Casey
11-08-2002, 05:01 PM
Posted on Sun, Sep. 08, 2002
By Jere Downs
Inquirer Staff Writer
quote:quote:Within months, the Segway - the self-balancing, electric-powered "personal transporter" - is expected on the market. Pennsylvania lawmakers amended the Motor Vehicle Code in June to allow the $3,000 superscooter, with a top speed of 12.5 m.p.h., on sidewalks and bike paths. New Jersey legislators plan to take up the issue next year.
The tandem development: nearly 1,000 miles of safe commuting routes for Segwayers and cyclists in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. Bikeways planned to ease commuting for cyclists
By Jere Downs
Inquirer Staff Writer
Ed Hein says his daily commute is heart-healthy and ecofriendly. It only sounds suicidal.
Starting at 6:15 a.m. in Chalfont, Bucks County, he pedals his custom-built, 24-speed Bilenky bike south on Route 202, sucked along in the draft of trucks at up to 50 m.p.h. In Norristown, he scoots past snarled traffic. On Route 23, he shares a thin lane with big rigs headed toward West Conshohocken.
After 17 miles and 50 minutes, Hein, 38, is at GlaxoSmithKline, where he supervises the pharmaceutical giant's R&D software operations.
"I don't think it's insane," he says of the trip. "What's insane is global warming and heart disease and obesity in society."
Hein's refusal to surrender to the car sets him apart from nearly everyone else. Just 5 percent of the labor force in the eight-county Philadelphia region bikes or walks to work - the lowest since 1960, when the census began keeping track.
But change may be afoot, thanks to the confluence of invention and megabucks investments in industrial-strength bikeways.
Within months, the Segway - the self-balancing, electric-powered "personal transporter" - is expected on the market. Pennsylvania lawmakers amended the Motor Vehicle Code in June to allow the $3,000 superscooter, with a top speed of 12.5 m.p.h., on sidewalks and bike paths. New Jersey legislators plan to take up the issue next year.
The tandem development: nearly 1,000 miles of safe commuting routes for Segwayers and cyclists in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
Planners' maps show the region webbed with bikeways. Already, 267 miles are open, including the Delaware Canal Towpath (Bristol to Easton), the Schuylkill River Trail (Philadelphia Art Museum to Valley Forge), and two-thirds of Montgomery County's Perkiomen Trail (Valley Forge to Oaks).
Another 109 miles are either under construction or will be within three years.
In the conceptual stage and awaiting funding are 531 more miles of trails. In South Jersey, the largest of them is the nine-mile East Atlantic Bikeway along the White Horse Pike, linking Oaklyn and Clementon.
No packed-dirt paths, these. Most are scaled-down highways, as wide as 14 feet, with four-foot shoulders and bridges sturdy enough to carry police cars and ambulances. They will whisk riders through some of the region's nastiest congestion, and pass such commercial centers as Chesterbrook, Willow Grove and Fort Washington.
"They really are roads, just not for cars," said planner John Wood, who oversees Montgomery County's trail construction. They are "a way to get to work."
Since 1999 in Southeastern Pennsylvania alone, $26 million in mostly federal funds has been targeted to bike and pedestrian projects. Of that, $8.4 million is left, if not for long.
Some of it will be used for the 16-mile Chester Valley Trail, which will hook onto the Schuylkill River Trail at King of Prussia via a bike bridge over I-76, and skirt the Route 202 soundwalls to Downingtown. Most of it should be open by 2005.
The rest of the money is going into the final nine miles of the 19-mile Perkiomen Trail, which by next year will extend to Green Lane in northwest Montgomery County.
Also down the pike:
Work is to begin next year on the five-mile Cobbs Creek Bikeway linking West Philadelphia and Upper Darby and emptying into on-road bike lanes leading to Philadelphia International Airport.
The south end of the Schuylkill River Trail will be extended two miles, from the Art Museum to Locust Street, via the river's east bank. The project, a $6.4 million design challenge, is expected to get under way this fall and be finished next year.
In 2004, a nine-mile trail will be built in conjunction with construction of the new Route 202 from Doylestown to Montgomeryville.
Ed Hein, for one, is pumped. He concedes his current commute is "urban assault riding" and understands why hardly anyone is out there with him.
"When cars are stuck in traffic, it's easy," he said. But "it's unnerving when they are passing you at 50 and 60 m.p.h. The advantage you have on a bike is that you can see a lot more... . You can see them coming."
