Another RTKL request about the South Street Bridge bike lanes

I submitted another Right-to-Know law request to the City to get more information about the South Street Bridge bike lanes. I asked for:

A copy of all agreements, invoices, and contracts for the design and/or maintenance of the South Street Bridge bicycle lanes from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2021.

A copy of all e-mails to and from the City relating to the delineators/plastic bollards/physical barrier for the South Street bicycle lanes from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2021.

A copy of all correspondence between the City and CHOP relating to the design, construction, and/or maintenance of the South Street Bridge bicycle lanes between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2021.

Here is some background info of why I am so fixated on this bridge:

The South Street bridge is the most biked bridge in Pennsylvania. And every time I bike across, I see even more people walking than biking. But despite the City pretending it’s committed to “Vision Zero” and carbon neutrality by 2050, the bridge is actually pretty hostile for walking/biking. Once you get across the bridge in either direction, the bike lane and right turn lane for cars cross over each other. This is a stupid way to design an intersection and I have been fixated on finding out why the City does things like this for a while. The other problem is that it’s an unprotected bike lane. A few years ago, there were plastic posts on the eastbound side near the entrance to CHOP’s parking garage, but they are gone now. Which raises the question: …what? Who put them in and why weren’t they replaced?

Here is what happened with my RTKL request:

In response to my RTKL request, the City responded on time and produced several emails from 2017 and 2018, plus some older letters and memoranda going back to 2007. From these, it seems like CHOP took responsibility for installing and maintaining flex posts near the entrance to their parking garage off the South Street Bridge in 2017. It seems like they had a hard time with this. Three engineering schools in a five mile radius of the bridge, but they had trouble figuring out what kind of glue to use:

The City also explained: “To the extent that your request sought other or additional records, including invoices and contracts, the City does not have records responsive to your request. It is not a denial of access under the RTKL if the records requested do not exist. See Jenkins v. Pa. Dep’t of State, AP 2009-0065, slip op. at 3 (Pa. OOR Apr. 2, 2009). However, the City reserves its right to assert bases for denial if additional responsive records are located after a review of such records.”

In other words, they don’t have a copy of any written agreement between the City and CHOP regarding the maintenance of this bike lane/the posts. Apparently the City thinks CHOP is in charge of this, but doesn’t really know how to get them to do the maintenance they agreed to. I have come to the conclusion that the whole thing is a mess and no one knows what’s going on or who’s responsible.

Another document I received was a 2007 letter from the Bicycle Coalition to the Streets Department chief engineer with suggestions for safety improvements on the bridge. One of them is actually pretty frustrating - apparently BCGP encouraged the City to have “dedicated right turn lanes plus blue crossover bike lanes” at the 1-76 interchange. Fortunately, at the intersection with the I-76 ramps the bike lane remains all the way to the right side of the road. However, currently, at 33rd and 27th Streets (on either end of the bridge), the bike lane and right turn lanes cross over each other. This would be dangerous even if drivers followed the speed limit and I am shocked that BCGP pushed for more of that.

this letter is on pages 43-44 of the pdf the city gave me

Here is the full PDF the City produced in response:

It is easy to be cynical and criticize the City for being so bad at having basic, safe infrastructure for anyone not in a car. The reason I keep doing these RTKL requests is because I want to find out why it’s like this, and how we could make it better. And I don’t really know what I as a regular citizen can do to change anything about these things that affect something so basic as how I get around.