Staff Blog
Bicycle Coalition calls for action on MLK following last week’s crash
As we reported last week, a father and his 4-year-old son were hit by a car while crossing the bridge that leads west onto MLK Drive (a.k.a. West River Drive) by bicycle. The child was taken to Children's Hospital in critical condition.
I also mentioned last week that the day before this crash, I had been talking with John Boyle. advocacy director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia about that very intersection. Although the Art Museum area is one of the most heavily trafficked by bicycles in the city, the layout of roads, bike lanes, crosswalks, etc. around it is less than adequate.
West River Drive is particularly problematic. The portion of the road on which the crash occurred is used by bicyclists both to cross over to or from the Kelly Drive bike path and to cross the Schuylkill to get on the path on West River Drive. Although the road is technically a park road, and has a speed limit of 35 miles per hour, it's designed more like a highway and speeding is frequent, if not ubiquitous: the Bicycle Coalition once planted themselves on MLK with a speed gun and observed a speeding rate of 100 percent.
As they put it in a press release today, "This horrible crash is the latest example of the dangers of a beautiful park road that has been allowed to become a throughway."
Spurred by this crash, the Bicycle Coalition is calling for the city to step in and do something. In the press release issued today, they called for specific actions:
- Traffic calm MLK Drive by reducing it to one lane, inbound and outbound, for the entire length
- Install bike lanes to further calm traffic, allow for unimpeded two-way trail traffic across the MLK Bridge and make the trail safer by allowing faster bicyclists to ride on the street
- Close the entire length of MLK Drive for recreational use on Saturday and Sunday from dawn to dusk and therefore avoid conflicts with cars at the crossing during peak trail use times
These are good recommendations and the city should take them seriously. The last recommendation, that MLK be closed for its entire length on weekends, is on-point. The idea of setting aside a portion of the park where families can feel safe from traffic — but forcing them to ride through dangerous traffic to get there — is absurd.
They also have recommendations for dealing with the crosswalk itself:
- At the outbound entrance ramp from Eakins Oval, narrow the travel lane
- Put out "yield to pedestrian" silent policeman signs in the crossing
- Install soft rumble strips approaching each crosswalk
- Install yield bars in front of each crosswalk
- Install User Activated Pedestrian Flashing Warning Beacons
- Install "Your Speed" Driver Feedback Signs on MLK Drive
In addition to their requests to the city, the Coalition is doing something itself: This week, they'll have members of their "Bicycle Ambassadors" program — a new program that's utilizing a good group of young folk to attend community events and promote riding and safety — hanging out at the bridge and reminding drivers that stopping at crosswalks is the law.
I hope they get some coffee and donuts for that job.
I think we need to think on a macro scale here. This is not a problem that affects just one or two spots. There have been a rash of hit-and-runs this spring all over the city.
I see way too much inappropriate and frankly–illegal–driving, and way too little enforcement. And it’s everywhere, downtown, old city, norlibs, fishtown, bridesburg, west philly, everywhere.
And it’s not just the driving, it’s the double parking, and the blocking crosswalks and ramps, and parking too close to corners so other vehicles can’t see, and so on.
Sometimes the ‘can’t do’ attitude in this city just sucks.
I find it absurd that the city does not enforce speed limits in the park. Seems like a cash cow, with very little necessary effort. And, how about the signal system/plan merging the traffic circle, MLK, and Spring Garden?!?
There is no evidence that excessive speed played a role in this accident. The city does not have the resources to park police cars on every park road in the city and ticket speeders.
The Bicycle Coalition proposals are inadequate to make the crosswalk safe.
1) There are no signs on the eastbound side of the road warning motorists that there is a pedestrian crossing ahead. The only signs are at the crosswalk itself. Motorists should be alerted before they cross the bridge over the Schuylkill River. The driver who hit the father and son may not have known that there was a crosswalk there, she may have thought she was going around a stalled car. If there was ample, early warning of a pedestrian crosswalk the driver may have reacted differently to the stopped car.
2) Motorists are not accustomed to mid-block crosswalks, locating the crosswalk at an intersection would make it much safer for pedestrians. There is an intersection about 20 yards away from the current crosswalk. Pedestrians could use the currently existing crosswalk to cross the westbound MLK Drive then walk along the eastbound part of MLK Drive for about 20 yards to the light where eastbound MLK Drive enters the Art Museum Circle. There is a lengthy light there that will allow pedestrians to cross easily.
Reducing the number of inbound lanes from two to one would have prevented the specific situation that caused this accident.
Reducing the number of inbound lanes to one makes space for a two-way, bollard-protected multi use path on the north side of that bridge.
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Dan, just curious: you think the Coalition’s plan for the intersection is inadequate, but do you agree with their recommendations regarding the road itself? - Isaiah