What are we supposed to do about street safety?

Local government is failing on this, of course!

I don’t have a car, and on the rare occasion I rent one it’s to leave the city, so I don’t know what it’s like driving in Philly now. But as a person who walks and bikes everywhere, I’m a little scared. (Biking is also very convenient and fun which, for me, still outweighs the risk.) What are you even supposed to do about this? I have written to my city council representative, Jamie Gauthier, who is probably the best council member advocating for street safety. And her office said they aren’t going to do much:

my city council member’s office telling to go beg for street safety elsewhere

I have also written to the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia. I’m a dues-paying member and they’re supposed to advocate for this kind of thing, right? I specifically wrote in about the South Street Bridge bike lanes which have a car lane and bike lane crossing over each other, and flex posts that disappeared. The executive director was very kind and spoke with me over zoom. But after we met, she basically said they aren’t going to try to do anything about it.

I have also written to the Office of Infrastructure, Transportation and Sustainability, and they basically told me the same thing as Council Member Gauthier’s office, that they’re doing things super slowly and I should apply for a “slow zone”.

(I wrote in with a question about the woodland ave repaving project and threw in a complaint about the general hellscape of trying to get around on foot)

Then, on November 4th, I got hit by a car while I was riding my bike. Fortunately I was not injured and my bike wasn’t damaged, but I got HIT BY A FUCKING CAR. I was riding in the bike lane! And getting a “slow zone” in Garden Court wouldn’t have done a thing because it happened while I was on my commute to work in center city.

I didn’t call the police or anything, because I wasn’t injured, but I took this photo of the license plate. The driver should take a lot of the blame because she wasn’t paying attention and almost ran me over, but I am even more furious at the City for its failure to make this street safe. Who thought it was a good idea to have cars make turns through the bike lane with basically no infrastructure to get them to watch out for bikers?! Right off the most-biked bridge in the entire state?!

What am I even supposed to do? I just want to ride my bike to and from work and not get hit by a car. So, if you read my blog and have ideas about how to get the city to fix the roads, or if you can think of information it would be useful for me to request from the City or PennDOT or any other office, please email your suggestions to megan.shannon@gmail.com.