If bikeways are only now garnering serious attention - not to mention serious bucks - do not credit the masses.
Since 1970, the mileage driven by the average American in a year has increased 143 percent. When placing blame, experts single out sprawl, which has put ever-greater distances between home and job.
Laziness doesn't help, either.
"People just want to get in their car and turn on the ignition," said Robert Ravelli, author of the 1993 book, Car Free in Philadelphia: The Regional Public Transit Guide, and a transportation planner for the city.
Exacerbating the problem, government officials have "acted like there is no responsibility to accommodate bicycles or pedestrians because everyone is going to get everywhere by car," said Bill Wilkinson, of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, an advocacy group in Washington. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy."
In a roundabout way, that began to change in the mid-1990s.
To foster "green commuting," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency threatened to cut off transportation funds to the Philadelphia region unless the business community produced a plan to reduce the number of solo drivers by 25 percent.
Companies rebelled at the prospect of being fined as much as $25,000 if employees did not comply, and EPA backed off.
The agency then allowed counties to choose their own alternative-transportation projects.
Most opted for bike and pedestrian networks - at least partly the result of Montgomery County's forging ahead with the Perkiomen Trail, said Chester County planner Lee Whitmore. That "shamed us into action."
Whitmore also noted a "complete turnaround" by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Now, on major road resurfacing projects, the agency routinely stripes bike lanes and widens shoulders for cyclists. In Philadelphia alone, that policy has produced 150 miles of on-road bike lanes; in 1995, only Columbus Boulevard was striped.
Some believe pedal power translates into economic power, by turning the region into "a more livable location [that] attracts business and talent," said Laurie Actman, spokeswoman for the corporate consortium, Greater Philadelphia First.
Pittsburgh, however, will have a leg up on Philadelphia when the East Coast's first bike-and-blade station opens there next year. The $275,000 depot will have bike parking and repair, plus a cafe, in walking distance of a downtown riverfront trail and light rail station.
PennDot, which partly funded the depot, had first sought to build it in Philadelphia, according to Christopher Johnston, the agency official who managed the research funds. But Pittsburgh city and port authority officials rallied to the cause and captured the project.
Johnston is unfazed by the abysmally low number of bike commuters. Open enough trails, he says, and they will pedal:
"We build highways, confident that they will be used. We have to build bike facilities the same way."
By Jere Downs
Inquirer Staff Writer
quote:quote:Within months, the Segway - the self-balancing, electric-powered "personal transporter" - is expected on the market. Pennsylvania lawmakers amended the Motor Vehicle Code in June to allow the $3,000 superscooter, with a top speed of 12.5 m.p.h., on sidewalks and bike paths. New Jersey legislators plan to take up the issue next year.
The tandem development: nearly 1,000 miles of safe commuting routes for Segwayers and cyclists in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. Bikeways planned to ease commuting for cyclists
By Jere Downs
Inquirer Staff Writer
Ed Hein says his daily commute is heart-healthy and ecofriendly. It only sounds suicidal.
Starting at 6:15 a.m. in Chalfont, Bucks County, he pedals his custom-built, 24-speed Bilenky bike south on Route 202, sucked along in the draft of trucks at up to 50 m.p.h. In Norristown, he scoots past snarled traffic. On Route 23, he shares a thin lane with big rigs headed toward West Conshohocken.
After 17 miles and 50 minutes, Hein, 38, is at GlaxoSmithKline, where he supervises the pharmaceutical giant's R&D software operations.
"I don't think it's insane," he says of the trip. "What's insane is global warming and heart disease and obesity in society."
Hein's refusal to surrender to the car sets him apart from nearly everyone else. Just 5 percent of the labor force in the eight-county Philadelphia region bikes or walks to work - the lowest since 1960, when the census began keeping track.
But change may be afoot, thanks to the confluence of invention and megabucks investments in industrial-strength bikeways.
Within months, the Segway - the self-balancing, electric-powered "personal transporter" - is expected on the market. Pennsylvania lawmakers amended the Motor Vehicle Code in June to allow the $3,000 superscooter, with a top speed of 12.5 m.p.h., on sidewalks and bike paths. New Jersey legislators plan to take up the issue next year.
The tandem development: nearly 1,000 miles of safe commuting routes for Segwayers and cyclists in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
Planners' maps show the region webbed with bikeways. Already, 267 miles are open, including the Delaware Canal Towpath (Bristol to Easton), the Schuylkill River Trail (Philadelphia Art Museum to Valley Forge), and two-thirds of Montgomery County's Perkiomen Trail (Valley Forge to Oaks).
