No one likes riding their bicycle through trash, plastic bags, and leaves. But that’s exactly what everyone traveling along the 4400 block of the Chestnut Street protected bike lane was enduring.
So the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia planned a cleanup of the bike lane for Tuesday, December 10, at 1:30pm.
BCGP Regional Planner Leonard Bonarek stays on brand for clean-ups, carrying cleaning tools on his cargo bike.
The event was public. But we (understandably) weren’t expecting a big group of volunteers, given the forecast for rain all day Tuesday.
But by the time 1:30pm rolled around, the rain had let up, and several of University City District Public Space Maintenance crew members met us with heavy-duty trash bags and tools.
We were also joined by two Bicycle Coalition volunteers—Owen Sindler and Chi-Hyun Kim—who selflessly took the time out of their days to help us out.
Huge thanks to University City District and the volunteers who came out to help us. These clean-ups aren’t necessarily a normal part of our workweek, but dirty bike lanes are potentially dangerous, and we felt it was necessary to take some time to clear the trash for safety’s sake.
There will be plenty of opportunities in 2020 to join a bike lane cleanup. Check out our Facebook events page and website calendar for the next (as of now, unscheduled) clean up.