Staff Blog
City offers tepid response to Bike Coalition’s ‘Take Back the Drive’ campaign
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| bicyclecoalition.org |
| Taken after the accident by a Coalition staff member. |
A week ago, we wrote about a crash that occurred at the entrance to MLK Drive (a.k.a. West River Drive), by the Art Museum. A father and his 4-year-old were hit, leaving the child in critical condition. According to Alex Doty, Executive Director of the BIcycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the child is recovering.
Meanwhile, the crash has prompted the Bike Coalition to call for improvements at the intersection where the crash occurred, and to launch a "Take back the drive" campaign, asking the city to close the entire length of the drive, from dawn till dusk, on Saturday and Sundays.
Currently, the entire drive is closed only from 7 a.m. to noon, after which point half of the drive is opened to cars, while the other half remains no-cars until 5Â p.m.
They're encouraging people to write a letter to Mayor Nutter. As they put it:
This horrible crash is the latest example of the dangers of a beautiful park road that has been allowed to become a throughway. It is time to make MLK Drive safe for park users
Yesterday, the mayor's spokesman, Doug Oliver, e-mailed me a statement, excerpted below, which he said should be attributed to the Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler in the Department of Transportation and Utilities.
The city says it's installed new "yield"'signs, will shift one of the lanes to give cars a better view of the intersection, and is looking into rumble strips.
These address some of the Coalition's concerns, but not the big ones: painting bike lanes on the bridge, restriping the bridge to make it one lane in each direction — and the big one, closing MLK at its full length on weekends.
On this point, the city said only:
Enhancing the role of Martin Luther King Drive as a park roadway rather than a high speed bypass road is a more complex issue. As such, the Streets Department, the Office of Transportation & Utilities, Fairmount Park and the City Planning Commission will explore other options and treatments for the roadway and undertake a discussion with stakeholders to solicit opinions regarding the future of the Drive.
"A more complex issue," indeed — and certainly a politically sensitive one. The city would prefer not to upset the status quo. But the status quo, when it comes to MLK, is ridiculous and, more poignantly, dangerous.
I e-mailed the entire statement to Doty, who wrote the following response:
We are pleased that the City is taking immediate steps to make the MLK Crosswalk safer. In addition to the safety measures being taken, a pedestrian activated signal will significantly increase pedestrian safety.
We look forward to working with the Nutter Administration to find a future for MLK Drive where it serves as a park road rather than a high speed throughway. As long as high speeds are the norm on MLK Drive, Â the MLK Crosswalk will not be as safe as park users have a right to expect.
As a Philadelphian, I have spent sometime down by MLK Drive and I have to agree with the bike coalition. There is a definite problem here. The drive shouldn’t be used as Broad Street. Not to say drivers should not be able to enjoy the drive, but even a low speed limit would help. Driver usually like to drive faster rather than slower,so, it creating a lower speed limit limit, like 25 or 30 mph should decrease traffic, speed problems, and increase the vision of pedestrians to the driver. I also think it is a smart thing to shut down the drive to major traffic on the weekends so that the park may feel more like a park to park visitors and users. Central park is a good way to envision it. Road bumps may actually effect the ability to enjoy a decent bike ride in the park on the roads, and force riders on the side walks, which can be dangerous as well. The city should think this over a bit more instead of lightly touching it and pushing it to the side like so many other things within the city.