On May 21st, City Council passed  Bill # 090190 to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Code to require bicycle parking for new zoning permits.  The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilman Kenny and Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. passed unaminously.   Read the Bicycle Coalition's factsheet (updated on April 16, 2009) about it. This legislation was developed by the Bicycle Coalition and the Nutter Administration through the Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan Steering Committee.  Other cities' ordinances and approaches were reviewed and considered when this ordinance was developed.  

This legislation was also prompted by a Bicycle Coalition report issued in May 2008 on Philadelhia's bike parking shortage called "Bicycle Parking: the Key to a Green Philadelphia".  Many photos of good, bad and no bicycle parking in Philadelphia are here.

As part of this campaign, Bicycle Coalition staff met during the summer of 2008 with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the Streets Department, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia International Airport, and the Parkway Corporation.  We have distributed our four page fact sheet to the Comcast Center (Liberty Property Trust), 1700 Market Street (Transwestern) and Guys Bicycles. Please download the fact sheet and give it your property manager to encourage him/her to install bike racks in office building.  Contact us for more information at bike@bicyclecoalition.org

In response to our advocacy, on July 30th, the Philadelphia Parking Authority installed bike racks at three of its Center City garages.  The Academy of Sciences committed to installing racks in front of its museum.  Philadelphia's Division of Aviation committed to installing about 4 racks at PHL over the next twelve months.  In late July 2008, the Streets Department issued a "notice to proceed" for its  "Adopt-a-Rack" contract, which will result in 1400 new inverted U racks to be installed throughout the city. The Bicycle Coalition assumed maintenance responsibility for those racks installed in much of Center City and at SEPTA stations.

Do you want your office building or school to install bike racks?  Give them the Bicycle Coalition's Bike Rack factsheet (4 pages) to help guide them on best practices.    

To apply for a permit to install your own bike rack in Philadelphia, read here

To request that a sidewalk receive a new bike rack under the "Adopt-A-Rack" program, contact Darin Gatti at the Streets Department darin.gatti@phila.gov