Committee on Streets and Services, October 15, 2024

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON STREETS AND SERVICES Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 15, 2024 1:49 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR., CHAIR COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA, VICE-CHAIR

240613, 240657, 240748, 240749, 240812, 240813, 240814, 240815, 240816, 240118, 240819, 240820, 240821, 240822, 240824 - - -

Good afternoon, everyone. Sorry for the delay. We're going to get started on today's Streets and Services hearing. Just for the record, I note that Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke has been temporarily appointed to this Committee by the Council President. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the roll.

Councilmember Bass.

Present.

Councilmember O'Rourke.

Present.

Vice-Chair Squilla.

Present.

Chair Young.

Present. I note for the record that a quorum of this Committee is present and this hearing is called to order. This is a public hearing on the Committee on Streets and Services considering testimony on Bill Nos. 240613, 240657, 240748, 240749, 240812, 240813, 240814, 240815, 240816, 240118, 240819, 240820, 240821, 240822 and 240824. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the titles of the first bills, Bill Nos. 240814, 240815, 240816, 240819, 240820, 240821 and 240822.

Bill No. 18 240814, titled Establishing a parking regulation on Hadfield Street between South 54th Street and South 53rd Street; South 58th Street between Chestnut Street and Ludlow Street; Carpenter Street between South 60th Street and South 61st Street; Lindbergh Boulevard between Grays Street and South 54th Street; Ludlow Street between South 44th Street and South 43rd Street; South 59th Street between Market Street and Chestnut Street; Melville Street between Kingsessing Avenue and Woodland Avenue; Chester Avenue between South 51st Street and St. Bernard Place; Rodman Street between South 58th Street and South 57th Street; Chancellor Street between South 53rd Street and South 52nd Street; and Also, Bill No. 240815 titled, Establishing a parking regulation on North 42nd Street between Market Street and Powelton Avenue; North 42nd Street between Powelton Avenue and Baring Street; Brandywine Street between North 42nd Street and North 43rd Street; Poplar Street between North 43rd Street and Cambridge Street; Cambridge Street between North 40th Street and North 43rd Street; North 34th Street between Fairmount Avenue and Wallace Street; Mantua Avenue between Fairmount Avenue and North 34th Street; Spruce Street between South 63rd Street and South 62nd Street; Markoe Street between Linmore Street and Woodland Avenue; and Also Bill No. 240816 titled, Establishing a parking regulation on Sloan Street between Powelton Avenue and Baring Street; Mount Vernon Street between North 37th Street and North 38th Street; North 42nd Street between Spring Garden Street and Brandywine Street; North 37th between Brandywine Street and Spring Garden Street; North 37th between Fairmount Avenue and Mount Vernon Street; Spring Garden between North 41st Street and North 42nd Street; Lindenwood Street between Arch Street and Race Street; Sansom Street between South 59th Street and South 60th Street; Wallace Street between North 34th Street and North 35th Street; and Also Bill No. 240818, titled Establishing parking regulations on the vicinity of North 50th Street and Wynnfield Avenue, under certain terms and conditions; and Also Bill No. 240819 titled, Establishing a parking regulation on Conarroe Street between Lawton Street and Ridge Avenue; Lauriston Street between Salaignac Street and Ridge Avenue; Maris Street between Jannette Street and Henry Avenue; Cresson Street between Dawson Street and Salaignace Street; Terrace Street between Dawson Street and Salaignac Street; Terrace Street between Roxborough Avenue and Lofty Street; Manor Street between East Street and Hermit Street; Jamestown Street between Manayunk Avenue and Terrace Street; Hermit Street between Terrace Street and Cresson Street; Lofty Street between Terrace Street and Boone Street; and Also Bill No. 240820 titled, Establishing a parking regulation on Bryn Mawr Avenue between Parkside Avenue and Gainor Road; Overbrook Avenue between Lancaster Avenue and South 63rd Street; Robinson Street between Market Street and Arch Street; Robinson Street between Master Street and Haverford Avenue; Edgewood Street between Race Street and Vine Street; Bryn Mawr Avenue between Wynnefield Avenue and Gainor Road; South 62nd Street between Market Street and Arch Street; Dupont Street between Silverwood Street and Wilde Street; Smick Street between Dupont and Green Lane; Manor Street between Hermit Street and Salaignac Street; and Also Bill No. 240821 titled, Establishing parking regulations of the vicinity of: Wylie Street between Perkiomen Street and Cameron Street; Cecil B. Moore Avenue between North 29th Street and North 30th Street; Vineyard Street between Ridge Avenue and Leland Street; Vineyard Street between Leland Street and Poplar Street; Thompson Street between North 27th Street and North 26th Street; Dover Street between Oxford Avenue and Cecil B.

