The PA Senate is standing in the way of protected bike lane installations across the state

Illustration by Sean Rynkewicz

By Randy LoBasso

Urging his colleagues in the state legislature to act swiftly on parking-protected bike lane and pedestrian plaza legislation, Pennsylvania State Senator Larry Farnese of Philadelphia penned a dire warning June 19.

“If we fail to act … we risk the loss of several major bike lane projects funded for construction this year,” Farnese wrote to the Senate Transportation Committee leadership, senators Kim Ward and John Sabatina. “[W]e must act now in order to decrease the amount of bicycle fatalities in our state, increase the safety of all individuals on our roads, and to make sure we appropriately use taxpayer dollars for future road paving projects.”

That week came and went. 

And although the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed its own bike lane bill, the Senate Transportation Committee failed to bring the legislation up for vote before it dismissed for the summer. The next chance to work on this legislation is later this month, when the legislature reconvenes.

In the meantime, though, because Pennsylvania senators failed to act, streets infrastructure projects around the state have been delayed and more lives were put at risk. 

Pennsylvania bike lanes and the law

Let me first say: this shouldn’t be going on. 

People who commute by bicycle are very rarely considered when laws are written and infrastructure is installed.

For instance, in Title 75 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) says motor vehicles must park within 12 inches of a curb. It further clarifies that line-striping and flex posts cannot be interpreted as a curb. This presents a hurdle for parking protected bike lane installations because line striping and flex posts are often used to separate the parked cars from the bike lane.

To install parking protected bike lanes on our city streets would require a legislative change to the vehicle code that specifically says a motor vehicle can park more than 12 inches from a curb. It’s easier said than done given Pennsylvania’s legislature.

The push for legislative action

Cities like Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and, yes, Philadelphia, have protected bike lane projects that are waiting for state approval. In some cases, like that of Parkside Avenue in West Philadelphia, the bike lane has already been built and striped. The City just needs the go ahead to move parking away from the curb.

Bike groups around the state have not been waiting patiently for such
permissions. 

In April, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, where I work, and Bike Pittsburgh launched a campaign with People for Bikes organizing people all over
Pennsylvania to demand the Senate and House Transportation Committees vote on these bills. In May, the mayors of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Lancaster co-wrote a letter asking for this legislation to come up for a vote. 

To give credit where it’s due, the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee took up the bill in June, and it passed unanimously. It was taken up by the full Pennsylvania House of Representatives and passed nearly unanimously, 200-1, soon after.

To become law, the Senate needed to take up the legislation, pass it, and give it to the governor. But the Senate did nothing. And as streets and roads across the Commonwealth are paved in the summer and fall, the result is that many have been paved without safety improvements.

PA senators return to work on September 23, and advocates will be there lobbying for safe bike lanes.

Streets at risk

In addition to the aforementioned Parkside Avenue, 5th Street, Lindberg Boulevard through Southwest Philadelphia, and the Chestnut Street Bridge, are all ready to install protected bike lanes. The Pennsylvania Senate holding this legislation back not only harms these projects; it also delays others from beginning.

PennDOT and the City of Philadelphia should be able to provide infrastructure that allows anyone, regardless of what mode of transportation they choose, easy and safe access to the streets. This is a political problem, but it’s also a climate problem, a safety problem, a congestion problem and a force holding Philadelphia—and other cities around the Commonwealth—back from reaching their full potential.

The road is your road

By Randy LoBasso

After I testified at City Council on a Vision Zero issue in the spring, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, where I work, put up a blog post with a bit of context and the transcript of my testimony, which was then shared far and wide on social media, including in the local Fishtown neighborhood group Fishtown is AWESOME OLD/NEW/EVERYONE!

That’s when the commentary on cyclists began. 

It was your usual mix: stuff about how all bicyclists “break the law”; about how people who ride bikes act entitled; and, in one case, a commenter threatening to run down cyclists with his pickup truck.

That sort of commentary is pretty commonplace, but what made it strange for me was that I had, a few years ago, taken my car to that commenter’s auto garage, and I liked him. His rationale for his rage came from the idea that people who ride bicycles don’t pay for roads and, therefore, shouldn’t be allowed on them.

The idea is that people who ride bikes don’t pay their fair share because they’re not actively paying for gas taxes at the pump or paying road tolls. It’s a popular, and dangerous, misconception.

A report looking at what we all pay for roads was authored in 2015 by Tony Dutzik and Gideon Weissman of the Frontier Group and Phineas Baxandall of U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

“Roads don’t pay for themselves. We, the American people—whether we drive a lot, a little, or not at all—increasingly pay for them through other taxes and uncompensated costs,” the report concluded.

The authors note that, once upon a time, the money for roads actually did come from gas taxes—but that share (more than 70 percent in the 1960s and early 1970s) has decreased over time due to changes in lifestyle, inflation, more fuel-efficient cars and “slower growth” in driving. As the federal government brings in less money for the costs of roads, governments have had to get creative in paying for them.

