By late this morning, the air had warmed noticeably and almost all of the snow had melted from Wednesday’s storm. When I stepped outside, I remembered that back in my more youthful days, I would have taken the opportunity to go for a bike ride on a day like today. Even in late fall or early winter, I used to go out and take my bike almost everywhere in Center City Philadelphia. So I felt a special shot of happiness to read this month that starting next spring (2015), Philadelphia will be joining the list of cities with active bike share programs.
The City has spent the past several months identifying specific bike share stations (for example, 30th Street Station and numerous others) in the general range of Temple University to the Navy Yard (north-south) and Center City and West Philadelphia (east-west). The general idea is that someone will be to get a “bike-share” account, pay a small fee, and then have have access to the bikes scattered across a good part of the city. The initial capital costs ($6 million worth) are being funded by various government sources.
I’ve had the same bike for 30 years (a steel frame) so I never would have needed a bikeshare program, but I am thrilled to see that Philadelphia will soon have one. I have noticed over the past several years an increase in bike lanes and street re-design to be more biker friendly, so this is a logical next step!
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