But even this approach can result in designating a road as safe for cyclists when, in reality, it’s not. As thorough as they are, the calculations can’t take into account every geographical factor that cyclists experience on the ground.

“Take two roads with the same width, speed limit and amount of traffic,” Kerr says. “One could be a straight road in Kansas and another could be a twisty road in Chester County

spoke magazine via Walnut St

404 ft

1 6 1 ft

1 h 18 min 1 1 . 9 miles 295 ft

33 ft

The change in elevation that cyclists will experience when taking the Google Maps-suggested route from Philly to Haverford.

“IT’S KIND OF LIKE WIKIPEDIA. ANYBODY CAN GET IN THERE AND MESS THINGS UP.” with blind curves and guardrails. Mathematically they might get the same score, but someone who knows the roads might know the difference.”

That’s the tricky part in evaluating safe roads, as well as some of the danger in crowdsourcing routes through a tool like Google Maps. Even with a measured, knowledgeable analysis of potential cycling routes, it’s entirely possible that relatively few safe routes exist in a place like Delaware County.

“The frustrating part about road-riding in Delaware County is that the great roads to ride in the western part of the county are dangerous to get to from the eastern part of the county,” says Mike Madonna, a Haverford contractor and 15-year cyclist. Madonna doesn’t use Google Maps to determine his routes, instead relying on the advice of friends and fellow cyclists in the Delaware Valley Bike Club.

“It’s not just that the major routes that connect towns are unsafe,” Madonna says. “It’s that there aren’t safe side-road alternatives for a good part of the county.”

In other words, any Google Map of bike routes in Delaware County must be especially attentive to each and every road. Kerr enlisted the help of a local committee

of cyclists and residents to pore over his computergenerated results of Haverford Township. With local knowledge of the road system at hand, Kerr was able to define the letter grades in more detail. A road with an “A” grade, for instance, is safe for everyone’s use, while a road with a “C” grade might be safe for adults but suitable for teenagers and children only with adult supervision.

Since Kerr’s initial analysis, he’s taken to employing what engineers and planning types call the “low-stress” model. In short, a low-stress road for cyclists is one where they won’t encounter much traffic or difficulty riding. (Think of the Philadelphia area’s minor roads, with fewer cars and lower speed limits, that run parallel to its major roads.) In Upper Darby, Springfield, Lower Merion, and much of the rest of eastern Delaware County, Kerr and his team have identified low-stress roads ideal for biking.

The above data — letter grades, low-stress calculations and all — informs which routes Kerr will plug into Google Maps for public consumption. “In eastern Delaware County, we’ve researched the roads and looked at them carefully and picked the very best prospects,” he says. “It’s the best we can do in the suburbs.”

KNOW YOUR CYC L ING RIGHTS Joseph T. Piscitello yourCYCLINGrights.com

ENJOY THE HIGHEST RATED AMERICAN GOLDEN LAGER

AND WITH 125 YEARS OF BREWING TRADITION, NARRAGANSETT LAGER IS...

• The highest rated domestic premium lager according to Beer Advocate • The fastest growing American heritage lager • Top selling independent American heritage golden lager NARRAGANSETT LAGER IS THE CRAFT DRINKER’S HERITAGE LAGER

MUST

BE

Gansett.com

21

OR

OLDER

TO

E N J O Y.

/Narragansettbeer

PLEASE

DRINK

@Gansettbeer

R E S P O N S I B LY.

/Gansettbeer

234 Delancey Street Philadelphia 215.636.9988 joe@piscitellolaw.com

WHERE THE BIKE SHARE ENDS Indego has made diversity a goal since the beginning. As the system expands, will its ridership follow?

A

s far as new beginnings go, bike share in Philadelphia has had a promising half-year. After its late April launch, Indego netted 100,000 rides in only two months, outpacing numbers logged in Denver, Boston and Washington, D.C. By November, users had taken another 270,000 rides. And in September, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU) announced that it had secured grant funding for 24 new stations slated to open next spring.

Backed by a $1.5 million grant from the William Penn Foundation, these new stations will ostensibly target locations close to rivers and public parks. Another aim, according to a MOTU press release, is to make sure the expanded system reaches underserved neighborhoods “specifically.”

A common critique of Indego so far has been that while the system launched with a third of its stations in low-income neighborhoods, it still seemed to only serve well-off populations

STORY BY CASSIE OWENS PHOTO BY JUSTIN DURNER INFOGRAPHICS BY ELLIOTT LAMBORN

living in gentrifying areas. As part of the system’s larger spring 2016 expansion, the new grant-funded stations could ameliorate this problem. The plan, says Cara Ferrentino, manager of strategic initiatives at MOTU, is to “expand incrementally at our perimeter.” In due time, Indego’s projected service area could stretch as far north as Lehigh Avenue, as far west as 52nd Street, and cover nearly all of South Philadelphia, even The Navy Yard.

As of press time Indego had a total of 73 stations, with the most recent installation at 3rd Street and Girard Avenue. Its pace of growth, as well as the size of the upcoming spring expansion, depends on future rounds of funding. To reach the eventual goal of a 185-station system, the remaining 112 stations would cost a total of at least $6.7 million — or more, should equipment prices escalate.

Ferrentino can’t yet disclose where the spring installations will be, but hints that there will be something close to Fairmount Park.

“We can’t suddenly put a station way up in the Wissahickon, for example, but we can kind of push the boundaries as much as possible,” Ferrentino says. “We are trying to grow as fast as possible, but we have to keep in mind operational efficiency and reliability for customers. We want the system to work.”

The possibility that up to two dozen new Indego stations will reach low-income cyclists where they live aligns with the system’s touted values. Yet as reported previously in SPOKE, every bike share program on the continent has had trouble attracting users across demographics. MOTU declined to share data on the race and income breakdowns of current Indego users. Denise

Bike Share and Low-Income Philadelphia Indego bike share station Median household income from $25,496 - $31,870 Median household income from $19,122 - $25,496 Median household income from $12,748 - $19,122 Median household income from $6,374 - $12,748 Median household income from $0 - $6,374 Map information provided by www.city-data.com

Goren, director of MOTU, says the department is still waiting on “results from surveys of our members and walk-up users,” likely to come out at the end of the year.

Demographic data was shared, however, with Temple University researchers about one month after the system launched for a study of existing stations in “underserved areas.” While the numbers may have improved since, the results didn’t look great for MOTU’s diversity goals.

A month in, Indego’s membership breakdown looked like this: 62 percent white and 12 percent Asian, but only 10 percent black and 5 percent Latino. (Non-Hispanic whites make up 36 percent of the city’s population, while Asians make up 7 percent, blacks make up 44 percent, and Latinos make up 14 percent.) Twenty-one percent of members reported earning less than $35,000 per year, a figure that also describes 40 percent of full-time workers in Philadelphia. Furthermore, 12 percent of respondents called the system cost prohibitive.

MOTU disclosed further statistics for an October story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to reporter Jason

Laughlin, officials admitted that Indego continues to struggle with diversity and that out of 7,250 monthly memberships, only 50 were paid for with cash.

According to figures obtained by SPOKE on Indego’s use by zip code, the popularity of the cash option reflects, geographically, the popularity of the system itself. Bike share membership rates are highest in the 19147 and 19146 zip codes (both comprising areas in South Philly and southern Center City), followed by 19130 (Fairmount and Francisville) and 19104 (West Philly). The latter zip code, which covers University City as well as the significantly lower-income neighborhoods of Powelton Village, Mantua, Belmont and Parkside, had the most cash-based memberships — although these only added up to 33, compared to 809 memberships in 19104 overall.

In a phone interview, Ferrentino reiterates that bike share is for “all Philadelphians within the service area,” something that city officials and Indego outreach reps have stated since before the system launched. She adds, “Neighborhood change is obviously an incredibly important factor that we don’t at the bike

“Neighborhood change is obviously an incredibly important factor that we don’t at the bike share program have a lot of control over.” share program have a lot of control over. Our goal is that existing residents see bike share for them and not just [for] newcomers.”

Ferrentino mentions that MOTU has been talking with community leaders in Strawberry Mansion and other high-poverty neighborhoods. “Station siting — it’s a really important issue,” she says, taking her time to articulate its challenges. She eventually confirms that MOTU has not adjusted its criteria or introduced any new internal requirements for what it considers “underserved.”

At launch, MOTU’s criteria for a lower-income service zone was one in which, as then-chief of staff Andrew Stober told SPOKE in April, “at least 50 percent of the households live at or below 150 percent of the poverty level, or 80 percent of the households are at or below the Philadelphia household median income.”

What exactly does that mean? For a family of four, 150 percent of the poverty line comes out to $36,375. This isn’t too far from Philly’s median household income of $37,192, per 2013 Census data, which raises the question of whether Indego’s criteria is narrow enough. More than 26 percent of Philadelphians live in poverty. Philadelphia continues to have the highest deep poverty rate of any major U.S. city, with about 185,000 residents living at half the poverty line or below.

