Mapping Access through Bike Lanes
Accessibility of different modes of transportation are a key factor in determining which forms will be used most frequently. For example, a city in which bike lanes span the entire region is likely to promote bike transportation, as opposed to a city in which bike lanes are sparse, making biking a dangerous and discouraged activity. This section looks at a comparison of the accessibility and feasibility of use of safe cycling routes in Philadelphia and Freiburg as a window into which forms of transportation are incentivized and which are left behind.
Biking in Philly
In Center City, Philadelphia, roads are meant for cars and cars alone. Biking is a dangerous and impractical task, as streets are crowded with pedestrians, cars, and trucks, and strewn with potholes. While biking in Philly may be a future possibility for idealists, traffic patterns and laws favor larger vehicles, presenting bikers with a bigger challenge. With no bike lane or the right of way, biking is risky activity, with no security blanket of safety or even acknowledgement from drivers.
Instead of providing riders with safe bike routes, most media surrounding biking in Philly teaches bikers how to bike on main roads, suggesting tips such as pulling your bike over and walking it on the sidewalk on crowded streets, and assuming that motorists and pedestrians are not used to driving with cyclists on the same road (Philly Mag). Rather than boasting a bicycle-friendly city, these sources encourage riding on bike paths around the city, clearly not meant for transportation.
The Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition, an organization whose goal is to encourage biking around the city, admits that this is a tough task as well. While they lay out maps for bikers, these are sparse, and they show other maps such as bicycle crash maps and maps showing which Amtrak train lines are bicycle accessible.
Bike Lanes in Philadelphia
Notice the lack of protected bike lanes or trails. While at first glance this may seem like an accessible region, the blue lanes are standard unprotected lanes, in which the guidelines discussed above are encouraged, including assuming motorists don't expect to see cyclists. While the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is working to update these maps with more trails, it is clear that biking in this region is still currently unsafe.Biking in Freiburg
Freiburg, the bicycle capital of Germany, has twice as many bicycles as cars, and the city's infrastructure is built to support this statistic. Rather than streets with excess parking spaces, the downtown is lined with bike racks, often filled with thousands of bikes. Freiburg boasts a 400km (250 mile) network of bike paths, in which bikes have the right of way, and it is often difficult for cars to drive (1). Many of these bike paths don't allow other vehicles, and other forms of transportation, such as trains and trams, have room for bike storage. With the 9,000 bike parking spaces across the city, there is no lack of room for bikes in ones journey. Urban planners work to ensure that amenities are within biking distances, and bike routes are engineered for directness. The city of Freiburg discourages other forms of transportation such as driving, leaving the roads mainly to cyclists (2).
In Freiburg, cyclists have priority.
Suggestions:
Whereas Freiburg promotes biking as the best means of transportation throughout the city, Philadelphia discourages it, citing cycling accidents and even deaths throughout the city. To make Philadelphia more accessible for bikers, the city could follow Freiburg's lead, implementing traffic laws that favor cyclists and preventing urban sprawl. Further, by communicating about these initiatives, the city of Philadelphia could increase the presence of cyclists and advertise this to drivers, making it safer to bike around the city. Fewer parking spots for cars and more parking slots for bikes would decrease overcrowding of vehicles and encourage biking. This could work in conjunction with decreasing theft and making the city safer, as cyclists must be comfortable locking their bikes throughout the region. With these suggestions, modeled after Freiburg's green initiatives, Philly will be more bike friendly, safer, and accessible to many regardless of socioeconomic status, location, or fear. This will allow the city to have a greener footprint, be less polluted with large vehicles, and be more monetarily accessible for many.