[UC] RE: Bike traffic increases dramatically on Spruce St

[Dubin, Elisabeth]

Just for the record, a few weeks ago I was riding in that bike lane and got doored by a passenger who suddenly got out of a car in the lane next to me.  I wound up in the ER for an open fracture to the toe (weird injury, I know, but I was wearing sandals).  Before that, I was always vigilant and terrified when riding on Spruce between 38th and 33rd, and now I just plain won't ride there at all.  It's just too busy with taxis, loading, and chaos.  No one pays attention to bikes, and despite the sign regarding ticketing vehicles in the bike lane, I don't think people think twice about hovering there in their cars.  I honestly don't know what should be done there, but there is still an inherent conflict between the bike lane presence and the fact that it just isn't safe... in other words, just because you put a bike lane there does change the nature of the street.   So, what's the solution?   (I'm ccing the univcity list on this, not to bring up the bike topic again but just as a reminder to be safe on Spruce.)   ELISABETH DUBIN      -----Original Message----- From: John Boyle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:33 AM To: Bike listserve (E-mail) Subject: Bike traffic increases dramatically on Spruce St On tuesday afternoon I took a one hour bike count on Spruce St. west of 38th using a digital camera. Tentatively between 110 and 120 bikes used Spruce St between 4 and 5 pm. In 1998 a pre-bike lane count was undertaken by the Streets Department Consulting Team at RBA 6 hours a day during 3 weeks in April. Back then the peak evening hourly count average was 75 bikes. The absolute highest number for any hourly count was 91 bikes in the morning.   This represents a 40 - 50% increase in bike traffic after bike lanes were installed on Spruce St. Over the few days I will do further analysis of the photos to determine helmet use, wrong way and sidewalk riding.   A side note - a Penn Police van and a flower van blocked the bike lane for several minutes in front of me., While the police van could claim emergency vehicle status (they were answering a call) the officers basically ignored the flower van right behind them.    John Boyle For local bicycle news visit the Philly Bike Blog http://bcgp.blogspot.com