City officials, while planning bike share, emphasized the cash-pay option as a way to ensure the system’s accessibility to unbanked and underbanked Philadelphians. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 7 percent of Philly metro area residents don’t have a bank account, while an assessment of 2009 data by the Corporation for Enterprise Development put that number at 14 percent for the city proper — one in seven Philadelphians.

The map on the opposite page shows Philadelphia neighborhoods with a median income below $31,870. Each dot represents a station in the existing Indego system. While density is key in planning any bike share program, Indego clearly has a lot of ground to cover before reaching the lion’s share of low-income Philadelphians.

De’Wayne Drummond, president of the Mantua Civic Association, is pleased that Mantua can claim two stations already. He speaks highly of outreach efforts happening in his neighborhood, where more than half of residents live below the poverty line.

Akeem Dixon, corridor manager for the 52nd Street Initiative at the Enterprise Center, also praises MOTU’s outreach. “Indego has done an excellent job of interacting with the community and offering discounts to make first-time riders comfortable giving the service a try,” Dixon, who is working to get an Indego station on West Philly’s 52nd Street corridor, writes in an email.

By all accounts, MOTU has made a concerted effort to coordinate bike share with some of the city’s poorest communities. That less than 1 percent of Indego’s monthly members used cash payment is an early disappointment. Drummond, who believes efforts could go further, recommends a family fee, that way four- or five-person households won’t have to rely on one bike at a time. Dixon, too, has concerns about the accessibility of the system, but ultimately remains optimistic.

“Continuing to offer free ride vouchers will help,” he writes. “Patience will be key. Trying something new takes time.”

ASK A...

TAXI DRIVER Name: Mike Mashal Age: 29 Driver for: 7 years From: India What have your interactions with cyclists been like?

They don’t follow rules at all. They have no sense of talking. When you go up and try to talk to them, they curse at you. They spit at you.

How do bike markings, such as lanes or sharrows, affect your job?

They [cyclists] don’t cut in front of me as much.

Would you ever consider riding a bike on the streets of Philadelphia?

No. Not at all. I ride where I live [in Broomall, Pa.], but not here.

Who’s worse: cyclists or other drivers?

Cyclists. If they follow rules, then I have no problem. The only reason I am saying this is because this guy, a month ago, he cut me off, so I try to talk to him and he started cursing at me. Luckily, I rolled my window up because he spit like that big [makes a fist] on my window. So I find them ridiculous and stupid.

S

helly Salamon had a simple plan. Inspired by a concept that had been tried and tested in places like Portland, Ore., she wanted to give cyclists the same flexibility in the bike shop that car owners have at the dealership. That is, she wanted to give them the option of buying bikes on credit.

Salamon, who owns both Fairmount Bicycles and Brewerytown Bicycles, tried to offer a promotional credit card through GE Capital (now Synchrony Financial) as an alternative to her layaway program. Cyclists could have applied for the card in either of her two stores. Here’s how it worked: The shop would inform the bank of how much the customer was willing to spend, and the bank would immediately let the shop know whether the customer was eligible for the credit to make up the difference.

The only problem? No one was interested.

“Most people didn’t want to get involved with it,” Salamon says.

“We literally had one person take advantage of it.”

Given how expensive a new bike can run, the lack of interest came as something of a surprise. For cycling enthusiasts, a top-of-the-line model can cost upward of $1,000. But buying any bike new will be pricey. Even Detroit Bikes, which touts the affordability of its American-made products, charges $699 apiece for its two models.

As Americans struggle with low wages and high debt burdens, younger cyclists — especially those with limited incomes — may tend toward beaters they can pick up for $100 or so. But there isn’t much profit in sales like that, so shop owners are struggling to figure out how to steer customers toward newer, more expensive bikes. In Philadelphia, options remain limited to credit card promotions. In some states, however, local credit unions

have partnered with bike shops to put small loans on the table.

It all started in Portland, where Unitus Community Credit Union began offering over-the-counter loans, ranging from $250 to $2,500, back in 2008. Unitus partnered with neighborhood bike shops, or “preferred dealers,” throughout the Portland metro area.

Oregon’s Trailhead Credit Union, then known as the Northwest Resource Federal Credit Union, started its own bike loan program in 2009. Credit unions in other states have followed suit, including the San Francisco Federal Credit Union and the Virginia Credit Union. The CDC Federal Credit Union, meanwhile, offers loans in three Georgia counties and to employees of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Philadelphia Federal Credit Union does not yet have such a service, but some local sellers can give customers an approximation.

Trek Bicycle Corporation offers the Trek Card, with no interest payments for 6-12 months and an annual percentage rate of 9.99. More than

The Borrowers Can credit loans for cyclists work in Philadelphia?

STORY BY JAKE BLUMGART ILLUSTRATION BY TIM PACIFIC

1,000 bike dealers across the country accept the Trek Card, including three in Philadelphia: Breakaway Bikes in Center City, Bustleton Bikes in the Northeast, and Human Zoom Bikes & Boards in Manayunk.

“We’ve offered it for about six years, and this summer I had maybe 10-15 new applications,” says Mike Honeycutt, owner of Bustleton Bikes.

“I ran maybe 30 sales this summer that were on Trek credit cards — maybe 2-3 percent of sales. It’s not much.”

For her part, Salamon thought a credit card could especially work for customers with cheap, used bikes whose repairs would cost more than the original product. Fairmount Bikes doesn’t sell any bikes for, say, $100 or $200, but the credit card would have allowed customers to buy a bike in the $400-$600 range and pay for it over the course of six months.

Brian Hackford, owner of Keswick Cycles, offers the same promotional credit card through Synchrony and for the same reasons. (In fact, Synchrony has partnered with more than 300 bike shops around the country to start programs like this.)

“If I was going to work with a local bank and try to finance a bike

for somebody or finance my own program, it would put a whole lot of liability on me,” Hackford says. “I sell bikes, not loans, so going through a much larger lending institution makes sense. It takes the liability and the loss out of my hands and ultimately I get the same sale.”

Customers at either Keswick location, in West Philly or Glenside, Pa., can take advantage of the card.

Yet it’s much more popular at the suburban store, according to Lucas Pellegrino, a Keswick sales associate.

The reason? Glenside tends to sell pricier products. “It’s worth it to use financing on a more expensive bike,” Pellegrino says.

This jives with what at least one bike shop in Portland, where loans for cyclists are now widespread, has found. According to Jesse Fairbank, floor manager at River City Bicycles, one of the largest bike retailers in Portland, customers generally take advantage of the loans for one of two reasons: They want to buy a highend product, or they’re transitioning into a car-free lifestyle. As for customers on a budget using loans to afford ordinary bikes, Fairbank says, “that’s something I haven’t encountered all that much.” Indeed, figures obtained from Unitus, the

first credit union to finance bike purchases, show that its average loan comes out to about $2,100.

While Salamon abandoned the credit card offer, she still thinks it’s a good idea, although she understands why more stores don’t want to get involved. Even if they were offered through a smaller, local institution like the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, in-store loans can still put a bike shop in an awkward position. If a customer is declined, the seller not only has to explain that to the client but then lose the sale as well.

Then there’s the bigger question of demand. For a generation increasingly saddled with debt, are loans like these even desirable? Just because a credit card is available for bike purchases doesn’t mean anyone will use it. And as the situation at Keswick suggests, higher-income suburban shoppers may be more inclined to finance a bike purchase, simply because they’re more likely to buy an expensive bike.

“I mean, it seemed like a good idea,” Salamon says. “[The credit cards] offer up to six months with no interest. But as I said, people didn’t seem to want another credit card or a credit card at all.”

SPOKE editors Alex Vuocolo and Matt Bevilacqua contributed to this report.

spoke magazine

THE NUTTER YEARS

How will cyclists look back on Philly’s outgoing mayor?

The The NUTTER NUTTER Years Years The NUTTER ars NUTTER

STORY BY ALEX VUOCOLO PHOTOS BY SALEEM AHMED ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELLIOTT LAMBORN

L

ast April, a visibly excited Mayor Nutter joined roughly 600 volunteers for the inaugural ride of the Indego bike share system. They began at Eakins Oval and soon filled the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with sky-blue bikes. Nutter, clad in a tan blazer and blue helmet, led the way.

For the Nutter administration, it was a moment seven years in the making.

For Philly cyclists, try two decades.

In the early 1990s, gun violence and budget woes dominated local headlines, but amid the crises then-mayor Ed Rendell took one of the first steps toward making Philadelphia a more bike-friendly city. He formed the Mayor’s Office of Bicycle Safety, which brought together a mix of planners, engineers and advocates tasked with finding ways to make the streets safer and more rideable. It would ultimately lay the foundation for the network of bike lanes and trails we have today.

Two decades and two mayors later, Philadelphia is in a very different place. The project begun under Rendell has continued, but the exact shape of Nutter’s legacy on bicycling remains unclear. More so than previous mayors, his administration did a lot for Philadelphians who get around by bike. But how will his achievements stack up in the long run?