Moore Avenue; Perkiomen Street between North Wylie Street and Vineyard Street; Master Street between North 20th Street and North 19th Street; Ingersoll Street between North 23rd Street and North 22nd Street; Ingersoll Street between 26th Street and Taney Street; and Also Bill No. 240822 titled, Establishing parking regulations of the vicinity of Richmond Street between Marlborough Street and Columbia Avenue; Montgomery Avenue between Girard Avenue and Wylie Street; Ogden Street between Camac Street and North 12th Street; Leithgow Street between George Street and Cambridge Street; 12th Street between Allegheny Street and Sedgley Avenue, Diamond Street between Marvine Street and North 11th Street; Valley Forge Place and Flora Street, (Cul-de-sac); North 19th Street between Montgomery Avenue and Berks Street, H Street between Westmoreland Street and Ontario Street.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Would you please call the first witness to testify on these bills.

The first witness to testify is Lester Emerson, Deputy Parking Manager for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Mr. Emerson. Please state your name and give your testimony.

Good afternoon. Good Day, Council. My name is Lester Emerson, Deputy Manager for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Thank you for allowing me to testify before Council regarding Ordinances 240814, 240815, 240816, 240820, 240819, 240821 and 240822. The Philadelphia Parking Authority has no objection to the ordinances previously read before Council and recommends favorable consideration. Thank you again for your time. I'll be happy to respond to any questions at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Emerson. Are there any questions of this witness by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony, Mr. Emerson.

Thank you. Have a good one.

Is there anyone else in the chambers today wishing to testify on Bill Nos. 240814, 240815, 240816, 240819, 240820, 240821 or 240822? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 240812 titled, Amending Section 9-213 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Farmers' Markets," by adding a permissible location on Point Breeze Avenue, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Can you please call the witnesses to testify on Bill No. 240812.

The next witnesses to testify are Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets and Micah Root, Program Manager at the Department of Public Health. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Good afternoon, Ms. Marconi. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 2 No. 240812, introduced by Councilmember Gilmore Richardson on behalf of Council President Johnson. This bill adds a permissible location of a Farmers' Market on the roadway and sidewalks and adjoining curblines on both sides of Point Breeze Avenue between Reed Street and Dickenson Street and the triangle located on Point Breeze Avenue between Reed Street and Earp Street. The Department of Streets is not opposed to this proposed Farmers' Market so long as it will maintain 6 feet of clear unobstructed footway. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Ms. Root, please.

