- United States
- Pa.
- Letter
An Open Letter
To: Mayor Parker
From: A verified voter in Philadelphia, PA
July 22
Philadelphians deserve safe streets. You along with the rest of City leadership must stop dragging your feet and commit to saving lives through action, not just words.
Not only are the tragic deaths of the past week unacceptable, they were preventable. Concrete barriers adjacent to the bike lanes would have offered protection from reckless drivers. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia has repeatedly pressed the City to install such permanent safety infrastructure, but yet none have been installed along most of the City's bike networks.
Flexible delineator posts did nothing to prevent drivers from hitting and killing the vulnerable road users in these crashes. In fact, flexible delineator posts are considered temporary measures at the state and federal level – why has the City decided to treat these band-aids as permanent infrastructure for bike lanes across Philadelphia?
City leadership must step up and commit to and act on the following:
1. Fully protect bike lanes throughout Philadelphia with permanent concrete barriers;
2. End the legacy practice of allowing parking in bike lanes on weekends;
3. Replace all “No Parking” signage with “No Stopping” signage along bike lanes.
Enough is enough. You as our City's top official must take action now!