LETTER: Better Biking

To the Editor: A bicycle transportation plan for the campus would look at where bicycle trips originate and terminate, where actual trips originate and terminate (since bicycle trips are almost always multimodal, with pedestrian trips on either end), and how people can travel between their origins and destinations. The University has yet to begin such a plan. The Locust Walk bike ban as currently proposed would force many students, faculty and staff to travel by different routes. Unfortunately, the streets bordering campus -- the alternatives to Locust Walk -- range from the congested Spruce Street to the busy Walnut Street, a state highway with high speed motor vehicle traffic. Moreover, Locust Street is a major artery for bicycle traffic approaching campus. Many cyclists, concerned about their personal safety on the roads, will try to use Locust Walk despite the ban. How many cyclists currently ride their bicycles over the 38th Street Bridge, despite the long-standing ban? The Chestnut Street Transitway has been closed to bicycles for many years, but it is still used by cyclists. We encourage the University to work with the University community, the city and the residents of West Philadelphia to design a network of on-street bicycle lanes. Such a system would, of course, include Walnut, Chestnut, Spruce, 33rd, 34th, 38th and 40th streets, but should extend some distance from the campus in all direction and consider bicycle traffic across the Schuylkill River as well. Given safe, comfortable places to ride, cyclists will be substantially more likely to avoid Locust Walk. Creation of on-street bicycle lanes will necessitate the elimination of some curb-side parking, an issue that the University will need to consider in a comprehensive transportation plan. Increasing enforcement of motor vehicle speed limits would also increase cyclist and pedestrian safety, and as such will need to be considered by the University. According to the sign at the parking cluster outside Van Pelt Library, the University proposes to build 1050 new parking spaces in five parking areas. Those areas -- 37th and Walnut, Williams Hall, the Palestra and David Rittenhouse Labs, the Richards Building and Van Pelt Library -- ignore several significant sections of campus, including Superblock, the dorms, the science/engineering area between 33rd and 34th streets, HUP and the east end of Hamilton Walk and the Wharton Quadrangle. Worse, an informal count by the University recently put the number of bicycles parked on campus at 2000, despite the existence of only 900 designated parking spaces, according to Bob Lundgren. The new parking will meet only half that need. Cyclists are expected to continue to use the now bicycle-inaccessible racks already in place. Asking cyclists to park in areas where bicycle transportation is prohibited is asking for enforcement problems. The racks being installed in the parking clusters are known as schoolyard racks. They are inexpensive if one considers bicycles parked on both sides with only the front wheel locked (18 spaces per rack). Unfortunately, the theft rate in Philadelphia has long been far too great to allow for such care-free locking of bicycles. At a minimum, students generally place the front wheel of their bicycle over the rack (six to nine spaces per rack), and many people lock their bicycles sideways to the racks in order to lock the frame and both wheels (four spaces per rack). Schoolyard racks, when used safely, become very expensive per bicycle parked. They are also the least attractive bicycle parking on campus. Compare the appearance of 37th Street, with its 29 schoolyard racks, to the newly-finished quadrangle behind Steinberg-Dietrich, in which more attractive bicycle parking hardware is used. The University's discussions of bicycle transportation pose other problems and questions that we are more capable of posing than answering. What liabilty does the University incur by installing bike racks that by their very design encourage students to park bicycles insecurely? What increased level of risk face people who, because they feel unsafe in traffic, walk to campus and face greater likelihood of personal assault? We encourage the University to delay the implementation of the Locust Walk bike ban until these issues are addressed and the University has adopted a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan -- backed by solid study of current, predicted and latent transportation demand, review of existing bicycle and pedestrian safety plans elsewhere and community approval. JEFF ABRAHAMSON Executive Director Bicycle Coalition of the Delaware Valley BOB NOLAND Chairperson Traffic Safety Committee

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