Good afternoon, Chairman Young, Vice-Chairman Squilla and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I am Mica Root, Program Manager for Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health in the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention. Thank you for allowing the Health Department to testify on Bill No. 240812, sponsored by Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson for Council President Johnson, which would allow a permissible location for a Farmers' Market on the roadway, sidewalks and adjoining curblines on both sides of Point Breeze Avenue. As my colleague just described, the Health Department's Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention is dedicated to creating a healthy, just, livable community for all residents, including through supporting community-driven solutions to promote food justice in areas where access to healthier food is needed. Farmers' Markets are a great example of improving access to healthy food. They connect our communities to our own local and rural agriculture, provide access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other locally-grown products and support the local and regional farming economy. This past season 32 Farmers' Markets operated in Philadelphia, most of which accepted SNAP, ACCESS Cards and Farmers' Market nutrition program vouchers to ensure more equitable access to fresh, local whole foods. The Point Breeze Business Association is coordinating the Point Breeze Community Market as part of their broader community efforts. The PBBA was formed in September 2018 to help, organize, support and advocate for local businesses in Point Breeze. The Association received a corridor enhancement grant from the Commerce Department which supports community-serving nonprofit organizations dedicated to enhancing the appearance, safety and livability of business districts in the neighborhoods they serve. The goal is to increase foot traffic, attract new businesses, promote available commercial real estate and foster a sense of community. An improved market on Point Breeze Avenue will not only provide more business opportunities in the neighborhood but also increase access to fresh produce in an area where residents have been requesting it. The Health Department welcomes opportunities such as these to create a more sustainable local food system and enhance community resilience and well- being. We support this bill and efforts to promote and expand the network of Farmers' Markets throughout the city. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony today. Happy to respond to questions.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions for these witnesses? Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.

Thank you. I don't have a question, but I just wanted to really shout-out to Council President and the Health Department and of course Streets for working to make sure that there's more access to Farmers' Markets and food venues and particularly in underserved community. So I look forward to getting my turn in the 8th District. So thank you so much for all work that you do. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Member Bass. Are there any other questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the next bill to be heard.

Bill No. 18 240818, titled Amending Section 19 9-213 of The Philadelphia Code; entitled -- one second. Bill No. 240749, titled Amending Title 12 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code," to add provisions relating to parking prohibitions in specific places and to change certain penalties related thereto, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Could you please call the next witness to testify on Bill No. 240749.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 25 No. 240749, introduced by Chairperson Young. This bill amends Title 12 of The Philadelphia Code, the Traffic Code, by adding a new section under parking regulations and penalties by prohibiting stopping or standing in the travel lane within feet of an open 9 adjacent space in the parking lane 10 or designated loading zone. 11 This bill adds a penalty of 12 $150 for double parking within 20 13 feet of an open parking space or 14 loading zone. The Department of 15 Streets is not opposed to this bill 16 as it will maintain the safety of 17 drivers, bikers and pedestrians. 18 This concludes my testimony. I'm 19 pleased to answer any questions you 20 may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Are there any questions of this witness regarding Bill No. 25 240749? (No response.)

So I just want to make one comment on this bill. I believe this is -- this is our bill, correct -- so I introduced this bill and modeled it after what Allentown calls the Lazy Parker bill essentially because people double-park in front of legally open parking spots and that creates safety issues and safety hazards in communities. And so, what we are intending to do with this bill is to increase the penalties for folks who don't want to take that additional 15 to 30 seconds that it would take to park in a legally available parking spot. And so, hopefully we can use this to change behaviors so we can continue to make our city safer. As I drove around all summer, I've seen it in every part of the city, from North Philadelphia to West Philly to South Philly. It happens all over. And this is just one bill that -- one thing we're trying to do to change motorist behavior to make our streets a little bit more safe. So thank you for your testimony, Ms. Marconi. Mr. Pullin, could you please read the title of the next bill, 240812.

Bill No. 240 --

Excuse me. 240818, excuse me.

(Inaudible).

We did that one. All right. Sorry about that. So our next bill is 240824.