Another 109 miles are either under construction or will be within three years.
In the conceptual stage and awaiting funding are 531 more miles of trails. In South Jersey, the largest of them is the nine-mile East Atlantic Bikeway along the White Horse Pike, linking Oaklyn and Clementon.
No packed-dirt paths, these. Most are scaled-down highways, as wide as 14 feet, with four-foot shoulders and bridges sturdy enough to carry police cars and ambulances. They will whisk riders through some of the region's nastiest congestion, and pass such commercial centers as Chesterbrook, Willow Grove and Fort Washington.
"They really are roads, just not for cars," said planner John Wood, who oversees Montgomery County's trail construction. They are "a way to get to work."
Since 1999 in Southeastern Pennsylvania alone, $26 million in mostly federal funds has been targeted to bike and pedestrian projects. Of that, $8.4 million is left, if not for long.
Some of it will be used for the 16-mile Chester Valley Trail, which will hook onto the Schuylkill River Trail at King of Prussia via a bike bridge over I-76, and skirt the Route 202 soundwalls to Downingtown. Most of it should be open by 2005.
The rest of the money is going into the final nine miles of the 19-mile Perkiomen Trail, which by next year will extend to Green Lane in northwest Montgomery County.
Also down the pike:
Work is to begin next year on the five-mile Cobbs Creek Bikeway linking West Philadelphia and Upper Darby and emptying into on-road bike lanes leading to Philadelphia International Airport.
The south end of the Schuylkill River Trail will be extended two miles, from the Art Museum to Locust Street, via the river's east bank. The project, a $6.4 million design challenge, is expected to get under way this fall and be finished next year.
In 2004, a nine-mile trail will be built in conjunction with construction of the new Route 202 from Doylestown to Montgomeryville.
Ed Hein, for one, is pumped. He concedes his current commute is "urban assault riding" and understands why hardly anyone is out there with him.
"When cars are stuck in traffic, it's easy," he said. But "it's unnerving when they are passing you at 50 and 60 m.p.h. The advantage you have on a bike is that you can see a lot more... . You can see them coming."
If bikeways are only now garnering serious attention - not to mention serious bucks - do not credit the masses.
Since 1970, the mileage driven by the average American in a year has increased 143 percent. When placing blame, experts single out sprawl, which has put ever-greater distances between home and job.
Laziness doesn't help, either.
"People just want to get in their car and turn on the ignition," said Robert Ravelli, author of the 1993 book, Car Free in Philadelphia: The Regional Public Transit Guide, and a transportation planner for the city.
Exacerbating the problem, government officials have "acted like there is no responsibility to accommodate bicycles or pedestrians because everyone is going to get everywhere by car," said Bill Wilkinson, of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, an advocacy group in Washington. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy."
In a roundabout way, that began to change in the mid-1990s.
To foster "green commuting," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency threatened to cut off transportation funds to the Philadelphia region unless the business community produced a plan to reduce the number of solo drivers by 25 percent.
Companies rebelled at the prospect of being fined as much as $25,000 if employees did not comply, and EPA backed off.
The agency then allowed counties to choose their own alternative-transportation projects.
Most opted for bike and pedestrian networks - at least partly the result of Montgomery County's forging ahead with the Perkiomen Trail, said Chester County planner Lee Whitmore. That "shamed us into action."
Whitmore also noted a "complete turnaround" by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Now, on major road resurfacing projects, the agency routinely stripes bike lanes and widens shoulders for cyclists. In Philadelphia alone, that policy has produced 150 miles of on-road bike lanes; in 1995, only Columbus Boulevard was striped.
Some believe pedal power translates into economic power, by turning the region into "a more livable location [that] attracts business and talent," said Laurie Actman, spokeswoman for the corporate consortium, Greater Philadelphia First.
Pittsburgh, however, will have a leg up on Philadelphia when the East Coast's first bike-and-blade station opens there next year. The $275,000 depot will have bike parking and repair, plus a cafe, in walking distance of a downtown riverfront trail and light rail station.
PennDot, which partly funded the depot, had first sought to build it in Philadelphia, according to Christopher Johnston, the agency official who managed the research funds. But Pittsburgh city and port authority officials rallied to the cause and captured the project.
Johnston is unfazed by the abysmally low number of bike commuters. Open enough trails, he says, and they will pedal:
"We build highways, confident that they will be used. We have to build bike facilities the same way."