I’ve often thought the most entitled white people in America were in the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, which numbers a measly 2,400 members in the 5.7-million five-county area and yet gets politicians to lick its bicycle saddle.
Turns out the BCGP has a spinoff group called Philly Bike Action — think of it as Antifa on wheels — which showed up on a recent Sunday to interfere with law-abiding motorists. As the Inquirer subhead put it in the newspaper, “Philly Bike Action brought in bikes and cones to block cars from parking outside a Center City church.”
The headline did not indicate what the story said — the cars belonged to parishioners who used the bike lanes legally under a Sunday-worship exemption that has been around forever.
The PBA was founded last April 23 by bikeheads who claim they are interested in safety, but really just want special rules for themselves, like the bike lanes themselves.
I’ve been writing about bicycling in Philly — for fun, I like calling it a cult — since 2009 and sometime in 2010 the city announced it would add bike lanes and stated a goal of 6 percent of Philadelphians commuting by bike by 2020.
I strongly doubted it would happen, I ridiculed it in print, and was called all sorts of names by the bikeheads. Never bothered me, never stopped me.
In 2019, the city got to 2.6% of people commuting by bike (and under its definition of “commuting,” that means riding a bike to work only three times a week).
By 2021, it was 2.1%.
When I printed numbers like this, the bikeheads went bonkers, and accused me of lying, but the stats I use are Bicycle Coalition figures, drawn from the U.S. Census. Bike usage goes up and down by a tenth or two, but has never hit even 3%. The genius city planners were wrong, but the city kept adding bike lanes and still the numbers didn’t move. You know that definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and hoping for a different result.
Under Mayor Jim Kenney, the city stupidly doubled-down on failure — more bike lanes, but no more people pedaling to work.
Bike lanes are a bust. Almost no one uses them. All they succeed at is slowing vehicular traffic, which actually increases air pollution.
Hopefully, Mayor Cherelle Parker will not fall under the sway of two-wheeled progressives, and ask herself, “What do the people want?”
I challenged the Bicycle Coalition to put bike lanes to a vote on a citywide referendum. They ran from that idea as if I asked them to drink a Dr. Pepper laced with cyanide, because they know bike lanes are vastly unpopular with the majority.
Given that the Bicycle Coalition has almost no members, and represents a thin sliver of bike users, it has enormous political power. I give it credit for convincing lawmakers that it represents some kind of a movement. Not just here, but around the world, bicycles are a sacred cow.
The spinoff PBA claimed the parked cars outside of the church makes it unsafe for them. If they really feel unsafe, the Bicycle Coalition says what to do — get on the sidewalk and walk your bike past the obstruction. (When was the last time you saw a biker walk his bike on the sidewalk? And, yes, I said “his” because cyclists in the city are overwhelmingly male, and often boorish about his “rights” on a bike.)
The fact that the parishioners were trying to park legally meant nothing to the protestors.
Cyclists often yell at motorists stopped briefly in the bike lane — as they are allowed to do — to pick up or discharge passengers.
On the other hand, bicyclists are not allowed to go through red lights, which almost all do with impunity. And are almost never ticketed.
Because they are not gasoline powered, they feel entitled.
Mayor Parker seems to be big on law enforcement. How about letting the cyclists feel the inclusion of being ticketed?
The next time you talk to God, suggest he do something about those bikers who interfere with his followers on a Sunday. Maybe he could send a plague upon their skinny little asses that ride on their skinny little bike tires.
It’s a thought.
Skinny tires are actually out of fashion now.
You have been on this since jump and are right on target…AGAIN! If you want the RIGHTS (privileges?) of a vehicle then you should have the RESPONSIBILITIES of one. In heavily trafficked and/or urban areas you should need to pass a test, drive a registered vehicle, and pay insurance for said vehicle. Most of the cyclists I encounter make up the driving rules as to they go. Driving with traffic, against traffic, THROUGH traffic, on the sidewalk, and through red lights. If ANY of us did this we would be cited (another potential responsibility) and most likely arrested, prosecuted, and subsequently lose our license. Is this fair in any just system? Keep fighting!!!
Thanks, and I will keep trying, Lou.
Why bicycle licensing has never worked.
https://philadelphiabicyclejournal.blogspot.com/2017/07/license-to-fail.html
Yet another example of the tyranny of the minority. Whatever happened to “democracy”?
In Philadelphia there are 31,000 miles of streets for cars and 340 miles of bicycle lanes. How are car drivers being tyrannized?