Bill No. 240824 titled, Authorizing the relocation of the curblines of Watts Street from Pine Street to a point northwardly therefrom, on City Plan No. 308, and the plotting on said City Plan of an area for public pedestrian use, extending along the westerly side of said Watts Street and authorizing acceptance of the grant to the City of the said area for public pedestrian use, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Please call the witnesses to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets and Sarah Chiu, Development Director for the City Planning Commission.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 3 No. 240824, introduced by Councilmember Squilla. This is not an Administration ordinance, but an ordinance requested by Ronald Patterson of Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP representing Broad and Pine Associates, L.P. This proposed ordinance will authorize the relocation of curblines of Watts Street from Pine Street to approximately 72 feet northwesterly therefrom and the establishment of an area for public pedestrian use along the westerly side of said Watts Street. These actions will widen the roadway of said Watts Street while ensuring the sufficient sidewalk width is maintained for pedestrian traffic through the widened area. The purpose of these changes is to provide more suitable access to a new below-grade parking garage to be constructed as part of the proposed residential building on the adjacent property at 33 -- excuse me, 337-41 South Broad Street. The Department of Streets has no objections to this proposed ordinance and recommends it to the Committee for favorable action. I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I'll be pleased to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Ms. Chiu, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairmember Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planner Manager with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 240824, introduced by Councilmember Squilla on September 26, 2024. This bill will widen the cartway of Watts Street near Pine from feet 6 inches to 12 feet for 6 about 80 feet in length and plotted 2 feet and inches wide pedestrian 8 walkway along the western side of Watts Street's footway. This action will accommodate vehicular accessing the proposed underground garage at 337-41 South Broad Street and provide adequate sidewalk for pedestrians on Watts Street. The Planning Commission staff recommended approval for this bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you, Ms. Chiu, for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 240748 titled, Legalizing an existing flood wall encroachment at of 2400 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Please call the next witnesses to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses testifying are Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets and Sarah Chiu, Development Director for the City Planning Commission.

Thank you. Ms. Marconi, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 9 No. 240748, introduced by Councilmember Thomas on behalf of Council President Johnson. This bill authorizes 2400 Market LP, owner, to own and maintain an existing flood wall encroachment at 2400 Market Street, all under certain terms and conditions. An existing flood wall is located along the property of 2400 Market Street and encroaches a distance of 5 feet towards the south, under the north footway of Chestnut Street starting from a point approximately 173 feet west of the south 24th Street curbline, west curbline, to a point approximately 30 feet further west. The Department of Streets is not opposed to legalizing this existing encroachment as it will maintain a minimum of feet 6 inches of clear 6 unobstructed footway. This 7 concludes my testimony. I'm 8 pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Ms. Chiu, would you please proceed with your testimony on this bill.

Good afternoon, Chairmember Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planner Manager with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 240748, introduced by Councilmember Thomas for Council President Johnson on September 12, 2024. This bill will legalize an existing flood wall at the southern end of the property at 2400 Market Street. The flood wall encroaches on the footway of Chestnut Street for 5 feet in width and 30 feet in length and is about 173 feet west of South 24th Street. This encroachment leaves a minimum of 8 feet and 6 inches of a clear and unobstructed footway on Chestnut Street. The Planning Commission staff recommended approval for this bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you, Ms. Chiu, for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, please read the title of the next bill please.

Bill No. 2 240613, titled Amending Chapter 3 12-1100 ("Miscellaneous Regulations and Penalties") and Chapter 12-2800 ("Administrative Adjudication of Parking Violations") of The Philadelphia Code, making revisions to disability parking space standards and procedures, creating an application for residential disability parking spaces limited for use by a specific person with disability, creating a new administrative hearing process and amending applicable penalties.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Could you please call the next witness to testify on Bill No. 20 240613.

The next witness to testify is Rich Lazer, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Mr. Lazer. Please state your name and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chair Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Rich Lazer. I'm Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. We had worked with the bill's sponsor Councilmember Squilla on this and we support this change and we're also working on some additional changes through the amendment process. This bill changes the disability parking space standards and procedures and how to work through those spots on residential streets. I'm here for any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. The Chair recognizes ViceChair Squilla.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Lazer. More than willing to continue working with the Parking Authority to address any of their concerns or added amendments to this. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. One question: Does this or will this legislation help with the process of essentially allowing specific people with the poles to parking spots, not just anyone with a handicapped license plate?