Today, according to the Build America Transportation Investment Center Institute at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 48.6 percent of highway funding comes from “user charges”—which include fuel taxes, vehicle taxes and fees and tolls—with the rest (51.4 percent) coming from property taxes, “other taxes and fees,” bonds and general fund appropriations.

Dutzik, Weissman and Baxandall also crunched the numbers and figured out how much we’re paying for our streets.  On average, U.S. households—whether they’re a “driving household” or not—pay about $1,100 in taxes and other costs imposed by driving, per year. That includes, according to the authors, $597 in general tax revenue for road repair; between $199 and $675 in driving subsidies, like the sales tax exemption for gas purchases and commuter benefits; and $93 to $360 in costs related to “air pollution-induced health damage.”

Unfortunately, of the money bicyclists pay into the system for roads they don’t damage, governments typically spend more “non-user” tax dollars on highways than on transit, walking and passenger rail—combined.

This isn’t to say that our taxes shouldn’t go into roads—they absolutely should. 

One look at Philadelphia’s streets shows that not enough money has gone into maintenance and paving. But streets are in bad shape because we, as a society, have chosen not to invest in them. 

You can’t hold cyclists responsible for the state of the roads. We are, indeed, paying our fair share.

The origin story of the Ben Franklin Bridge’s new pedestrian ramp

John Boyle bikes across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on his daily commute. He has been advocating for a pedestrian ramp for more than 10 years. (Photo by Rachael Warriner)

By Randy LoBasso

 Four weeks after 9/11, the Delaware River Port Authority ordered a shutdown of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge walkway after local reporter Paul Moriarty broadcast a report speculating about the walkway’s vulnerability to a terrorist attack. 

Back then, the Ben Franklin Bridge walkway wasn’t patrolled by police, as Moriarty thought it should be. Given the worrisome atmosphere of the post-9/11 world, everyone was looking for flaws in our infrastructure and security systems.

Negotiations and a public outcry forced the hand of the Authority, and the walkway reopened in December 2001—but its semi-permanent closing had made an impact. 

It brought attention to a larger issue that John Boyle, research director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, had been pressing since the ’90s: the Ben Franklin Bridge walkway should be a feature, not a bug, of the portal between Philadelphia and Camden. 

The new ramp for the Ben Franklin Bridge walkway opened on June 4. 

This is a ramp that took a long time to build. Time during which hundreds of people pushed their bicycles up a steep, grated staircase in Camden if they wanted to ride over the bridge; and people in wheelchairs couldn’t use the walkway at all.

Furthermore, because the bridge wasn’t patrolled, it was closed after dark. More than a few times, people walking across the bridge got stuck in the middle while crossing at dusk. 

“People would either have to call the [Delaware River Port Authority], or in some cases, we heard of people jumping down onto the highway and walking back,” says John Boyle.

A New Jersey resident, Boyle has made it his mission to advocate for a remaking of the Ben Franklin Bridge walkway, which he uses on his daily work commute. 

As a member of the DRPA’s citizens’ advisory board, he worked with the Authority and the state to get it done. He successfully advocated for both bridge police patrol and a ramp on the Camden side of the bridge to allow pedestrians and cyclists easier access to the walkway.

When the bridge was closed again without notice after the London Bombings in July 2005, the walkway issue gained more traction, and bicycle coalition volunteers Matthew Anastasi and Jim Kriebel formed a Ben Franklin Bridge walkway committee. Its goal: to grant pedestrians full access to the bridge and construct an ADA accessible ramp. 

In 2008, DRPA added the ramp into its five-year Capital Improvement Program, but the home stretch wasn’t smooth. 

In 2011, the Authority suffered a public relations crisis after an uptick in the bridge toll. Pressure mounted and the ramp project was deferred. However, a coalition of advocates, ranging from Camden-based businesses to nonprofits and elected officials pressed back and got the decision reversed in early 2012.

In 2017, the DRPA approved $7.8 million in funds for the bridge ramp, and with more than $4 million in additional funds from the Federal Highway Administration and the William Penn Foundation, the project was finally underway.

It is “the first big expenditure from the Authority’s Capital Budget to make the bridge walkway more accessible for all users,” notes Boyle. The narrow portion of the walkway has been widened and an ADA-compliant ramp on the Camden side added. 

Boyle is excited that the ramp is open—but not just because it allows cyclists to use the walkway without getting off their bikes.

“In addition to not wanting to walk my bike up those 39 steps ever again, we’re at a time where Camden is going through a major redevelopment,” adds Boyle. “It will enable much greater access between the city of Camden and the city of Philadelphia.”