Bicyclists are bound by the Motor Vehicle Code of PA. They are required to follow the law when operating in PA. Good luck with enforcement of the MVC for violations in Philly. There are many other urgent issues that come ahead of enforcement for these minor infractions in our city. The PBA are an extension of the Green Movement. Bicyclists feel better about themselves for not polluting the air with greenhouse gas emissions. Their naive attitude is dangerous to them, in that each year more fatal bicycle accidents occur in the city. Especially during the nighttime and weekends when our residents are more likely to drink and smoke weed. I think their belief system leads to their injuries and death on bicycles. Feeling good about not polluting the air by riding a bike in our city can have deadly consequences. Try walking or take a taxi it is safer.
Classic example of victim blaming. Traffic accidents, including fatalities are way up, even though cars are made increasingly “safer”. It is the CAR DRIVERS responsibility to drive safely, and FOLLOW the LAW. Barely a day goes by when I don’t see a driver run a red light, or passing in no passing streets. I almost got killed walking across the street ON a CROSSWALK on GREEN light when a speeder barrelled through making a left turn. I believe we as a society should “crack down” on these menaces.
That is true most of these accidents can be prevented through education and enforcement of MVC laws and citizens respecting and obeying the laws. However, some of our residents don’t care about laws. My point being it is extremely dangerous riding a bike especially at specific times, weekends, holidays and good weather days. Bicyclists can obey every MVC law and still be a victim of a dangerous vehicle operator.
So it is a cyclists fault if someone who is high or drunk kills them?
We can learn many smart urban solutions by visiting London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris to learn from them, rather than spending millions trying to reinvent the wheels which have already been done over there.
Please also view the video series called “Not Just Bikes” about solutions in Amsterdam for bike lanes, bike garages, bike traffic lights, bike safety, bike designs for transporting children, pedestrian crossings, smart traffic lights so no one is sitting like a fool waiting for our dumb traffic lights to turn at 2 AM, roundabouts, sane and sympathetic light levels for street lights, etc. All subjects our guys in Street Department struggle with heroically, but go in circles and squander millions and millions of our taxes trying to solve what has already been solved abroad. Just consider the colossal cost and mistake they recently made ordering and installing thousands of the wrong street light LEDs??
Street cleaning, too? Go to Paris where they know how to clean the streets without having to move cars every week, an insanity that drives neighbors nuts.
Consider the humble and very safe traffic roundabout, often just a white circle painted in the intersection, which could save us $8,000 in taxes per year per intersection in electricity, bulb changes, repairs, controls, etc and are far safer than the traffic light controlled intersections! Our Streets Department engineers have been afraid of roundabouts and have been afraid of them for 60 years! Why for heavens sakes? Fly to London to see them.
Buy a plane ticket for every leader of our City Departments to save millions instead of going in circles for decades and failing to invent the wheels; go abroad to learn the solutions we should be installing here right now!
Start with bikes and Amsterdam, if that is top on your list.
Amsterdam is built on bike culture. The U.S. is not. The last time I was in Paris those GD motorized scooters were EVERYWHERE. A nutzy mess.
Yes, but!
Both Amsterdam and Philadelphia’s downtowns are flat, intimately scaled, have slower car speeds, have run out of parking spaces, many people live and work nearby; a few excellent elementary schools to get children to on bikes. Nearby shopping for easy bicycle transport, as well.
Certainly seems it all could work much better and downtown could be even more lovely and livable, but those who design our street furniture, cross walks, curbs, safety barriers, traffic lights, bike lanes, etc. must come forth from the urban design standards of the 1950’s.
Fly to Amsterdam tomorrow to learn, and to save millions and millions of our taxes, often misspent on ineffective ideas.
Ask the Dutch how to fix a pothole, too, for heavens sake.
Suggest that our bright new Mayor fly to Amsterdam, too!
All the best….
The most wonderful traffic law I found in Germany and Austria was “At a stop sign, yield to traffic coming from your right. Otherwise, you do not have to stop at the stop sign.” That simple rule saves fuel, time, and keeps traffic moving safely and smoothly. It makes great sense, which is why it will never work in the USA.
I agree. We can’t and certainly don’t need to emulate these cultures completely but we as a society can certainly try to adopt some “best practices” that will improve our quality of life.
Philadelphia is more than Center City and Amsterdam is much smaller than Philly.
As to the millions to be saved, you know more about this than I. Care to do an essay to be published here? 500 words more or less. Email to me at [email protected] if you want to.
Actually Stu prior to the Arab Oil Embargo Amsterdam was a dense with cars as any other city, including Philadelphia. The oil embargo and the death of children by car drivers motivated change that took over a decade to happen.
