Staff Blog
Chains of Love
Bike Share Philadelphia looks to gain momentum with a public forum.
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| Sam Tremble |
Around Rittenhouse Square, it’s as common to see a bicycle locked and hanging from a tree as it is to see one locked to a U-post. Like most of the city, Rittenhouse Square and its surrounding businesses provide minimal bicycle parking, if any. So when the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia held its annual meeting at the Philadelphia Ethical Society last Sunday, Neighborhood Bike Works provided a free valet service for bicycles only.
Mustafa Abdul-Rashid, a senior instructor and shop manager for NBW, estimated that about 30 people parked their bikes — about a third of the total attendance — which he thought was a good number considering the weather and the number of people coming in from the suburbs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Taking local non-profit NBW as the first example, the meeting involved players from both the local and national bicycle community working together.
SE Bikes, part of Fuji Advanced Sports (a.k.a. Fuji Bikes), which now has its international headquarters near the NE airport, provided a new single speed model for raffle. Bicycle Revolutions, a local shop in Bella Vista, assembled it.
Russell Meddin, a BCGP member and the organizer of the Bike Share forum in January, stood by the entrance handing out business cards for Bike Share Philadelphia, asking those coming and going (sometimes twice), “Have you written the mayor about Bike Sharing yet?”
City Council has passed a resolution to hold a hearing to investigate the creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program on April 30. January’s forum also gained Philadelphia some recognition at the National Bike Summit in D.C. earlier in March. Representative Babette Josephs, the only Rep. in Harrisburg who doesn’t use a car, presented BCGP with a $5,000 grant for their efforts with Bike Sharing.
“I think this can be done… Look at what we’ve done with Car Share… everybody’s got Car Share, it’s all over the place. We’ll see Bike Share work too, I really believe that,” she says.
The new Deputy Mayor of Transportation and Utilities, Rina Cutler, who was a guest speaker and an admitted Bike Sharing skeptic, wasn’t so sure.
“I have yet to see a business model that works… But I am open to the concept and have a commitment to giving it a strong look.”
However, Cutler has worked with BCGP to create a full-time Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator position in City Hall. BCGP Executive Director Alex Doty began pushing for this before she had even taken office and was the first person to meet with her once she opened her doors. According to Doty, Philadelphia is the last major city to create such a position.
“We hope to have someone on board by the first of July,” Cutler says.
“What’s amazing is how bike friendly [Philadelphia] is given how little planning there is for it. Imagine in a few years what this will be like if we plan for it,” says Doty.
“We have a seat at the table now and we’re making sure the biking community has a voice,” says BCGP consultant Sarah Clark Stuart.
For the coming year, BCGP is focusing on creating Bicycle Ambassadors, creating better access over the Delaware River Bridges (especially the Benjamin Franklin and Scutter Falls Bridges) and reprinting a new Philadelphia bicycling map. The new map will be focused on neighborhoods and easily accessible online with the ability to create routes. Over the next two years, BCGP will help work with the City on a new bicycle plan, updating the one that is over a decade old.
Doty also hopes that the annual Bike Philly event will “become the Got Milk? campaign for bicycling” and will “fund the next generation of bicycle advocacy.” Last year’s premiere event attracted 2,400 riders, more than double the expected 1,000 riders. He hopes to bring that number to the ten or 15 thousand mark within a few years.
While the last attendees had cheesecake and coffee upstairs, Sean Williams and Abdul-Rashid began closing up the valet site outside, tearing down the portable bike rack they had brought with them. They strapped it to a trailer with a hitch for a bicycle using bungee cords and old inner tubes. Then they waited for NBW Executive Director Andy Dyson to come and bike it back to headquarters in University City.
“We try to use bikes for as much as we can,” said Abdul-Rashid.
[...] Ah, Philly Bike Share: Will you be ours? The people from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who gathered at the Philadelphia Ethical Society for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia annual meeting sure hope so. Although no definite business model has been embraced, City Council will be holding a hearing investigating the creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program (PUBP) on April 30th. With the great success of Philly Car Share bicycle enthusiasts have faith that a bike share program is a really good idea. If you’re in the area that day, show up, or better yet, drop a line to your councilperson. I know it sounds odd, but it actually does make a difference. TheClog: Previously: Philly Bike Share: Could It Happen? Rina Cutler, the new Philadelphia Deputy Mayor of Transportation has worked with BCGP to create a Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator position in City Hall, which makes Philadelphia the last major city to have such a position. BCGP urges cyclists to write to Mayor Nutter and make bike share a true reality. Also BDGP is making plans to have Bicycle Ambassadors and re-print Philadelphia bicycling maps. [...]