I Biked the Strike

I biked the SEPTA strike last week. It was­n’t the romance Philly Bicy­cle Coali­tion might have you believe. In fact, it was down­right dan­ger­ous for any­one who tried to nav­i­gate the traf­fic-choked streets.

How about a recap? There is no safe, reli­able route from any­where north of Spring Gar­den to Cen­ter City. The exist­ing bike lanes are insuf­fi­cient dur­ing nor­mal traf­fic and were com­plete­ly over­whelmed by the strike. The num­ber of cars and cyclists was staggering!

My tra­di­tion­al route to work became a war­zone. I usu­al­ly find my way down 17th from Spring Gar­den. This was nuts. 17th was a park­ing lot filled with uncer­tain angry dri­vers, but I had no choice. Philadel­phia needs ded­i­cat­ed bike lanes that pro­tect rid­ers des­tined for Cen­ter City.

It was worse at night. The sun sets as I’m leav­ing work and rush hour traf­fic out of Cen­ter City was worse than the morn­ing com­mute. I think it’s fair to say that I feared for my well-being more than once as I made my way up 18th as I tried to get home.

What can be done? The City needs to get seri­ous about bike safe­ty. It needs to find new solu­tions that address the con­cerns of cyclists and motorists alike. Right now it’s dif­fi­cult and dan­ger­ous to ride from Fish­town to Cen­ter City. I’ve tried sev­er­al routes in an effort to find qui­eter streets with­out suc­cess. The exist­ing accom­mo­da­tions made for cyclists are a bad joke. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

It’s great that so many peo­ple chose to bike the strike. I hope they keep rid­ing! But I also hope they share their expe­ri­ence with their friends so we might get a broad­er con­ver­sa­tion start­ed about bicy­cle safe­ty in Philadel­phia. A cou­ple tem­po­rary bike lanes aren’t going to cut it.

Did you bike the strike? Share your expe­ri­ence in the comments.