Nonprofit launches to fight City Hall on no-stop bike lanes

The other shoe has dropped, with an all-too-predictable thud, on city streets.

In order to patch its idiotic law that prohibits even momentary stops in bicycle lanes, the city is proposing to create loading zones by eliminating 5-6 parking spaces on every block between Front and 22nd streets. That’s roughly 100 parking spaces in Center City, which is already desperately short of legal parking.

The idea of not permitting cars or taxis to stop  to pick up or discharge passengers or for trucks to make deliveries of parcels or groceries is so astonishing it staggers the imagination, yet 16 of 17 chuckleheads on City Council co-sponsored it, responding to utterly false safety assertions. The stunning bill was introduced by Council President Kenyatta Johnson, whom I addressed in this column that addressed the insanity of the legislation. 

And in this column I reported that there were no, zero reports of injury due to vehicles stopped in bicycle lanes. Johnson’s bill was written to solve a problem that simply did not exist.

For background, remember that Mayor Michael Nutter in 2009, to gain approval for bike lanes, promised residents of Pine and Spruce they would have access to their homes, meaning stops would be permitted in bike lanes. 

Late last year, Johnson’s ill-advised bill moved faster than grease through a goose, before the community had much of a chance to mobilize. 

The community was not prepared to fight, while the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, a tiny but effective lobbying group, was there to rub the bellies of Council members and spread their bile, tying a couple of unfortunate bicycle deaths to the need for barriers and no-stopping legislation. Neither death would have been prevented by the proposed cures. In one case, the driver of a truck was absolved from wrongdoing when a cyclist at a corner fell under the wheels of the truck making a legal turn. In the other case, a speeding alleged drunk driver was charged in a death when he turned into a bike lane, killing a cyclist. 

Now, however, the community has organized, and the Friends of Pine and Spruce is fighting back. The nonprofit was incorporated just last month. 

Through FOPS, I learned the city wants to create the loading zones by spring, and then follow with low concrete barriers, about the height of curbs, to “protect” cyclists.

Let’s be honest — the loading zones are a response to the outraged screams of people living on Pine and Spruce. 

How could they drop off their children? Or pick up grandma?

A couple of lawmakers suggested they should stop in the operating lane, rather than the bike lane.

Guess what? That is illegal under state law. 

And the alleged drunk driver I mentioned? He pulled into the bike lane to get around a car stopped in the operating lane.

You’ve heard of interconnectivity? This is an example. Pluck on one strand of spider’s web and the whole web vibrates.

FOPS has met with Johnson and Councilman Mark Squilla, in whose districts the bike lanes exist.

FOPS is opposed to no-stopping, loading zones, and concrete barriers.

It has a three-point agenda: 

1- It requested, and was granted, representation on the OTIS Working Group. OTIS is the Office of Traffic and Infrastructure Systems. 

2- It is requesting the city amend the law to continue to allow brief stops, consistent with the city’s 2009 promise.

3- It requested signage so all would know the rules.

No. 2 is the biggie. It would require Council to admit it made a mistake.

Politicians are reluctant to do this. When the Sixers dropped its plans for a Center City arena, Mayor Cherelle Parker said that was a “win, win,” rather than admit she was had.

WTF?

After the no-stopping law was passed by Council, I addressed the mayor’s dubious claims about safety, talking points straight from the Bicycle Coalition.

FOPS has an online petition to support its goal, but it doesn’t get much coverage from the mainstream media, which is reflexively pro-bike. The Inquirer’s coverage has been biased for years, so I was stunned when it recently published an op-ed with an opposing point of view, from the Center City Residents Association.

Here is a link to the FOPS petition: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNwUyEZXNARL4lweMuvHpu5Va9S9dGbJ89WIhTQTXezVKIvg/viewform

FOPS is fighting City Hall. I am on its side. [Full disclosure: I am a financial contributor.]