The idea of public involvement makes bikeheads shriek as though someone slammed them with a car door. They don't want (non-bike-riding) public input.
* Residents of congested Chinatown are petitioning to stop the city's planned theft of one car lane on 10th Street.
Joe Eastman, president of Chinatown Town Watch, says that Chinatown already is jammed and that removing one lane of traffic will make things worse, maybe even hurt business as motorists steer away from the mess. The city said it chose 10th Street partly because it's not a SEPTA bus route. Eastman notes that Greyhound and NJ Transit buses clog the streets.
While Chinatown fights, the city last week began "testing" removal of one car lane from Market and JFK between 15th and 20th for bikes and other benefits. The bikeheads may be surprised to learn that I think that might work because those streets are so wide, unlike 10th street. But the devil is in the details. The city will do a traffic study, but as I previously have reported, it has screwed the pooch on previous studies, sometimes even relying on volunteers from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, an activist group. Honestly, is that a good practice?
* Traffic Court President Judge Thomasine Tynes, the new love of my life, wants to require the registration of bikes, just like other vehicles. When that idea was proposed two years ago by Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Jim Kenney, pedalists howled like coyotes.
How dare they be asked to register? Condensed, and translated, the cyclists said, kind of like Dr. Seuss: "We are green! We are keen! We do not pollute the air! Registration is not fair!"