So how the process works now is when you apply for the space in front of your house when you fill out the application for us, you get the doctor to sign off on the form, fill out medical information and then you have to have a plate that's issued by the Department of Transportation on the vehicle. What this bill will do is we will now -- once you register and are approved for the space, it will put either the placard number or the space plate number on the sign so that the person that registered for that spot is the only person that will be allowed to park in the spot.

Is there a fee for this?

There's a $50 processing fee just because we -- once we process the information, we send it out to the Medical Board of Doctors to review the medical documentation, but we also have a low-income form as well if someone can't afford to pay the $50 for the processing fee.

Is there a limited amount of spaces that can be on each block?

We do four spaces permitted on a block at once.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep.

Are there any other questions of this witness? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Lazer, for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, could you please read the title of the next bill. Bill No. 240813, titled Amending Section 12-701 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Designation of Bicycle Lanes," to authorize a bicycle lane on Woodland Avenue from Chester Avenue to South 42nd Street and make associated changes parking regulations within the same limits, all under certain terms of conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Could you please call the next witness to testify on Bill No. 240813.

The next witness to testify is Nicholas Appleman, Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

My name is Nicholas Appleman. I am a Transportation Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. Okay. Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and the members of the Streets and Services Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Nicholas Appleman, but please do refer to me as Cole. I am a Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. You probably know us better as OTIS. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill No. 240813 sponsored by Councilmember Gauthier. The bill amends Title 12-701 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Designation of Bicycle Lanes," to authorize a bike lane on Woodland Avenue from Chester Ave to South 42nd Street and make the associated changes to parking regulations within the same limits, all under certain terms and conditions. The Woodland Avenue Complete Streets project, which this will be associated with, will extend the City's High-Quality Bike Network from University City to the West Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia neighborhoods, serving as a critical multi-modal connection to jobs, recreation and opportunity for Philadelphians. Through four rounds of public engagement from 2022 to 2023, public feedback was enthusiastically supportive of a dedicated two-way bikeway on the south side of Woodland Avenue, including from Chester Ave to 42nd Street, which replaces the parking lane there. The parking usage has been studied and we expect drivers to instead use nearby institutional parking facilities for work. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would be happy to answer any questions you have at this time.

Thank you so much. Are there any questions of this witness by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony, Mr. Appleman.

Absolutely.

Mr. Pullin, could you please call the title of Bill No. 240818.

Bill No. 13 240818, titled Establishing parking regulations in the vicinity of North 50th Street and Wynnefield Avenue, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Could you please call the witness to testify.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Ms. Marconi, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 15 No. 240818, introduced by Councilmember Jones. This bill adds a no-parking anytime tow-away zone on North 50th Street from Wynnefield Avenue to its terminus further northwesterly therefrom. Department of Streets is not opposed to this parking regulation and signs can be posted within 60 days. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Are there any questions of this witness on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, please read the title of the bill everyone's waiting for.

Bill No. 12 240657, titled Amending Title of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code," to prohibit stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in a bicycle lane and to increase monetary penalties for illegally stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in a bicycle lane, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Would you please call the names of the first witnesses to testify on this bill.

The first witnesses to testify are Nicholas Appleman, Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, and Rich Lazer, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you, Mr. Appleman. Please state your name and present your testimony on this bill.

