In mid-March, Bicycle Coalition volunteers tagged 77 bikes and verified that 535 data points sitting in 311 as “requests” were no longer in existence. This effort was an excellent effort that helps the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability (oTIS) clean out the backlog of abandoned bike requests in the Philly 311 database.
Abandoned bikes were tagged for 10 full days and owners were provided with a phone number to call and get their bikes taken off the “removal list.” The bikes that are still tagged will be removed on April 15th as part of the (delayed) Philly Spring Clean Up (https://www.phila.gov/programs/philly-spring-cleanup/). oTIS aims to salvage as many bikes and parts as possible and donate to Neighborhood Bike Works.
Some have us, asked why this important? Several reasons. 1) Clearing out dead bikes opens up more bike parking spaces when the amount of bike parking is scarce in Philadelphia. 2) It’s the law. The Philadelphia City Code allows bikes to be parked at any location for a maximum of 10 days.
The next removal will likely occur in the Fall.
To those of you who volunteered, THANK YOU! You are greatly appreciated!