GUEST COLUMNIST: Making Penn safe for bicyclists

Last June 19, I was struck by a car while cycling across Spruce Street, near the House of Our Own bookstore. Witnesses saw a Cadillac El Dorado speed through a red light and slam into me. I was thrown onto the hood of the car. My head shattered its front window. Then I was hurled, unconscious, about 20 feet ahead onto the roadway. The car skidded past me while I lay in a heap. A HUP doctor, who was driving by and saw the accident, summoned an ambulance with his cell phone; and so, luckily, I was taken to the ER just minutes later. I spent eight days in intensive care in the Trauma Unit, and seven more days having transfusions. Examinations, X-rays and CAT scans revealed a fractured skull, seven broken ribs, a fractured left shoulder and massive internal bleeding; miraculously, there was no need for surgery. Since the accident, I have been in therapy to restore the full use of my left arm. I have returned to work and once again commute between Powelton Village and Center City on my rebuilt Raleigh bicycle. Pedestrians and cyclists in West Philadelphia are exposed to danger along all of the main thoroughfares through the area -- including the Market, Walnut, Chestnut and Spruce street corridors -- by high motor traffic volumes moving at high speeds. Current transportation patterns cause problems for motorists as well. The vicious cycle of "more cars, more sprawl, more driving" increased average automobile commuting times in the U.S. by over 30 percent between 1983 and 1990. Of course, motor traffic will always be a part of our urban environment. But at present, 30 to 40 percent of all trips in some major European cities are completed via alternative commuting methods -- walking, biking and mass transit. In comparison, although 54 percent of working Americans lived within five miles of their workplace in 1990, only 3 percent biked to work and even fewer walked. We must find ways to "calm" such traffic while improving safety conditions and convenience for pedestrians and bicyclists. To discourage urban motoring and encourage alternate forms of transportation, some North American cities have modified streets and sidewalks, introduced bike lanes, made downtown parking less available and more expensive, improved mass transit and reduced urban speed limits. In Philadelphia, too, a variety of public and private groups have demonstrated that new and innovative synergies can lead to exciting improvements in our transportation environment. In recent years, for example, the Philadelphia Department of Streets has been constructing a network of bicycle routes that are beginning to appear throughout the city. By simply defining a section of the roadway for cycling, these new lanes have greatly improved safety conditions. In the University City area, the Department of Streets will further improve traffic safety by limiting traffic speed with narrower lanes on Walnut and Chestnut streets and by installing new bike lanes on Spruce Street. The West Bank Greenway will connect the rowing clubs, Fairmount Park, the Zoo, the Art Museum and 30th Street station with the Penn and Drexel campuses. The route will include the Spring Garden Street and Girard Avenue bridges and public rights-of-way along the eastern edges of Mantua and Powelton Village. Schuylkill River Park is being built as an esplanade along the east bank of the river, between the Water Works and Lombard Street. Two new ramps and an existing stair tower will offer access to this new riverside park from the Penn campus via the Market, Chestnut and Walnut street bridges. The Botanic Trail will offer bike and walking trails along public rights-of-way, connecting the University City area with Bartram's Garden, thus realizing Frederick Law Olmsted's 1898 plan to link this historic garden landscape with the Penn campus. The Baltimore Avenue in Bloom project is being carried out to "green" the streets between the Penn campus, Clark Park and points farther west. And the already completed Valley Forge Bikeway, the future East Coast Greenway and the Schuylkill and Tinicum-Fort Mifflin trails will all offer additional cycling and hiking opportunities for students and other community residents to points of historical, environmental and cultural interest in the river corridor. As traffic calming techniques, safety and aesthetics are improved on local streets and sidewalks, encouraging more cycling and walking, the quality of life in the University City area will improve. After all, the area is Philadelphia's largest bicycle-pedestrian precinct; it only makes sense that it should be one of the best places to ride a bike as well.