Getting Around Philadelphia by Bicycle and Transit

Cover of the PA Outdoors Plan

Last night, while the Superbowl was on, I read through the 2009-2013 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.  Note… I’d suggest starting on page 18 and then go back and read the beginning after you’ve read the more interesting content.

On page 65, the plan says, “Serious work needs to be done to broaden and strengthen the constituency for outdoor recreation.”  If you read the content of the plan, you’ll see that it addresses needs for urban, rural and suburban populations.  Local and county parks constitute 43% of “Away-from-Home Recreation Activity.”  And it talks about goals for street trees and access of urban neighborhoods to nature.

The overall feel of the plan, however, gives me the impression of a romanticized notion of nature:  featuring fishing, camping, waterfalls, horseback riding, ATV use, bicycling and hiking trails, etc.  I love this stuff, and I think it’s important.  But I think most of the opportunities presented here are predicated on one thing:  Access (by car).

As was noted in the plan, being outdoors doesn’t have to mean traveling two hours to go to a state park.  It mentions having easily accessible outdoor activities that you don’t need a car to get to. Even street trees and community gardens are mentioned.

The Pennsylvania Wilds Conservation Landscape Initiative, which I wrote about yesterday, provides $140 million for enhancing state parks and revitalizing communities.  It’s pretty clear to me that this will never be enough. We can’t just take large areas of the state out of private ownership.  When Yellowstone National Park (our first National Park), was created, Wyoming wasn’t even a state. And there were still pressures by private interests to control it in order to make a profit.

I was thinking about the fact that 69% of respondents to the State Outdoor Recreation Plan thought there should be more bike lanes.  But in many places, there just isn’t space.  And I think this demand for bike lanes correlates to peoples’ fear of bicycling in traffic.

So, given that it’s too expensive to buy up all the land, and bike lanes aren’t faring too well outside of Philadelphia, here’s what I wonder.  What if, like West River Drive is closed on weekends, all roads in Pennsylvania were closed to cars for two hours a day?  Or maybe longer on weekends.  People could walk and bike in the streets without fear of cars.  This would immediately give people access to the outdoors.  It would immediately address the obesity epidemic.  It would improve communities.  I don’t know all the consequences of this.  I think it could start as a statewide experiment – like a four hour car-free Pennsylvania event.  It would really bring everyone together around something positive.  People could have parties in the streets.

Outdoor recreation – It’s having fun outside.  It’s not being in front of a computer or a TV, which are the biggest competition to parks, gardening or sports. And I think it’s under attack by the very modes of transportation that we think we need to enjoy the outdoors.