More bike lane stuff
I was recently looking at the Streets Department budget proposal for 2023 because I wanted to see what they had to say about bike lanes. How much do bike lanes cost? How much is expense a factor for why the bike infrastructure in the city is so lackluster? Does the City actually put money towards this? This is available online: http://phlcouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Streets_FY2023-Budget-Detail.pdf
The 2023 proposed operating budget had some information about grants the city received for bike infrastructure. But there was very limited detail about what they’re actually trying to do or where.
this one sought $75,000 for bike lanes around 15th and Callowhill
this one had $450,000 appropriated for FY 2022 and asked for $25,000 for FY 2023.
this one was $1 million!
From just looking at the budget proposal, I couldn’t figure out what kind of bike infrastructure they are planning. “Installation of traffic safety devices in conjunction with Vision Zero initiative” is so vague. I submitted a RTKL request for the grant applications to see if I could find out more. I asked for:
A copy of the application for and/or documents reflecting the receipt of "DOW Green Bike Lanes Grant" (grant no. G12627).
A copy of the application for and/or documents reflecting the receipt of the "Citywide Pedestrian & Bike Program" (grant no. G12619).
A copy of the application for and/or documents reflecting the receipt of the grant for "High Quality Bike Network" with award period 09/1/21 - 08/31/24.
The City provided me with copies of the grant applications. Two were 2017 and 2019 applications to the Automated Red Light Enforcement fund and they had some interesting stuff. Both applications were signed by a Streets Department engineer. There was some interesting info on the City’s understanding of who’s using bike lanes.
The 2019 application for ARLE funds for the Citywide High Quality Bike Lane Network acknowledges that the current bike lanes only serve 12% of Philadelphians (aka intense people like me who are ok biking in traffic), but if they were able to build a safe, separated network HALF the city would be interested in biking. Even with the current dismal setup, riding a bike is very convenient and fun. Imagine if it was accessible to everyone who wanted to get around this way!
The third was a grant from Dow Chemical. I did not expect that! I thought “DOW” was an acronym. Dow gave the City $130,000 in 2018 for green bike lanes. In 2022, the City wrote a letter of support for Dow’s application to the “R&D 100 Awards Program” which explained what they used the Dow money for: “installation and regular use of the Duratrack resins (R-100 and AEH-100) under traffic.” I think it is fancy green paint. It’s better than nothing, but if the City knows the overwhelming majority of Philadelphians wouldn’t bike in an unprotected bike lane, I wish they would focus on making protected bike lanes. They recently painted the bike lanes around 33rd and South with green paint, but that does absolutely nothing to stop a car from hitting you at the point where the bike lane and right turn lane cross over each other.
this was in November 2018
Here’s the full set of documents I received: