Lock It Up: Fishtown’s Bike-and-Beans, Clean Air Council Collaborate to Bring New Artistic Bike Racks to N. Front Street
If we can continue to believe in facts and statistics, for the moment at least, bicycle ridership in Philadelphia continues to grow. It is up about half of a percentage point from 2015. A study conducted by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission found that 70 percent of cyclists would ride more often if they knew that secure bike parking was available. This means well-maintained, reliable bike racks as opposed to signposts. The Clean Air Council (CAC) took a look at these numbers and decided to do something about them.
Bike Rack installed at Front St. Cafe ./Sarah Mullan
On February 27th, at a small gathering at Fishtown Bike-and-Beans, the CAC unveiled six new art bike racks situated along North Front St. The racks are the first of twenty plus a bike corral (a bunch of bike racks that take up the space of one parking spot. You can see examples of bike corrals outside of Johnny Brendas and Kung Fu Necktie). Funding for this initiative was achieved through grants from the American Street Empowerment Zone ($10,000) and the Penn Treaty Special Services District ($29,000).
“I noticed a serious lack of bicycle infrastructure throughout the city,” said Will Fraser, Outreach Coordinator for the CAC and an essential part of the bike rack project. “These racks promote foot traffic and local businesses which stimulates the local economy and helps with beautification.”
/Will Fraser
The racks were designed by Joseph Campbell of Metal Incorporated. Campbell sketched the designs by hand and then used salvaged materials to build the racks. Campbell’s cost-per-rack came in at about half the price of other bids for the project, roughly $500-$800 per rack.
Nick Rogers, the Program Director for CDC’s Sustainable Transportation initiative, is excited about the racks but also about a variety of other programs the CDC is responsible for. Rogers pointed to GoPhillyGo as an example of such a project. GoPhillyGo is an online mapping tool that allows to users to plan their routes multimodal methods such as combining biking and walking and public transit in one trip.
More information about these transportation programs is available online