One reply per customer and you had yours.
Look up the Stop Kindermutter movement in Amsterdam.
All I will say is I DID provide statistics, are you blind? — and YOU prove yourself to be one of the morons who deny the facts when put in front of them.
Amsterdam? I think not. Bike lanes is the least of Philly’s worries,even if the bikes rode on the sidewalk they would be running over homeless and addicts.
And the churches pay no taxes.
Invent a religion to get around laws and norms. The Supreme Court will side with you because of your (haha) “sincerely held beliefs.”
So lets see what Stu is claiming.
Cyclists are preventing people attending church because they want to park in an area that is not a designated parking area. There are multiple parking lots withing 5 minutes of those churches where you can park legally.
Cyclists run red lights, as if people in cars do not.
The members of the BCGP are the most entitled White people ever. So the only people who use bike lanes are the White members of the BCGP.
Only 2.1% of Philadelphia residents ride bikes. 2.1% of that is 15,139, now imagine them all driving cars.
And last but not least, the reason why Stu has no statistics to back any of his claims. Is because no one would believe hm if he did
All I will say is I DID provide statistics, see the graphic — are you blind? — and YOU prove yourself to be one of the morons who deny the facts when put in front of them.
What statistics would those be?
The ones about cyclist running redlights, that the majority of the cyclists in Philly are White males, that the only people who benefit from bike lanes are privileged White members of the BCGP, or that only 2.1% of people in Philly cycle sounds like a small number and 15,000 does not.
The city with the fewest problems with cyclists is Venice.
Here is another fact Stu left out. The percentage of cyclists dropped from 2.6% to 2.1% since 2020. What happened during 2020 to 2022 that would have reduced the number of people use infrastructure? I’ll give you a hint, Covid.
2.3% in non Covid 2013, sap. FACT https://bicyclecoalition.org/the-bike-counts-report-for-fall-2023-is-live/#
In between cyclists and trips taken on Indego bicycles there has been a 21.49% increase in cyclists from 2019 to 2022. To bad you ignore Indego bicycles as bicycles.
2019 – 749,304
2022 – 910,352
Unlike you I don’t limit myself “to only one answer per customer”.
The issue is not incidentally bike rentals — it was COMMUTING, which is paltry.
Btw, to correct previous misinformation, EVERY city street is a bike lane, except for high-speed, limited access roads. There is NO DIFFERENCE between a bike lane and a car lane for 90% of city streets.
Those bike rentals are done by people who travel/commute around Philadelphia and over 900,000 trips per year is not paltry.
If you think that there is no difference between a street and a bike lane come for a ride with me. You’ll love brush passes, people laying on their horns, and threats because you are in their way and not part of traffic. Especially when you ride on Spruce and Pine when the bike lanes are blocked.
There is a difference between a bike lane and a street. A street is open to all vehicular traffic, bicycle lanes are only open to bicycles. A bicycle lane especially on Spruce and Pine means people like you won’t complain about bicycles blocking traffic.
The bike lanes slow traffic. I live on Spruce street and witness it.
Cars are permitted to stop in bike lanes. But most bikeheads are too ignorsnt to know the law.
I will explain again that almost ALL city streets are bike lanes insofar as they allow bicycles. The dedicated bike lanes were ordered up because 21st century weinies are afraid to ride in traffic as I did as a kid.
How do the bike lanes on Spruce and Pine slow traffic? They are not major through fares and the speed limit is 25mph. Cars cause traffic when there are more cars on a given road then they can handle.
Do you have a traffic study to back your anecdotal observations? I would be more than glad to join in a week long study on this.
The math is so simple even you can follow it. When you delete lane A for a bike lane, it doubles the cars in lane B, meaning – at high use hours at least – fewer cars will get through the green light, adding time to their trip and added pollution.
As for your claims about 21st century weenies. I grew up riding a bike in urban and suburban environments, before helmets, bike lanes, cell phones, and computers were available. The difference now is people are easily distracted by cell phones, there are more and bigger cars/SUV’s on the roads, and road rage is a real problem.
Bicycle lanes significantly reduce the risk of getting doored or hit because someone is not paying attention. Or brush passed, threatened, and assaulted because someone in a car wants me out of their way.
If the math is simple, prove it with actual data. Spruce and Pine are low speed side streets with traffic lights and stop signs on every block. That’s why they are slow, they were not designed for heavy traffic. Nor should people be using them as a shortcut.
I’m still waiting for you to explain how over 900,000 Indego rentals don’t count as commuting, travel, or running errands.
Great and factual article, Stu.