Figuring that out involves putting his work in the context of the last 20 years. As Nutter told SPOKE in a Q&A interview on page 20, he owes much to his predecessors.

spoke magazine RECENT HISTORY

MORE LANES, BETTER LAWS

B

y the mid-1990s, as Rendell inched the city away from municipal bankruptcy, the Mayor’s Office of Bicycle Safety had successfully pushed for the installation of 800 bike racks in Center City and University City, 1,500 “share the road” signs across the city, and improved pavement markings at major intersections. It also completed the city’s first bike master plan, which served as the framework for future lane and trail development, in 2000.

The Office’s most enduring achievement, however, was the creation of a standard process for how the City builds bike lanes: When a road is ready for repaving, the Streets Department will look into the feasibility of adding a lane. If it makes sense from a traffic engineering point of view, Streets will present its own drawings for a bike lane and then push for implementation.

“It didn’t give us long routes, initially, because streets get resurfaced around 10 blocks at a time,” said Tom Branigan, then a lead Streets Department engineer and now the head of the Delaware River City Corporation. “But over the course of a number of years, it started to knit together.”

By the early 2000s, Philadelphia had the beginnings of a physical bike network. It also had a set policy within its government for building out that network. The question was whether that policy would endure a shift in the political tides. As it turned out, former mayor John Street, who took office in 2000, did not provide the same top-down support as Rendell.

“Under the Street administration there wasn’t really anyone tasked with setting and executing a transportation policy,” said Alex Doty, former executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, who stepped down last month to take the top spot at the League of American Bicyclists. Despite this, he added, the Streets Department continued to “very efficiently” build on the city’s bike network. For eight years, bike policy in Philadelphia was on cruise control.

T

hat was the situation Nutter walked into when he took office in 2008. The political support had tapered off, but the City was still churning out lanes. Over the course of his two terms, the goal was to bolster efforts both on the street and in City Hall.

In terms of paint on asphalt, progress came gradually. The City added 68 miles of on-road bike infrastructure — that includes lanes and sharrows, but not off-road trails — between 2007 and 2015, according to the Streets Department and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU), the de facto successor to the Mayor’s Office of Bicycle Safety. MOTU did not specify exactly how many of those 68 miles were bike lanes as opposed to sharrows.

For eight years, the city’s bike policy was on cruise control.

Mayor Nutter hires Charles Carmalt, the city’s first bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

2008

2009

Buffered bike lanes, each eight feet wide, open on Pine and Spruce streets.

The City added more than 200 miles of bike lanes between the late 1990s and 2007, but many of these were installed on wide, overbuilt boulevards that could afford to give up space. Lanes added during the Nutter years, by contrast, were placed on major bike routes, such as Pine and Spruce streets in Center City or Fairmount Avenue west of Broad Street. This often meant carving out space on busier and more contested streets. It also meant building where demand actually existed, not just where it was easy to plug in a lane.

“We couldn’t have done what [the Nutter administration] did back then,” Branigan said, referring to the John Street years. “I don’t think the political will was there. You look at it now and it seems like a no-brainer, but back then it was a little different.”

It helped that Nutter couched his vocal support of cycling in a larger vision of a greener, more sustainable city — another move that distinguished him from his predecessors. The conversation was now bigger than road safety. It focused instead on Philadelphia’s place on the global stage and whether

The Planning Commission completes the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, setting a clear framework for future bike infrastructure.

2010

City Council passes the Complete Streets Bill, establishing a number of laws protecting cyclists.

2011

The Penn Street Trail is built just off Columbus Boulevard.

2012

the city was up to the challenge of climate change.

Working on terrain almost as contested as Center City, Nutter also made significant progress on the city’s waterfront trails. By teaming up with non-profits working on the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, the administration helped add bike trails to key sections on both waterfronts. Some of these, such as the Schuylkill River Boardwalk, which connects the Schuylkill River Trail between Locust and South streets, required considerable capital and sustained political support.

The City added 18 miles of trails between 2008 and 2015, bringing the citywide total to 80 miles, according to data from MOTU. One criticism by cycling advocates, including Doty, was that the Nutter administration did not prioritize protected bike lanes — those with a physical barrier between car traffic and riders. Just one, the city’s first, is currently in the works in the Northeast. Nutter, for his part, told SPOKE that he hopes to install more before leaving office.

Another challenge for the administration was maintaining the vast network of lanes that it inherited. Miles of lane markings around the city have withered into the asphalt, disappearing completely on some streets. Sidewalk curb cuts, mandated by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, consumed more and more of the Streets Department’s budget from 2009 to 2014. By 2010, more than half of the agency’s reconstruction and resurfacing budget went to curb cuts, creating a backlog of repairs that still looms today.

An effort to remedy this situation is underway. In Center City, at least, most of the major bike lanes were repaved in the span of 2015, according to Jeannette Brugger, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for MOTU and the Streets Department.

On the policy front, Nutter made clear progress on legal and planning issues for cyclists.

In 2012, the Planning Commission completed an updated Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, reestablishing which gaps in the system needed filling and expanding the scope of the system into new areas of the city.

The Complete Streets Bill, also passed in 2012, mandated that the City account for the safety and convenience of all road users, including

Women Bike PHL, a group focused on issues pertinent to women cyclists, forms.

University Bike Collective, a West Philly advocacy group, forms.

2012

Fairmount Avenue gets an east-west bike lane.

2013

cyclists and pedestrians, further enforcing an executive order made by Nutter in 2009 with a similar mandate. In addition, the bill updated the City’s traffic code to comply with state law, made it illegal to park in bike lanes or open a car door into traffic, and called for the creation of design guidelines for streets built or modified in the future.

“The Complete Streets ordinance is a really good example of the Nutter administration’s philosophy,” Doty said, which is “getting buyin from all the different entities so that this is something that will last beyond the administration.”

AN EVOLVING CONVERSATION

I

ndego, of course, arrived as the latest and perhaps biggest bike project completed on Nutter’s watch. The system, which consists of more than 600 bikes and 73 docking stations, is a wholly new kind of public transportation and still very much an ongoing experiment.

Even before Indego, the Nutter administration established its bike-friendly credentials. While it added fewer lanes than previous administrations, the lanes it did build took on tougher, more contested streets in areas with a greater demand from cyclists.

As for policy achievements, the City now boasts an updated comprehensive bike and pedestrian plan, a guidebook for safer street design, and new laws that protect cyclists on the streets and mandate that the City recognize their needs.

As incoming mayor Jim Kenney prepares to take over at City Hall, the conversation is shifting back to road safety and a broader vision for better mobility in Philadelphia. The idea of a Vision Zero plan (a set of policies aimed at reducing traffic deaths to zero) is gaining currency, with cycling and pedestrian concerns at the center of the debate.

Whatever shape Philadelphia’s cycling policy takes, the important thing is that the next mayor sees it as an asset, according to Doty.

“Whether you end up calling that Complete Streets or Vision Zero,” he said, “it needs to continue to be a priority.”

In one of the highest-profile disputes over bike infrastructure during the Nutter years, at-large City Councilmember Bill Greenlee disrupts efforts to extend the 22nd Street bike lane.

2014

A newly opened boardwalk extends the Schuylkill River Trail from Locust Street to South Street.

A coalition of bike and pedestrian advocates starts the Better Mobility Forum in an effort to make safer streets an issue in the mayoral primaries.

Mayor Nutter forms the Bicycle Advocacy Board.

2015

The Indego system launches with 60 stations and 600 bikes.

2016

spoke magazine Was there a particular moment before getting elected mayor that you realized cycling would be a part of your agenda?

We talked about a lot of things during the campaign. I’m sure I talked about it. But there’s talking about something and then there’s actually having plans. In conversations with the Streets Department, the discussion was always, how do we get more bike lanes all across the city of Philadelphia, and how do we help ensure safety for cyclists, pedestrians, motorists? I’ve been driving my folks crazy the past few years on the issue of bike share. Quite honestly, the recession disrupted some of that, but it’s something that I’ve been particularly focused on for a long time.

In your view, what had your predecessors done to advance cycling in Philadelphia?

EXIT INTERVIEW: Michael Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia INTERVIEW BY ALEX VUOCOLO PHOTO BY SALEEM AHMED

I

n the story on page 16, I look back on Mayor Nutter’s efforts, both concrete and policy-wise, toward making Philadelphia a more bike-friendly city. Here, Nutter muses on the last eight years of bicycle planning from the point of view of the mayor’s office.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

When did cycling become a part of your agenda? Was it part and parcel to your larger goal of making the city more sustainable, or was it something that came separately?

Really more the former. When I was in City Council, I represented the 4th District, which has about 60 percent of the Fairmount Park system within it. So cycling has always been important to me. But it’s really a part of a larger sustainability effort. It’s quality of life. It’s certainly something that young people and kids really do enjoy, and it just makes the city that much more lively.

I want to be really clear: I did not bring bike lanes to Philadelphia. Previous administrations had started that. I always viewed my part of this as to expand on what’s happened in the past, to support not only bike lanes but also trails and other cycling opportunities, whether it’s Kelly Drive, Martin Luther King Drive, the [Schuylkill River Trail], and certainly areas of Fairmount Park.

How did those in City Hall view cycling when you first took office? Have you noticed a change in their attitudes over your eight years as mayor?