The heated debate over electric scooters

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by Randy LoBasso

This February Philadelphia City Council members held a hearing on whether or not to bring dockless e-scooter sharing into our transportation fold. With two e-scooters sitting in the chambers, citizens, company representatives and city employees filed in to give their arguments and testimonies for and against the new take on an old form of transportation. 

The e standing for electric, e-scooters are plug-in, freestanding vehicles with two or three wheels. Similar to Indego bike share, the scooters unlock after a user provides payment. Unlike the bike-sharing service, however, the vehicles don’t need to be returned to designated locations, as riders can geo-locate available scooters’ locations using a mobile app. 

In the past few years, cities like Baltimore; Portland, Oregon; and Washington, D.C., have adopted these sharing systems. Scooter advocates at the meeting said the vehicles are better for the environment than cars (and more fun, too), but skeptics voiced three big concerns: 

Are e-scooters safe to ride?

Can we trust riders not to leave scooters on sidewalks, hindering pedestrians, or in the street, blocking traffic?

Could the poorly maintained streets of Philadelphia even be navigated by scooter?

Let’s examine these issues more closely.

Safety 

Everyone’s goal should be to create a safe city that has zero traffic deaths. 

One investigation found that 1,500 e-scooter injuries occurred around the country between late 2017 and early 2019. Because hospitals aren’t really tracking these injuries, yet, the investigation, conducted by Consumer Reports, got this number by contacting 110 hospitals across 47 cities where e-scooter sharing exists—so this estimate is likely low. This report also didn’t look at the number of rides taken or calculate the rate at which people are being injured. 

But Portland, Oregon, did. 

Among the 700,369 scooter trips in Portland between July 23 to November 20, 176 resulted in scooter-related emergency and urgent care visits. That’s 2.5 injuries per 10,000 trips. 

With these numbers, the local county health department found there was “no evidence of injury rates that would discourage a further scooter pilot in the city of Portland.”

A Hindrance For Pedestrians and Drivers

That riders may leave scooters to block sidewalks is a legitimate concern. It’s an inconvenience at best, and at worst, it’s a civil rights violation that hinders the disabled community.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, where I work, helped the city release a construction-building-permit map earlier this year that shows the locations of legal construction permits that block sidewalks, streets and bike lanes. Illegal construction and illegal right-of-way blockages have also been reported through the program. 

The bike lanes are similarly disrespected. In 2018 the Philadelphia Parking Authority broke its record for issuing tickets to vehicles parked in bike lanes. Ticketing for this offense has gone up 173 percent since 2014. 

As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this year, many companies have built the cost of tickets into their budgets. The worst streets for blocked bike lanes are the most-biked streets in the city—Spruce, Pine, 13th and 22nd streets. 

On weekends, people attending religious services (and those who don’t) use the bike lane for parking, along Spruce and Pine streets, with impunity. The city and state look the other way because of an apparent “handshake agreement” between the religious institutions and the government. 

Next, take a stroll through any neighborhood in South Philadelphia—or a peak at the @NotAParkingSpot Twitter feed. Not only will you see dozens of motor vehicles parked in the center turning lane on Broad Street (illegally, and unticketed), but you will find active vehicles parked in crosswalks, on sidewalks, and in bike lanes, often unticketed.

The point is that whatever adverse effects the scooter might cause, they pale in comparison to violations that already routinely occur. A beefed-up right-of-way division could make sure all rules are enforced. 

Street Conditions

An opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer published in August of 2018 argued against scooters because of current street conditions. 

“[T]here is no requirement for the city or [dockless scooter] company to upgrade infrastructure. Good luck dodging those monster craters on a flimsy electric scooter,” freelance journalist Ptah Gabrie wrote.

However, in many cities scooter companies are required to use part of their profits to invest in better city infrastructure, like bike lanes. The Bicycle Coalition is working with other organizations to make sure those same requirements would apply in Philly when and if e-scooter companies are invited into the city. 

What’s more, “street defeatism,” the notion that our streets will always be in a state of disrepair, isn’t a good reason to ban new transportation options. It disregards the power of advocacy and activism.

In December 2014, the Bicycle Coalition put out a report showing the city had a 1,000-mile backlog on paving streets. Philadelphia invests just a fraction of what other cities do in its streets department, the report found, and only had a single crew to do the work. 

The report said the city would need to hire a new paving crew and invest enough in the streets department to bring its approximately 50 miles of repaving per year to 130 miles per year, just to cut into the backlog.

In his most recent budget address, Mayor Jim Kenney proposed to put an additional $200 million toward street resurfacing in the next five years. He noted that by the end of that time,  Philadelphia would be repaving…that’s right… 130 miles of streets, per year.

If street defeatism had credence, you wouldn’t see bike lanes, bumped-out sidewalks, protected infrastructure, handicap-access ramps, bike sharing, streetside elevators into train stations and a whole host of other amenities created to allow for better access across transportation modes.

While e-scooters would certainly add some complications to the streets, any transportation alternative that discourages car usage should be welcomed.