Last week, PennDOT installed a new 2-way cycletrack on West Spring Garden Street, between 33rd and 38th Streets.

Formerly, this had been a 1-way non-buffered bike lane. But when Spring Garden Street was repaved, the parking lane was shrunk and put in a 2-way bike lane to replace the original east-flowing bike lane to accommodate the westbound and eastbound movements.

Having now ridden on the lane ourselves, read user feedback, conducted measurements, and compared the two-way lane to similar designs in other cities, we have concerns.

First, because it’s a two-way bike lane on the outside of parked cars, the person riding a bike on the contraflow side is potentially endangered by motor vehicles pulling out and running into the cyclist head-on. Because of this, two-way bike lanes are most-often constructed between parked cars and curbs, or between motor vehicle traffic and curbs—not between motor vehicle traffic and parked cars.

We are aware of similar lanes in other cities. But those lanes have subtle differences that make them safer.

For example, there is a similar cycletrack on Plaza Street in Brooklyn, New York, but that lane includes an outside paint buffer between the cyclist and motor vehicle traffic. The buffer allows the contraflow cyclist to get by a potential illegally double-parked car without cycling against traffic, unlike the Spring Garden Street lane.

A one-way contraflow lane against parked cars and motor vehicle traffic exists over the Gowanis Canal in New York City. But the one-way design on this lane does not allow for cars to double-park without impeding motor vehicle traffic. (More on these similar lanes in a bit.)

The lack of a buffer, and some motor vehicle users’ tendency to park, stand and stop on bike lanes, creates situations like the one below (taken from a Facebook user’s video):

Secondly, the contraflow side of the track (that is, the bike lane against traffic) forces people on bicycles to ride in the doorzone — which is always a concern.

“The two way painted bikeway approach works in several other cities on low speed roadways with stop signs like Spring Garden in this stretch. This is a new bikeway type for Philadelphia,” noted Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, in a statement to the Bicycle Coalition. “Our approach is to work with Drexel Police and Philadelphia Police 16th District. Sixteenth District Community Relations Officer Jesse Woodhouse is announcing the issue at Roll Call at the beginning of each shift and make sure there is particular enforcement on this stretch as drivers get used to the new bikeway.”

The issue with double-parked cars has been the most aggressive in riders’ points of view. As many cyclists know, double-parked cars is a prevalent issue in Philadelphia. OTIS understands this. “If the issue remains, we will consider flex posts between the travel lane and the bikeway,” they noted.

While the Bicycle Coalition understands and appreciates OTIS’ intent on this issue, and wants to support new bicycle infrastructure designs, we’re very concerned about this particular design.

Upon consideration of OTIS’ proposal to use delineator posts and enhanced enforcement, we think there is a strong likelihood that these measures will not provide enough protection to really improve the design. We aren’t convinced that this design of a two-way bike lane can work without a buffer.

The Plaza Street, Brooklyn 2-way lane features a 3-foot buffer and at least one speed hump.

Designs in other cities use a contaflow bike lane separated by a double yellow line with sharrows in the travel lane such as on G Street NE in Washington DC, and the Berteau Greenway (Neighborhood Bikeway) in Chicago that includes speed humps and a neighborhood traffic circle in the Ravenswood section of the City.

Contraflow lane in Chicago

The Bicycle Coalition recommends that the Spring Garden Street roadway be reconfigured with an eastbound one-way buffered bike lane, or a one way protected bike lane.

Spring Garden was formerly an east-bound one-way standard bike lane. Now that the street has been repaved and repainted, it’s possible to go back to the east-bound bike lane with a buffer, like so:

Note this street has room for a buffer between the cyclist and traffic, and room for a doorzone buffer.

But our most preferable change to the street would be the following street-mix:

PENNDOT will currently not install parking protected bike lanes on streets they control. We are trying to change that.

We feel this is the safest, most inviting bike lane for all road users. It is not two-way, but provides safer access for cyclists going eastbound, from West Philadelphia to Center City. Given this was a PennDOT-installed project, the protected lane was not an option due to pending legislation in the state Capitol.

In the meantime, if you have ridden in this lane and have a comment, please send it via email to bike@bicyclecoalition.org.

John Boyle and Sarah Clark Stuart contributed to this blog.