When you say City Hall, that’s obviously kind of a big place.

But I think there has clearly been a change in attitudes and the recognition that cycling is a significant component of a broader, multimodal transportation network. This is not a fad. This is going to be here and it’s going to grow well into the future.

Now look, we have many, many streets in Philadelphia where parking is on both sides of the street. That’s a challenge for cyclists. If you’re in that scenario, and if you’re going to try and create space, then it really means you’re probably taking away a parking lane. The first obvious, legitimate question is, where are all those cars going? That’s real. They’re not just going up in the air. They’re going somewhere. So the parking of cars is sometimes a greater challenge than securing lanes for cyclists. One just takes up a whole lot less space than the other.

How has City Council’s attitude in particular changed toward cycling? You were there not so long ago yourself.

Many of the [councilmembers] certainly recognize that cycling is here and here to stay. Cycling has really infused itself into many areas of our common, everyday experience, and I think a number of members of City Council understand that. I think we also have some more education to be provided.

How do you make the case for a cycling investment, whether it’s to City Council or to the general public?

It really does take getting out onto the streets. Whether it’s a councilmember, staffer or any high-ranking official, they really need to have their own cycling experience to at least have a better appreciation for what the rest of the general public is dealing with out there. Then, as public servants, our duty and responsibility is — once you know there is an issue — to do our best to address it in ways that help ensure safety.

In many cases, the city has foregone building bike lanes and opted for sharrows. Do you view sharrows as a permanent part of Philadelphia’s streets, or are they a precursor to better infrastructure?

As the real estate people often say, our real estate is our real estate. We’re not making any more of it. Our streets were designed in a certain way. So I think sharrows are a part of the overall built environment in the city, but even with that mind, we’re trying to figure out some different ways to use them in a more creative fashion.

From my perspective, what we really want are full-fledged bike lanes wherever you can have them, and sharrows are part of a solution where you have a more challenging built environment.

“ It is always appropriate to devote resources to public safety.”

It’s safe to say, though, that not everyone is going to do that. So how do you make the intellectual or moral case for investing in cycling?

On a day-to-day basis, I probably get more calls and expressions of concern about overall public safety or educating children or jobs. But increasingly, the cycling community as a constituency needs to be in touch with us.

They should be talking to their elected officials, in the context of, “I know there are a lot of pressing issues and challenges and problems. This one you can actually do something about.

I’m not asking you, elected official, personally to put asphalt in all the potholes. What I’m asking you to do is demonstrate a level of understanding and awareness and at least publicly express that this is a priority.”

Was it intentional that much of your administration’s early efforts focused on bringing bike lanes to Center City?

We want bike lanes all over the city, not just concentrated in Center City. We know there is a significant amount of usage in Center City. Part of that is, if there are a lot of people riding bikes, and they happen to be in Center City because they’re coming to work, you’ll see a lot of that activity here. But there are bike lanes out in West Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, and a variety of places about town. The Streets Department is always looking for bike lane opportunities for any of the streets that we repave, and we repave streets all over the city.

What areas of the city are the most underserved?

There is no neighborhood in the city where people are not riding bikes, to some extent. Some may be used more heavily than others, but frankly one thing can lead to another. When people see that there are lanes and that it’s safer to use them, they will use them. In some instances, we may be inadvertently not providing enough incentive for people to be out on bikes because we haven’t helped to create a safety network that promotes bike use. I want to see an increasingly expansive bike lane network, where appropriate, where safe, where it’s easier to do.

What will you be leaving unfinished? And what advice do you have for your successor?

I’m sure we have nowhere near as many bike lanes as I would like, but we’ve increased the amount. Protected bike lanes are critical to the future, and I’m hopeful that we’ll see at least one or two installed while I’m still in office. The Complete Streets program needs continued support, as well as many, many elements, if not the overall program, known as Vision Zero. There also needs to be a particular focus on public education, safety, and all the rules of the road. We’ve created a pretty decent platform on which the next mayor and his administration can build, but there’s still much more work to be done.

What’s at stake if the investments made during your administration are not followed up or continued?

First and foremost, I go back to public safety, which is really at its heart and soul what this is all about. Cycling is great. Walking is great. Driving a car is fantastic. But much of what we’re talking about here is the safety and security of people out on the roads, whatever their mode of transportation. You asked earlier about the moral case. It is always appropriate to devote resources to public safety. The fact that somebody might be on a bike or walking or running is secondary. If the platform that we’ve created is not built upon and enhanced by the next administration, then we run the risk of losing a certain level of the quality of life for which we are increasingly becoming known.

spoke magazine

MEAN STREET Will we ever agree about Washington Avenue?

Story by Tyler Horst | Photos by Dan Lidon

T

he saga of Washington Avenue is almost as messy as the street itself. A mix of industry, commerce, parks and rowhomes, the South Philly thoroughfare is a notoriously dicey commute full of illegally parked cars, vanishing bike lanes, and trucks that unload in the middle of the street.

These conditions add up to more than just a nuisance. All the mayhem of Washington’s two miles and 29 intersections makes it a dangerous place for any traveler, cyclist or otherwise.

Combined data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Philadelphia Police Department shows an average of 327 crashes per year along Washington over the past five years.

“People realize Washington Avenue needs some fixing,” says Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose district covers the corridor east of Broad Street. Fixing it, though, requires a tightrope balancing act across half a dozen neighborhoods, two City Council districts, and a staggeringly diverse group of businesses, residents and commuters — each of whom use the corridor in vastly different ways. Any plan

for a redesign would need to bring all of these interests to the table.

“You have to take into account all parties,” says Jasmine Sadat, district planner for the office of Kenyatta Johnson, the city councilmember representing the avenue’s western side. “How do you reach a compromise that doesn’t segregate each mode of transportation?”

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission aimed for such a compromise in 2013 and 2014, when it held a series of community meetings to discuss the results of a traffic study of Washington Avenue. The goal was to reach a consensus about how to rein in the chaos of the street and implement a new design that would satisfy all users.

Eventually, this would have taken the form of fewer traffic lanes, diagonal parking spots and other design changes.

It didn’t work. The Commission’s recommendations were met with resistance, largely from local business owners. Johnson and Squilla backed off.

City Council, to whom it fell to authorize any lane changes, failed to do so, and the campaign fell by the wayside.

“I think what happened in the last process was that a lot of people felt like it was a done deal when it was presented to them,” Squilla says. “Therefore, they thought they had no input whatsoever.”

Now, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU) has reignited the push for a Washington Avenue redesign. Cycling advocates have gotten on board. In July, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia started the Safer Washington Avenue campaign, gathering 336 signatures urging City Council to make the street a priority. A September community meeting, hosted by MOTU and

the Streets Department, asked about 200 attendees to make their own suggestions for how the street should be improved.

This marked a departure from the last go-around, in that it solicited feedback from the public even before the City put forward any recommendations. Given this more democratic approach to tackling the problem, will a compromise be met that can move Washington Avenue into a safer future, or will negotiations fizzle as they have in the past? And after all is said and done, how big of an influence will cyclists have on the conversation?

ROADBLOCKS

F

ew would argue that the corridor is not due for an overhaul. As Thomas Donatucci, president of the Washington Avenue Property Owners Association (WAPOA), told PlanPhilly in March, “This situation stinks right now. It stinks for business, it stinks for commuters, it stinks for pedestrians and it stinks for bicyclists.”

Where the debate fell apart is how, exactly, to go about making the changes to improve Washington. The Planning Commission’s recommendations included adding back-in angled parking to maximize the number of spaces and leave more room for loading zones. It also proposed reducing the number of car lanes from five to three along certain stretches of the avenue, in an effort to reduce traffic and discourage dangerous passing maneuvers.

Ultimately, groups like WAPOA and the United Merchants of the South 9th Street Businessmen’s Association shot this proposal down, arguing that it failed to address core problems on the street.

“They really didn’t look at the true way Washington Avenue is used,” says Michele Gambino, business manager for United Merchants.

A big blind spot in the Planning Commission’s study, according to Gambino, was how to keep changes from impeding the operations of businesses

Washington Avenue is full of illegally parked cars, vanishing bike lanes, and commercial activity. Cyclists often have to vie for their place.

spoke magazine

At 15th Street and Washington Avenue, in the corridor’s more industrialized western half, large supply trucks often park in bike lanes.

like those in the Italian Market. With no back-alley loading zones serving this stretch of 9th Street, merchants in the market must do their loading along Washington, as they have for years.

Times change, however, and Washington Avenue has not elided the continuous evolution of South Philly in general. Merchants still hawk everything from produce to kitchenware to wholesale clothing in and around the Italian Market, while warehouses and supply depots still dominate the west side of the avenue.

Meanwhile, younger people have flocked to the area for years in search of cheap rent, leading to an increased concern over quality-of-life issues — like street safety.

As Holly Otterbein wrote in an August Philadelphia magazine story, the debate over Washington is in many ways a fight over the corridor’s “inimitable character.”

This isn’t to say that the businesses that sustained Washington Avenue’s economy for years need to go away in order to make the street safer. Still, it’s difficult to accommodate the wide range of parties that travel or do business here.

