Why does the Market St. protected bike lane end unceremoniously at the intersection of 16th and Market Street and not merge as originally planned? Mostly because of much needed construction of an elevator on the north side of Market Street.
But that construction has been completed. And, as it was going on, SEPTA pledged to install the bike lane flex posts on the 1500 block of the Market Street protected bike lane after construction of its elevator on the south and north side of that block was completed.
Good, right? Eh, not so much.
The new elevator on the south side of 1500 Market was completed some time in October 2019 — a full year after the bike lane was originally installed. And, three months later, the bike lane is still missing and rampant parking occurs on a daily basis.
After making inquiries, SEPTA informed the Bicycle Coalition via email that it will install the posts some time next week, depending on the weather. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep our readers up to date on when that happens, or if anything changes.