Testimony of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia on Philadelphia's 2013 Budget

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Testimony of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

May 7, 2012

Philadelphia City Council

Philadelphia is a walkable and bikeable city

Philadelphia is considered one of the best walking and biking cities in the nation. It has received a Silver

Walk Friendly Community designation by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center and for the past

several years, WalkScore ranked Philadelphia as the 5th most walkable city in America. In 2009, the

League of American Bicyclists gave Philadelphia a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community award. The city

has more miles of bike lanes than any other city in the country, except for Tuscon.

Philadelphia has highest rate of bike commuting per capita of large U.S. cities (over 1M) and ranks 10th

among the top largest cities in the county. Its mode share (percentage of commuter who primarily use a

bike) is higher than Bostons, New York Citys and Chicagos.

Councilmatic Districts 1, 2 and 3 have bike mode share rates b/w 3-4%, which is comparable to Seattle,

San Francisco and Minneapolis. Central Philadelphia (Girard to Washington Ave, river to river) had a

rate of 5.8% and South Philly (Washington Ave to the Navy Yard) had a rate of 6.3%. These percentages

are comparable to similarly sized areas of San Francisco neighborhoods.

Planning is completed, now is the time for implementation

Between 2008-2012, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission staff conducted a thorough planning

effort to develop a 10 year pedestrian/bicycle plan. That plan was adopted by the Planning Commission

in February 2012 and Council was briefed by PCPC in late 2011. The plan calls for cutting bicycle and


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approximately the same time period. And while Philadelphia did install 4 major buffered bike lanes

during this Administration, other cities have installed physically separated bike lanes (called cycle-

tracks), bike traffic lights and bicycle priority streets.

Its not just a comparison contest. As I mentioned before, Philadelphia has lots and lots of bicyclists.

But, the parts of the city that I mentioned as having some of the highest mode shares in the country,

have the least number of miles of bike lanes. When the Spruce and Pine bike lanes were installed in

2009, they doubled the number of bike lanes in Center City from 4 to 8. Some neighborhoods with very

high rates of biking have almost no bike lanes. There is a need to create corridors between destinations

and to the Center City core so that more people feel safer and more encouraged to use their bike and

feet for short trips instead of cars. Although Philadelphia has a good number of bicyclists and bicycle


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May, found that only 9% of cyclists on streets with bike lanes were riding on the sidewalk, while on

streets with no bike lanes, 20% of cyclists rode on sidewalks.

Not only do bike lanes work for bicyclists, but they also benefit pedestrians and motorists. Moreover,

they are the least expensive form of traffic calming and safety measure available. All they require is

paint and engineering plans. They can reduce vehicle speeds, and thus reduce the number and severity

of crashes between cars, cars and bikes and cars and walkers. Whether or not you agree that a travel

lane on Spruce and Pine should have been converted over from being dedicated to all vehicles over to

just bicycles, you cant argue with the facts that since the buffered bike lanes were installed on those

two streets, serious crashes dropped on those streets by 44%, the number of pedestrians hit was cut inhalf and fender benders dropped by 17%. Bike lanes save lives and reduce the injuries of pedestrians

and motorists. If PennDOT could produce those numbers on the I-76, it would be winning national

safety awards.

Philadelphia needs more traffic engineers to take advantage of low-

cost opportunities to save lives

While the Streets Department has the will and intention to make Philadelphia safer for all road users, its

resources are too limited.

Philadelphias streets are resurfaced every 20 years, even though optimally, streets should be resurfaced

every 5-10 years. Out of 292 miles of public city streets in the Federal Aid Network, the Streets

Department resurfaces 15 miles of streets (5%) a year. Historically, the Streets Depart has resurfaced

70-100 miles of streets per year. This coming year, it can afford only to resurface about 30-35 miles, of

the roughly 2,000 mile system; this is because of ADA requirements, which has cut the amount of dollars


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Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia recommendations:

Provide more funding to the Streets Department to hire more traffic engineers. More traffic

engineers will accelerate the improvement of Philadelphias transportation network by

programming the design and construction of pedestrian and bicycle improvements on a regular

ongoing basis.

Establish the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Task Force to monitor progress on the

implementation of physical improvements and policy changes recommended in the

Pedestrian/Bike Plan.

Prioritize and encourage bike/ped improvements to create safer corridors as we recommend in

our Safe Streets, Safe Neighborhoods Initiative.


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Safe Streets for Healthy NeighborhoodsProposed Corridors

FairmountParktoPennTreaty

Hein

zRe

fuge

toZoo

SouthPhillyRivertoRiver

Sta

diu

ms

toN

ort

hern

Lib

ert

ies

yY

ard

to

Temp

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CobbsCreekParktoCityHall


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Boston and

Cambridge, MaTop 25 Communitiesfor Commuting by Bicycle

Berkeley, Ca

San Francisco, CaAlbuquerque, NM

Boulder and Denver, Co

Minneapolis, Mn

Boise, Id

Madison, Wi

Philadelphia, PaGainesville, Fl

Zero

Up to 1%

1% to 2%

2% to 5%

5% to 9.69%

Not Calculated

Fort Collins, CoEugene, Or

Palo Alto,

Santa Cruz,and San Mateo, Ca

Davis, Ca

Portland, Or Seattle, Wa

The 25 PUMA areas with the largestbike commuter share are found in oraround the following locations:

1. Boulder, Co (9.7%)2. Portland, Or (9.2%)3. Fort Collins, Co (8.0)4. Davis-Woodland, Ca (7.4)5. Berkeley, Ca (6.9%)6. Cambridge, Ma (6.9)7. Portland, Or (6.9%)8. Portland, Or (6.9%)9. Eugene-Springfield, Or (6.4%)

10. Palo Alto-Stanford, Ca (6.4%)11. San Francisco, Ca (6.1)12. Santa Barbara, Ca (6.1%)13. Gainesville, Fl (6.1%)14. Santa Cruz, Ca (5.8%)

17. San Francisco, Ca (4.8%)18. Madison, Wi (4.6%)19. Boise, Id (4.4%)20. San Mateo County, Ca (4.3%)21. Minneapolis, Mn (4.2%)22. Minneapolis, Mn (4.1%)23. Minneapolis, Mn (4.1%)24. Albuquerque, NM (4.1%)25. Seattle, Wa (4.1%)

15. Central Philadelphia, Pa (5.4%)16. South Philadelphia, Pa (5.2%)

Source: US Census Bureau, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Analysis by the Bicycle Coalition Of Greater Philadelphia

Testimony of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia on Philadelphia's 2013 Budget

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