Any alteration to the street will affect many different ways of life, and in such cases change never comes quickly or easily.

‘THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVER’

W

ashington Avenue’s competing interests had the chance to get together again on September 3, at MOTU’s public meeting. Packed to the point where several dozen people had to stand, attendees crowded around tables and demonstrated on paper what they would like to see happen on Washington. While each table managed to work out its ideas

civilly, a survey of the room revealed vastly different visions for what is even possible on the ground.

“This is an issue where it’s going to be impossible to have consensus,” said Rory Scerri, owner of Ampere Capital Group, a contracting business on Washington.

“From nine to five I’m a contractor, but at night I ride my bike all over the city,” said Scerri, who moved to Philadelphia from California and looks more like a craft beer brewer than a South Philly contractor. Still, he wasn’t too confident in the City’s ability to reconcile his needs as a business owner with his needs as a cyclist.

“This,” he said, gesturing toward the cacophonous room, “is going to take forever.”

Johnny Seng, who lives on the avenue and whose mother owns a laundromat at 18th and Washington,

takes a more optimistic view.

“Everyone’s going to want what is in their best interest, as a resident, as a biker, as a business owner,” he said. “But with the neighborhood changing so quickly over the past five years, it’s come to a point where we’ve got to make some changes.” To Seng, that means trying to understand the needs of other users on the street.

“It can’t be completely one-sided,” he added. “I don’t bike, but I can’t say I absolutely don’t want a bike lane because it doesn’t benefit me. There are people that need it.”

A COMMON CONCERN

O

ne aspect of the debate that appeals to all stakeholders is safety. The meeting’s closest moment to consensus came when one attendee mentioned children who must cross Washington to get to school each day. As the conversation around the avenue picks up again, the Bicycle Coalition has made sure to keep safety as its central talking point.

“Safety needs to trump everything,” says Bob Previdi, policy coordinator for the Bicycle Coalition. “You want to give everyone a chance to participate [in committee], and that’s fair, but you can’t let that process take over and delay safety improvements.”

Donatucci, the WAPOA president, says that only attempting to fix the parking

problem ignores the larger issue of how to make Washington a safer and more livable street. He sees rezoning the avenue from industrial to mixed-use as both an inevitable and a positive change.

“There’s a lot of hands in the mix, but we’re not all that far apart,” Donatucci says, adding that he hopes a shared concern for safety will help bring the many parties to some sort of agreement this time around.

However the City ultimately goes about taming traffic on Washington Avenue depends partly on what the Streets Department has the power, and the budget, to do. (In November, it finally got around to repainting the avenue’s fading edge lines and restoring its bike lanes.) But perhaps more important is what the diverse community groups can agree on.

“Drivers are cyclists, cyclists are drivers, we’re all pedestrians,” Previdi says.

Back at the September meeting, Gwen Lee, a local resident who described herself as “new to the debate,” watched quietly as her table hammered out a vision for Washington Avenue. While cautious about moving forward, Lee said she appreciated that the conversation was happening.

“Change is always good,” she said. “And that’s the only way you get change — to be optimistic.”

SPOKE editors Alex Vuocolo and Matt Bevilacqua contributed to this report.

COLD BREW + CARGO TRIKE =

Ready to get awesome?

For rental inquiries, hit us up at events@hubbubcoffee.com

Come hang out!

Center City - 1717 Arch St. Univ. City - 3736 Spruce St. Main Line - 232 N. Radnor Chester Rd.

Responsibly sourced coffee

GREENSTREET coffee co.

WWW.GREENSTREETCOFFEE.COM

Locally made snacks Free WiFi Twitter & Instagram: @HUBBUBCOFFEE HUBBUBCOFFEE.COM

ART RACK CONFIDENTIAL Bike parking comes in all shapes, sizes and efficiencies STORY BY MATT BEVILACQUA ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELLIOTT LAMBORN

L

et’s pretend, for a moment, that you’re commuting via bicycle from Center City to South Philly. Midway through the trip, you remember that you need to grab something from CVS. You roll up to the location at 21st and South, or the one at 11th and Washington, or the one at 10th and Reed, and look for a place to park.

What do you find? Not any standard bike racks, surely — there are few if any inverted Us in sight.

Instead, you’re expected to lock your ride to a row of short metal hoops that don’t even rise high enough off the ground to reach a bike frame. It’s a frustrating, not to mention less-than-secure, setup, and it likely explains why these racks so often sit empty.

In fact, these kinds of racks are disallowed in the city, according to standards set by the Philadelphia Streets Department. Here’s how the department’s

Bike Rack Installation Guide characterizes the bike parking found outside several CVS locations in Philly: Because the bike rack structure is short, it cannot support an upright bicycle in two places. Due to its low-to-the-ground design, it does not enable a bicycle’s frame and at least one wheel to be locked to it. Additionally, this bike rack is a trip hazard for pedestrians.

All private property owners who wish to have bike racks near their businesses (or, in rare cases, their homes) must procure and install the racks on their own time and dime. Before that can happen, though, they must submit an application for approval with the Streets Department. The racks described in these applications must meet a number of requirements that take into account such factors as design, size and placement.

Philly Bike Racks An incomplete study THE GOOD The inverted U, perhaps the most common rack design in Philly.

A hoop. Simple and easy.

The lollipop. Many of these were fashioned out of former parking meters.

THE BAD Found outside many CVS locations in Philly.

Sometimes mistaken for boot scrapers.

The schoolyard rack, which many people don’t know how to use. (You lift your front wheel over the top.)

THE STRANGE In case you forget why they are there, some art racks literally resemble bicycles.

The cacti outside Taco Riendo, their arms sticking out in awkward directions.

These deconstructionist chairs on Frankford Avenue are bewildering and often sit empty.

THE AMBIGUOUS Skaters aren’t allowed in Love Park, but no one said anything about locking a bike up to this statue.

They can also fit a U-lock around a bike frame and one wheel.

Give the most reviled public art in town a new function the next time you stop by PAFA.

Inverted Us can support a bike frame in two places.

Because you’re supposed to place bikes over a schoolyard-style rack, the setup cannot fit a U-lock around both the frame and one wheel.

To confuse tourists, mostly.

“ WE’RE LEARNING FROM PAST DESIGNS THAT YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO FIT U-LOCKS.”

According to Streets Department Commissioner David Perri, the biggest details to look out for include making sure each rack is ground-supported (which limits height) and that the design doesn’t pose a threat to public safety (children, in particular, like to climb on the more whimsical-looking racks). Beyond that, Streets considers the following criteria: that the rack in question doesn’t block fire hydrants, parking spaces for cars, and the public right of way in general; that digging the foundation won’t run into any underground infrastructure; that the rack support a bike frame upright in two places, prevent the wheel of a locked bike from tipping over, and fit the frame and one wheel in a standard U-lock; that the material be resistant to destruction or disassembly from handheld tools; and that the paint be resistant to rust.

Streets has received applications for a total of 85 bike racks since September 2014, according to a department spokesperson. However, the City does not track how many of those were actually installed, and Streets declined to say how many applications got rejected in the same period of time.

Most of the racks you see around city streets — inverted Us, large hoops or lollipops — are considered “standard,” and only need to pass muster with the Streets Department. Sometimes, though, an applicant will opt for a bike rack that deviates from the “standard” style. These are considered “art” or “sculptural” racks, and they have a tougher bar to clear.

“When you get something unique, you’re gonna need to get engineering involved,” Perri says.

Before getting approval from the Streets Department, art racks must undergo a review from the Philadelphia Art Commission. Then, on a case-by-case basis, Streets or an independent engineer must approve the design. (Once a certain design — a peace sign, for instance — gets the OK, future racks with the same specs needn’t go through the process again.)

“Beyond just being an amenity for bicyclists, art racks can be an attraction of their own on a city street,” Perri says. “We’re perfectly fine with folks that propose

unique designs. It helps give neighborhoods and commercial strips their own character and their own individual identity.”

In Philadelphia, one is most likely to find art racks around the Northern Liberties or Fishtown neighborhoods. Frankford Avenue, specifically, plays host to all sorts of art racks. Credit this to the New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), which has used specially designed bike racks in its effort to brand Frankford as an arts corridor. Starting in 2007, it applied for funding to obtain and install zany, colorful or interesting-looking racks up and down the avenue.

“As cycling becomes more and more prominent and more of a cultural movement, how do we integrate the arts community and the cycling community together?” says Sam Thomas, commercial corridor coordinator for NKCDC. “The art racks became the most obvious way to do that.”

NKCDC owns a number of properties up and down Frankford Avenue, many of which sport bike racks out front. The development corporation also works with private businesses to coordinate the installation and placement of bike parking, much of it designed by local artists.

“It’s something that people ask us about a lot,” Thomas says. “When I go out and talk to folks [to encourage installing bike racks], they always go, ‘Well, what about the art racks?’ I think the standard inverted Us people are OK with, but really people love the art racks, and the feedback we’ve gotten about them has been overwhelmingly positive.”

