In a bid to increase bicycling in Philadelphia, the city plans to designate one lane along two major streets - Spruce and Pine - for bikes, leaving the other lane for all vehicular traffic.
City workers will paint new lines along both streets, from river to river, officials said, with the pilot project beginning around Labor Day.
Philadelphia currently has 32 miles of multiuse trails (no cars) and 205 miles of bicycle lanes - but only four miles of dedicated lanes in Center City.
Cyclists can get to Center City easily, just not through it.
The League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group, recently ranked Philadelphia in the fourth tier of bicycle-friendly communities - well below Boulder, Colo., Seattle, and San Francisco but on a par with New York and Albuquerque, N.M.
Cycling in Philadelphia has doubled in the last three years, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
The Center City stretch of the Schuylkill River Trail, which has seen the most explosive growth, is up to an average 16,000 cyclists a week. The end of Kelly Drive records more than 30,000.
But neither links west and east, the Schuylkill with the Delaware. That requires a dodge-'em trip directly through Center City.
"The hole in the doughnut that prevents these numbers from going even higher is connecting these facilities to where the jobs are," said Spencer Finch, a sustainable-development director for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
When officials studied the issue, they concluded that existing bike lanes along Spring Garden Street and Washington Avenue are too far away from Center City's historical attractions and jobs. And wider corridors like Market Street are already too congested.
Chestnut Street supposedly has a bike lane - but one that's shared with buses.
"The risk-averse are going to stay off Walnut, Chestnut, and Market," said Patrick Starr, regional vice president of the PEC.
The PEC's traffic statistics show that Spruce and Pine both have unused traffic capacity, suggesting that they could accommodate vehicles in a single lane.
"The folks who drive think the cyclists get in their way, and it's not safe," said Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation and utilities. "Cyclists also sometimes ride as if there were no cars on the street. We're trying to figure out how to do this in a way that gets everyone to share the road in a way that's safe and convenient."
