The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia stages the annual race to publicize its assertion that a cyclist who commutes four miles or less in Philadelphia will arrive before other commuters.
Obviously, this is more advocacy than science. Messengers prove every day that the bike is king in Center City, while bicycles are not much of an option for those who commute in from much farther out, or who travel long distances between suburbs.
Still, more than 17,000 people around the region pedal to work every day on average, according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. And commuting by bike, the bicycle coalition argues, is good for the cyclist (cheaper and healthier), good for the city (relieves traffic congestion), and good for the world (fewer greenhouse-gas emissions).
Cyclists normally have an edge over cars in congested downtowns: Bike lanes get them to the top of the queue at red lights; cars have to stay in line. Cyclists also have flexibility. Street blocked? Convert into a pedestrian and walk the bike.
Cunnane, president of Fuji Bicycles in Northeast Philadelphia, says he obeyed all traffic laws yesterday. What helped him win - other than a 16-mile warm-up ride from his Jenkintown home - is that cars were detoured off Spruce Street at 40th because students were moving out of their University of Pennsylvania dorms. Cyclists were allowed through.
Then again, the SEPTA rider - Jill Minick, a bicycle coalition staff member - got a break when her No. 42 bus pulled up just as the race started. And the motorist, PhillyCarShare's Heather Kemp, wasn't required to find parking in Center City. She just pulled up to the curb.
"We were being generous," insisted Alex Doty, the bicycle coalition's executive director.
Bikes have won three of the race's four years. The exception was 2005, during the SEPTA strike. Organizers subbed a taxi for the bus, and the contestant told the cabbie, "I'm in a race!"