In the early stages of NKCDC’s program — when it was “kind of a pilot thing,” as Thomas puts it — a number of bike racks went up that made people scratch their heads. These didn’t see much use. Thomas recalls one in particular that couldn’t fit a U-lock, which essentially defeats the purpose of outdoor bike parking in the first place. After all, inverted Us have an intuitive design, even if they aren’t fun to look at.

“Utility-wise, we’re learning from past designs that

spoke magazine you have to be able to fit U-locks,” Thomas says. The troublesome rack, which stood outside Circle Thrift at Frankford Avenue and Dauphin Street, has since been removed.

However, NKCDC can’t respond to every complaint about a bike rack with removal or design changes. It simply doesn’t have the money left over from initial rounds of funding.

“We obviously don’t want to build something that people can’t use,” Thomas says. He adds that right now, there are no plans for installing new bike racks — something else contingent on future funding.

So what happens when a bad design slips through? A cursory look at several examples of art racks around the city reveals that their designs don’t always meet Streets Department criteria. The cactus-shaped racks outside Taco Riendo, a popular Mexican restaurant at 5th and Thompson streets, arguably fail to support a bike frame in two places due to appendages that jut out in different directions. Over on Frankford Avenue just south of Berks Street, racks in the shape of abstract chairs don’t offer any intuitive way to securely fit a U-lock around a bike frame and wheel.

You can even find schoolyard-style bike parking, a standard design explicitly prohibited in the Streets Department’s Bike Rack Installation Guide, in places

ASK A...

TAXI DRIVER Name: Tayo (he declined to give his last name) Age: 47 Driver for: 15 years From: Nigeria What have your interactions with cyclists been like?

It’s OK. The bike is there and has been for centuries.

The car, too. And with the bike, there are few of them. Everybody has to do their own [thing]. The bike has to exist, the way the car exists. You don’t expect the whole city to be driving. Sometimes, people don’t feel like driving.

ranging from the Little Berlin art space in Kensington to the Acme supermarket at 10th and Reed.

“If the applicant gets a permit from us for one type of rack and then puts something else in, we’re gonna hold them accountable for making that switch and for not following the instructions,” says Perri, the Streets Department commissioner. “If it doesn’t meet the standards, then it’s subject to being removed by the Streets Department and confiscated.”

Where does that leave CVS? A spokesperson for the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but a manager at one CVS location in Philadelphia did open up about the less-than-ideal bike parking outside his store.

“I get quite a few complaints about that bike rack,” he says, speaking anonymously due to the company’s media policy. He explains that CVS racks adhere to an official model and directs questions about the process to corporate. When I inform him about the Streets Department’s policies, he sounds unsurprised. “I don’t know why they haven’t been taken out,” he says of the bike racks.

Despite this, and the racks’ apparent unpopularity, the employee says no one from the City has contacted him about it. “I haven’t had any issues with the Streets Department,” he says.

How do bike markings, such as lanes or sharrows, affect your job?

Bike lanes, they’re in most cities now. Bike lanes in Center City are few, compared with some other countries. In Europe — wow, don’t joke. Here, there are few. Everybody should just mind their business and have a lot of patience, that’s it.

What would make it easier for taxi drivers and cyclists to share the road?

In cities, there’s a more combined energy. It’s not congested every day, but it’s busy. In Philadelphia, the population is more increased every day. But people have to be patient. Everywhere they have different ways of living. So if you want to ride your bike, there’s nothing wrong. If you want to drive a car, there’s nothing wrong. You have to have patience for everything. The city is going to be the city.

Given your experience, would you ever consider riding a bike on the streets of Philadelphia?

Yeah. Why not? If I’m in Center City, I’ll ride the bike if it’s a convenience for me to get where I want to get quick.

Upriver The long, careful process of building Northeast Philly’s waterfront trail Story and photos by Bradley Maule Infographics by Elliott Lamborn

S

ix months into his first term as mayor, on a stage inside the Independence Seaport Museum, Michael Nutter gave his blessings to a plan that would change the course of the Delaware River waterfront. In endorsing the “Master Plan for the Central Delaware,” he applauded the relaunch of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) and invited the public back to the historic but then-maligned river that gave Philadelphia its very existence.

Later the same year, 25 miles north, another non-profit development group called the Delaware River City Corporation (DRCC) quietly cut the ribbon to herald a new era for a different, and in many ways more challenging, stretch of waterfront.

A mile-long bike and pedestrian trail

where Pennypack Park meets the Delaware opened in November 2008. With it, DRCC recognized its first of many projects that would bring Philadelphians to a section of the river known more for its faded industry and an elevated highway than for recreational bike rides. When complete, the entire 11-mile North Delaware Greenway will run from Port Richmond to Bucks County — and function as Northeast Philly’s contribution to the region’s trail network, not to mention an integral part of the 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway.

While DRWC has opened three permanent pier parks and seasonal spaces like Spruce Street Harbor Park, it’s had the advantages of already owning much of its land and the high visibility of a central location. DRCC, meanwhile, has

had to navigate a complex network of lesser-known spaces, some industrial, some postindustrial, to breathe life into a contiguous Northeast Philly waterfront.

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Borski championed the idea — a greenway to slink through the Northeast’s rusting waterfront — to provide recreational opportunities in his district that had never been there before. In 2004 he founded DRCC, which laid the trail’s groundwork in a master plan the following year. A decade later, with Borski as the corporation’s chairman of the board, parts of that trail are ready for use.

“Our charge with the [North Delaware] Greenway is to connect the adjacent communities to the river,” says Tom Branigan, who became DRCC’s executive director in 2011. (He previously spent 38

Port Richmond Trail: Opened in October 2013, this 1.9-mile section follows Allegheny Avenue from Richmond Street to Delaware Avenue, where it connects to Pulaski Park and turns north, continuing to Lewis Street. Trees and plantings buffer the trail from traffic, including trucks bound for the Tioga Marine Terminal.

A new bridge will replace the old K&T Railroad crossing over Frankford Creek.

years as an engineer with the Philadelphia Streets Department, during which time he spearheaded the development of bike lanes and infrastructure.) While that sounds sensible enough, it’s particularly challenging in a stretch of town once dominated by industry across many miles and many properties. To that end, DRCC has partnered with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PPR) to manage the necessary land.

“Everything that we develop and build will be part of PPR’s inventory: their property, their right-of-way, their trees,” Branigan says. “So we coordinate closely

Delaware Avenue Extension: One of the key components of the Greenway, this project will extend Delaware Avenue from Lewis Street to the Frankford Boat Launch and, ultimately, connect to I-95 as part of PennDOT’s rebuild. In the long term, it will remove trucks from small streets in Bridesburg, serve the expanded Dietz & Watson facility, and allow the separated Greenway to continue northward.

K&T Trail: Following the right-of-way of the old Kensington and Tacony Railroad, this 2-mile segment will run from the Frankford Boat Launch to the Tacony Boat Launch, at Princeton Avenue.

The 70-acre former site of the Philadelphia Coke Company will connect the Port Richmond and K&T sections of the trail.

with them, work with them to help us acquire property to build the trails.”

The project also falls within a master plan for trails throughout the city, adopted by the Planning Commission in 2013 and developed in collaboration with PPR and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU).

“The amount of coordination going on between City agencies, the State, the feds, and the non-profit partner to get these projects completed is key,” says Rob Armstrong, PPR’s capital projects manager.

The roster includes the City’s Streets, Water, Commerce and Law departments,

the Planning Commission, MOTU, City Council, and one perhaps surprising partner: the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

“PennDOT is doing an immense amount of work,” Armstrong says of the state agency, known in the area more for its ongoing rebuild of an aging stretch of I-95 than for creating urban parks. “PennDOT’s designing and building a separated trail for PPR and the City — and its citizens. This is very forward thinking of them.”

Jeannette Brugger, MOTU’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, agrees. “PennDOT is acknowledging that highways impact

Tacony Holmesburg Gap: Currently in design, this will connect the Greenway to the existing trail at Pennypack on the Delaware. Details of the route are being determined across several properties, including the old St. Vincent’s Home and multiple recycling facilities.

Pennypack on the Delaware: This 65-acre park, tucked behind the Holmesburg prison complex and the Riverview Home for the Aged, opened in 1999; the paved trail through the park was the first section of the Greenway to formally open, in 2008.

At the northern end of the park, the trail will continue across a new bridge over the mouth of Pennypack Creek.

The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge as seen from Lardner’s Point Park, which includes sections of the Upper Delaware Greenway.

neighborhoods, and this is a way to give back to them,” she says. “What we’re seeing is a shift in policy and practice. They’re still doing I-95, but they’re also considering bikes and pedestrians.”

Bridesburg, a neighborhood just north of Frankford Creek, demonstrates what this sort of trail could do for communities throughout the Northeast. Hemmed in by I-95, the Betsy Ross Bridge and several industrial sites, Bridesburg has for decades been a riverside neighborhood without a waterfront.

“Industry long ago caused a shutoff to the river,” says Joe Slabinski, a funeral

Baxter Trail: This northernmost segment of the trail, from Pennypack Creek to Pleasant Hill Park, is under construction. In collaboration with the Streets and Water departments, PPR and DRCC are installing the 2-mile trail, set to open next year.

