Changing Skyline: Pedaling in a lane that's their own

I was idling at a red light on 17th Street the other afternoon, at ease on my nameless, burgundy-colored three-speed as I enjoyed the gentle fall sun, when a taxi driver pulled up in the left lane and barked: "Do you always stop at lights?"

I figured I'd answer honestly. "I try to," I told him.

"Then I'll give you respect," he allowed, before flooring the gas and charging off into Center City traffic.

Though his tone was grudging, I considered the exchange a hopeful break in the long-running cycle of animosity that seems to divide drivers and bicyclists in Philadelphia. I'll never forget a previous conversation with a motorist waiting behind me at a red light near Rittenhouse Square. That guy threatened to run me over unless I got out of "his" lane.

Yet, for all the palpable anger on the streets these days, times have never been better for the urban cyclist. In June, Mayor Nutter issued an executive order compelling the city to give equal treatment to bikers, drivers, and pedestrians, redressing an imbalance that has existed virtually since the first Model T rolled off the assembly line.

In short order, his transportation czar, Rina Cutler, launched a bold experiment to put policy into practice. With a few cans of white paint, her staff reconfigured the traffic stripes on Pine and Spruce Streets to transfer a car lane's worth of asphalt to the bicycle. If the new bike lanes pass a city review in December, the city will create more permanent versions, perhaps with colored asphalt, when the two streets undergo their scheduled resurfacing next summer.

To anyone who travels on two wheels, it's already clear that the new bike zone has solved a major headache: getting crosstown in Center City during business hours. The generous lanes, separated from cars by a hatched buffer, provide the missing link in Philadelphia's growing downtown bike circuit, connecting the successful Schuylkill Banks trail to the brand-new, 1.3-mile Delaware River bike path that opened this month between Lombard Street and Pier 70.

Already, bike traffic on the two city streets has more than doubled, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Just as important, the reallocation of space has brought a welcome order to every form of ambulation. Now that drivers, bikers, and walkers have clearly defined boundaries, they appear to be interacting better on those streets. That can't help but make bikers safer.