Pennypack on the Delaware, opened in 2008, was the first section of the trail ready for public use.

director and president of the Bridesburg Community Development Corporation.

“But now that it’s gone, we’ve had an awakening to come back to the river.”

Take the case of Dietz & Watson, the deli meat and cheese empire headquartered on the Delaware River in Bridesburg. In a deal struck last year that involved the City, the State and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Dietz & Watson will move to the nearby site of the Frankford Arsenal, a former munitions plant. This will open up 10 acres of new park space through which the greenway will pass.

When built, the park will sit at the foot of Orthodox Street, one of three streets DRCC has designated as connectors from neighborhoods to the trail. Along with Magee and Princeton avenues, Orthodox Street will feature plantings and signage leading to the waterfront, and potentially include a separate bike lane as well.

“All of this is really generating excitement and awareness,” Slabinski says, not just of his Bridesburg neighbors but of everyone in the project’s area.

“People want to see action, and now that it’s actually happening, they’re expecting great things.”

O

n the January night that my husband and I bought a pregnancy test, we rode our tandem bike to CVS. The test was positive.

My first trimester coincided with a pretty nasty winter, so I spent part of those secret-keeping, nausea-filled early weeks riding the Broad Street Line more than usual. My 2.5-mile commute took longer via my walking/SEPTA combo than by bike. In the time it took to tiptoe on unshoveled sidewalks to Broad Street, I could have already been locking up at 16th and JFK. So on the days the snow melted enough to make bike lanes passable, I’d ride to work.

With the arrival of spring and my second trimester, the pregnancy announcements begat concerned interest from family and friends. Nearly every person who asked my due date or how I was

feeling followed up with: “Are you still riding your bike? When will you stop?” When I said that I had no plans to stop, the response was always, “My doctor would never let me do that.”

I didn’t find much support online, either. The websites or personal stories I came across usually depicted some fabulous Scandinavian enjoying her vast network of protected lanes. Unlike me, she didn’t have to battle traffic in South Philly and Center City each day. Still, I could not find a single data point proving that riding a bicycle is more dangerous for pregnant women than riding in a car or taking any other mode of transportation.

This left plenty of unanswered questions. Is there any reason why pregnant women should avoid their bicycles? On the other side of the coin, are there any potential benefits to biking while pregnant?

spoke magazine

After some digging, I did find a 2014 Canadian study on driving a car while pregnant. It reported a 42 percent increase in motor vehicle crashes when a pregnant woman is driving, and cited motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of fetal death related to maternal trauma. (You could possibly argue that Canadian laws are safer for drivers and cyclists, meaning this number would be higher in the U.S., but that’s a different story.) While pregnant women sit around in fear about eating a piece of raw fish, we really should be providing prenatal education on the larger risk of car safety. Even better, we could make our streets friendlier to other forms of transportation so fewer pregnant women get behind the wheel.

coordinator at the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, rode her bike until four days before she gave birth. She commuted to work and ran errands throughout the city, just as she had before her pregnancy.

“A few times men in vehicles would ask, ‘Where’s the baby?’ in reference to my sign, and I’d point to my big belly and get a chuckle,” says Brugger, who also rocked a “Baby on Board” sign during her pregnancy.

In speaking with other women who rode while pregnant, many mentioned that they felt more comfortable cycling than walking. With widening hips, joint pain, pelvic pressure, and many other charming side effects of growing a baby for nine-plus months, sitting is often easier than standing.

Why not bike instead of walk?

“After six months I had significant pelvic pain while walking, which wasn’t an issue while cycling,” Brugger says.

“Cycling helped me keep mobile and carry on my normal activities better than walking could.”

Kate Mellet, a Graduate Hospital resident who also rode while pregnant, recalls a similar experience. “Cycling’s a great way to get around town and reduces stress on your joints that are now having to deal with increased weight, and for me it brought me joy,” she says. “I always love getting on a bicycle and feeling the wind on me.”

“ After six months I had significant pelvic pain while walking, which wasn’t an issue while cycling.”

Christy Santoro, a certified professional midwife who attended my birth, assured me that she, too, had biked through pregnancies — the second while carrying her toddler on a seat.

“As a midwife, I encourage my clients to continue cycling during pregnancy as long as they feel comfortable,” says Santoro, who has provided prenatal care and birth services for more than 15 years. “If you are an experienced, confident rider, staying on your bike can be a great way to get exercise and get around the city when long walks may be more challenging.”

She adds that for inexperienced riders, pregnancy isn’t the best time to start learning how to ride a bike.

As was the recurring theme in my prenatal care, Santoro told me to listen to my body. Unlike driving, a passive activity that may not offer up signals that reaction time or physical capabilities are changing, you have to be self-aware of your capacity to ride a bicycle, especially through city streets.

“As the pregnant cyclist’s body changes, the center of gravity moves,” Santoro says. “One may need to adjust your seat and handlebars to be more comfortable and upright to allow for the growing belly.”

As my third trimester began, my husband ordered me an upright cruiser. He equipped it with a milk crate, so I could access my water at each red light, and a “Baby on Board” sign to let drivers know to give me some space and patience.

Jeannette Brugger, pedestrian and bicycle

FACING JUDGMENT

F

or me, cycling is first and foremost a way to get around. I’m not very fast, and I certainly didn’t get any faster as my pregnancy wore on. I expected that any bike-car hostility might subside as I proudly rode my green cruiser in a maternity dress and white helmet.

Instead, I became the target of more than my fair share of daily ire between Passyunk Square and Center City. As I took the lane in sluggish rush-hour traffic, drivers would tell me to get in the bike lane when, in fact, there was no bike lane. One morning an older man pulled next to me and said, “You’re going to get hit.” I tried to respond as calmly as my hormones would let me.

“I’ll only get hit if you hit me,” I said. He told me it was my choice and then, looking down to note that I was pregnant, scolded me further.

One of my most memorable encounters was with a woman around my age in an SUV. As she gunned her

She punctuated her tirade with, “Yeah, you should be walking. You’re pregnant.” engine and repeatedly screamed “Sidewalk!,” I knew to let her pass at the next stop sign. Except, as is often the case on single-lane streets, I kept catching up to her. When we came eye to eye, I told her it was illegal for me to ride on the sidewalk, and that’s when she unleashed the obscenities. When I hopped off my bike at my destination, she punctuated her tirade with, “Yeah, you should be walking. You’re pregnant.”

There’s no retort you can think of in moments like these that will diffuse the conflict or explain that I was following not only the law, but also the recommendation of my medical provider. Every person that shared their story with me said if they could change one thing to make cycling in Philadelphia friendlier to pregnant women, it would be education. I have to hope that if motorists would consider the informed, healthy choices we make, and see us as the mothers we are about to become, they would give us the patience we ask for. And maybe even the lane.

ASK A...

TAXI DRIVER

‘YOU GO GIRL’

I

rode my bike to work until the day after my due date. (I didn’t know it then, but I’d wait another week before going into labor.) While a few women I spoke to about their pregnant cycling stopped due to the weather or difficulties with balance, most rode nearly until giving birth.

“I almost rode my bike to the doctor on the day I got sent to the hospital for an emergency c-section because of preeclampsia, but I was so ill and exhausted, I was too tired to ride that day and took the bus,” says Mary Richardson Graham, of South Philly. “I still regret not biking to the hospital.”

In my case, I remember exactly one stranger shouting words of encouragement during those 40 weeks and one day. He was sitting on his stoop on 15th Street just south of South. I gave him a thumbs-up and rang my bell in thanks. Melissa Hays, of South Philly, had a similar experience when a woman at 15th and Snyder exclaimed, “You go girl!

You’re going to make one strong mama!”

We often discount what encouragement can offer for anyone taking on a challenge, especially the unknowable transition into motherhood. I felt relieved and bolstered when friends, family and colleagues eventually started telling me how badass I was and kept any reservations to themselves.

Here’s what didn’t happen in those nine months: my water breaking on Spruce Street; my balance wavering, causing me to tip over and injure my baby; the 11 o’clock news reporting on the aggressive Philly driver who ran down a careless pregnant lady on her bike.

In October, on an unseasonably warm day that would have been great for a ride, we met our healthy baby girl. About eight weeks after that, I got on my bike again, surprised by my speed, delighting in the familiarity of pedaling, and relishing the stillness of being alone, even on crowded Philly streets. In April, my daughter and I joined a Kidical Mass jaunt in our secondhand Zigo, a kid-friendly cargo bike, and took our first ride together.

Name: Alex Okolosi Age: 51 From: Nigeria What have your interactions with cyclists been like?

I always give them the right away. They’ve got their own lane. I’ve got my own lane. I respect their lane. They respect my lane.

They don’t bother me.

How do bike markings, such as lanes or sharrows, affect your job?

It creates a lot of traffic in some areas. So instead of taking five minutes it probably takes me 10, 15 minutes. But I can live with that.

What would make it easier for taxi drivers and cyclists to share the road?

Whatever is being done now is kind of working.

Who’s worse: cyclists or other drivers?

Probably other drivers. I mean, bikes don’t cut me off.

EXIT INTERVIEW: Alex Doty, head of the League of American Bicyclists INTERVIEW BY MATT BEVILACQUA | PHOTO BY RACHEL LINCOLN

N

ot long after his son was born in 2000, Alex Doty found himself volunteering at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. The thenscrappy organization had just one full-time employee, with Doty, a relative

newcomer to urban bicycling, eventually joining part-time. Since then, the Coalition has grown into a considerably influential advocacy group, with about 20 employees working out of its 11th-floor Walnut Street office. Doty, meanwhile, became acting executive director in 2004 and led the Coalition until his last day on October 30.

Doty, 47, will head to the League of American Bicyclists, for which he will

you need to build the infrastructure in order to get people to bike. In Philadelphia, it’s been easier in some respects because it’s clear that we’re just trying to accommodate something that people are already doing.

Philadelphia’s city government has

spend three days a week in Washington, D.C. (though he plans to continue living

many entrenched interests fighting to

in Philadelphia). Here, he reflects on his time as the city’s highest-profile cycling

maintain the status quo. In this climate,

advocate and the shape that his advocacy might take in the future.

how did you get cycling on the agenda?

How did you make sure it stayed on the

This interview has been edited for clarity

2006 or so. It took almost 10 years to get

and length.

the 200-mile bike lane network put in.

How did the conversation around cycling change, politically, in your 15 years here?

The recognition of how many more

That was the result of commitments that were made before I was at the Bicycle Coalition, in the Rendell administration.

What the politicians have done is try to

people are biking. Fifteen years ago the

keep up with what Philadelphians are

city had started to put in bike lanes. That

doing. People are biking, and we’re trying

was a process that went on from 1996 to

to get the infrastructure in. In other cities,

agenda?

We’re interested in trying to get particular infrastructure, but we’re even more interested in trying to build relationships with the decision makers and implementers. We’ve reached a point now where we can have exploratory conversations with Streets Department engineers about what’s possible. We also

have spent a lot of time and effort to understand the obstacles and challenges that engineers and planners face on the City’s side of the table. In trying to understand those, we try to navigate as many of them as we can. Sometimes, you get to a point where you have confrontation. But more often, we can navigate things that we want by trying to problem solve. There’s enough trust on the part of the engineers and planners that they’re willing to entertain different scenarios knowing that if they don’t work out, we won’t throw people under the bus.

or needs. But, actually, it’s pretty clear what bicyclists want. They want to feel safer on the street. There are a lot of bicyclists who have great dreams about what a car-free Center City would look like, or what a South Philly street could look like if you take away parking.

The job of the Bicycle Coalition is sometimes to be the reality check about what’s possible. As much as we love how bicyclists have become a larger population, even in the most bicycled neighborhoods it’s still only 5-10 percent of people in that zip code. So you need to figure out how to coexist, how to make all of this work together.

look like in the future? Will its role

We have to balance what’s possible.

We are trying to push the edge of what’s acceptable. To go out and demand things that can’t be done is, for us, to be abdicating our responsibility to bicyclists to get the best product that we can on the street. And I appreciate the fact that people would like more. I would like more. But our job, day in and day out, is to assess the range of what’s possible and to push for the thing that’s at the highest end of that range. And I think that we’ve done that.

Now, do I feel like Philadelphia should have been the last major city to get a physically protected bike lane?

No. But, the City of Philadelphia also did the best job of launching bike share and making it available to low-income communities of any big city so far in the United States. Sometimes, the Bicycle Coalition’s role is to be the responsible adult in the room. And I think that it’s important to have dreamers out there putting out great concepts. That helps the Bicycle Coalition, because we need people who are farther out than we are in order to get our work done.

On those issues where compromise is necessary, is there a time in the near future where you think cycling advocates, and the Coalition in particular, can reignite the push?

Specifically, I wonder about fighting to remove parking lanes.

On Spruce and Pine streets, we found there was not enough demand on both of those travel lanes, so that taking it down to one lane made sense from a traffic engineer’s perspective. The first place where you would think about taking out parking is a place where there isn’t high What’s one achievement of the demand for parking. There aren’t a lot of Coalition that you would like to opportunities there. I don’t see expanded in the future? think bicyclists are going to win by saying, “You “Sometimes, the Bicycle Coalition’s role is There is tremendous should take out parking in potential in the Cadence to be the responsible adult in the room.” order to get a bike facility.”

Youth Cycling program that The way that you can win we merged into the Bicycle is to get community buy-in In recent years, the Coalition has Coalition two years ago. What I’m most to the idea that you don’t need this much faced criticism for embracing certain excited about, with kids cycling, is that parking, and that there are benefits to projects that some say don’t go far we are thinking about the bicycle as a people other than bicyclists in taking enough to protect cyclists. How would tool — not the biggest tool, but still a tool out parking. That’s a long conversation, — to address some of the most profound you respond to critics who say that the and something that requires bicyclists to challenges that our city faces.

Coalition hasn’t pushed hard enough build coalitions and collaborations with on these projects? neighborhood groups.

What do you think the Coalition will change as cycling becomes more popular and politically attractive?

Because the strengths and weaknesses of the next executive director will be different from mine, I think that will lead to a stronger organization. There is still a lot of room for growth. By making bicycling more social, we attract more people to it and urge more people to do it. It’s not just the number of bicyclists that has changed over the years; it’s also who you see out there biking. You see a much broader spectrum. It’s much less the “aggressive young male” — that’s what I was 15 years ago. Hopefully we’ll continue to see bicyclists in the city look more and more like the cross-section of the population of the city.

Now that the Coalition has a seat at the table, have you found it challenging to stay on message and accommodate various different interests?

As the diversity of bicyclists expands, you have a more diverse set of demands

You’re headed to the League of American Bicyclists. What do you expect will change about your advocacy work at the national level?

At the Bicycle Coalition, I have the hammer in my hand. At the League, I’m the one in charge of the toolbox, and I’m trying to figure out the different tools that we need for urban advocacy in a city like Philadelphia, what we need for a city like Harrisburg, [and] what we need for suburbs. Those are things I’ve thought about here in Pennsylvania, but now I’m charged with thinking about not just one state but 50 different states. I’m trying to get the League to do a better job of connecting with local advocates and advocacy groups like the Bicycle Coalition, and trying to do more to understand the needs of those groups. The League has done really good work to produce tools that, with some modifications, can become more useful and more powerful to local advocates.

Contributors Andrew Zaleski writes about the intersection of technology, politics and cities for local and national publications. He is a regular contributor to Fortune magazine and Politico Magazine.

Leigh Goldenberg is director of marketing at Wash Cycle Laundry and previously had a decade-long career in nonprofit theatre. She also volunteers with the South Philly Food Co-op and Friends of Kirkbride Elementary.

Bradley Maule is the founder of Philly Skyline and coeditor of Hidden City Philadelphia.

Miguel Co is a freelance illustrator and University of the Arts graduate whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Las Vegas Weekly and elsewhere. He lives in South Philly.

Cassie Owens, based in her native Philadelphia, reports on cities and culture. Her writing has appeared in Philadelphia City Paper, Next City, CNN.com and elsewhere.

Dan Lidon is a commercial and editorial photographer based in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in JUMP, Philly Beer Scene and elsewhere.

Grace Hwang is a designer working in advertising during the day and an illustrator at night. Her work can be found at iamgracehwang.com.

Hannah Candelaria earned an architecture degree at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and currently freelances in graphic design. Her work can be found at hannahcandelaria.com.

Jake Blumgart is a freelance reporter, researcher and editor based in Philadelphia. He writes about labor, transit, housing and urban issues for publications such as Next City, Slate and Al Jazeera America.

Rachel Lincoln is a Washington, D.C.-based photographer who specializes in weddings, portraits and commercial photography. Her work can be found at RLincoln.com.

Saleem Ahmed is a photographer and multimedia professor based in Philadelphia. He is also active in nonprofit arts education projects in Bolivia. His work can be found at saleem.us.

Tim Pacific is an illustrator and designer formerly based in Philadelphia. He has contributed to publications such as Next City and Ask Magazine. He has also designed promotional materials for the Fairmount Park Conservancy and AIGA Philadelphia.

Tyler Horst is a Philadelphia-based writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in JUMP, Hardcore Droid and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Justin Durner has done photography for Reebok, ESPN The Magazine and the American Cancer Society.

Correction: A story in the previous issue of SPOKE magazine misreported the date of a bike crash involving Trophy Bikes owner Mike McGettigan. It happened in the mid-1970s, not the mid-1990s. “Thanks for making me younger,� McGettigan tells SPOKE.

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

FEBRUARY 28, 2016

PHILLY’S LARGEST OUTDOOR ICE SKATING RINK

RIVERRINK.COM/SPOKE 215-925-RINK

101 S. Columbus Blvd. | Columbus Blvd. @ Market St. Blue Cross RiverRink

@River_Rink

Blue_Cross_RiverRink

SPOKE magazine is a free quarterly created and distributed in Philadelphia. Š2015 all rights reserved.