Absolutely. Doesn't sound -- there we go. Nicholas Appleman, Transportation Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. Good afternoon, everyone, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Nicholas Appleman, but please feel free to call me Cole. I'm a Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. You may know us better as OTIS. I am here today to offer testimony on Bill 240657, sponsored by Councilmember Gauthier on behalf of Council President Johnson. This bill amends Title 11 of The Philadelphia Code, the 12 Traffic Code, to prohibit stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in a bicycle lane and to increase monetary penalties for illegally stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in a bicycle lane, all under certain terms and conditions. One of the many ways Philadelphia's diversity is reflected is in the myriad of ways residents get around town. Everyone deserves to travel safely on our city streets regardless of how they choose to do so. If this legislation is to pass, more than 35 miles of curbside bike lanes with no parking or other form of regulation will be converted to a no-stopping-anytime policy. This legislation will significantly improve the safety of our city streets. It will reduce the occurrence of vehicles obstructing bike lanes and make our transportation system safer for all users. Drivers who park or stop in the bike lane create a dangerous conflict for all travelers. An obstacle-free bike lane encourages predictable and safe behavior from all users. When a driver stops or parks in a bike lane, people riding bikes are forced out of the bike lane often very suddenly and forced to enter traffic with a mix of trucks, cars, buses and other motorized vehicles, greatly increasing the risk of a crash. On top of all that, often bike lanes are not wide enough for many of the vehicles we do see parking in bike lanes such as box trucks, utility vehicles, construction vehicles, so on and so forth. So the vehicle ends up not only blocking the bike lane but also partially blocking the vehicle lane and maybe even the sidewalk. If there is one thing I would like for this Committee and the public to take away from my testimony today, it's that bike projects are not just about improving the safety for cyclists; they're about improving the safety for all road users. The Chestnut Street Safety project implemented in 2017 reduced speeding by 43 percent, improving safety for people walking and in cars as well as people biking. Overall separated bike lanes reduce total crashes by 17 percent. Once again that's not just crashes involving bicycles. That is all crashes. OTIS will work in partnership with the Philadelphia Parking Authority to implement this legislation throughout the City. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have at this time.

Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Lazer, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chair Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Rich Lazer and I'm the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to testify today for this critical matter of enhancing the safety and accessibility of our streets, specifically regarding Bill No. 240657 that will prohibit vehicles from stopping or standing in designated bike lanes throughout the City of Philadelphia and raising fines for such offenses. The Philadelphia Parking Authority manages parking resources across the city, ensuring the efficient flow of traffic and maintaining safety for all road users, including drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Over the years we have worked closely with various stakeholders to advance initiatives that improve transportation, equity and safety and this legislation aligns with the Authority's goals of promoting a safe and accessible transportation network. Philadelphia has made significant strides in promoting cycling as a viable mode of transportation. However, despite increased bike lane infrastructure, unsafe conditions still persist due to vehicle stopping or standing in these designated lanes. Blocking bike lanes forces cyclists to merge in the general traffic, significantly increasing the risk of accidents, injuries and fatalities. When bike lanes are obstructed, the risk to cyclists and other road users grow substantially. Thanks to Council President Johnson this legislation presents an opportunity to address these issues head-on, fostering a safer environment for all road users, particularly the most vulnerable such as cyclists and pedestrians. By prohibiting the stopping or standing of vehicles in bike lanes, we can reduce preventable crashes, protect lives and promote sustainable transportation. The Authority has recently created a new PEO Bike Patrol Unit to specifically focus on enforcement of bike lanes. Currently we are up to officers in this unit to 5 increase from the original amount 6 of 8 when we first rolled this out. 7 Enhanced education and 8 communication with the public will 9 also be necessary to ensure 10 widespread awareness of the new 11 restrictions and their importance. 12 This will not only help with the 13 compliance but will also foster 14 culture of respect for bike lanes 15 and for the individuals who use 16 them. 17 In conclusion, the 18 Philadelphia Parking Authority 19 supports this legislation as a 20 critical next step towards making 21 our streets safer for all. By 22 implementing a citywide prohibition on vehicles stopping or standing in bike lanes, we can safeguard the progress we made in cycling infrastructure and continuing building a transportation network that reflects the needs and values of all Philadelphians. The PPA is committed to enforcing this legislation effectively while working with the necessary agencies to ensure this success and remaining flexible to adapt to any unforeseen challenges that may arise. Thank you for your time and attention on this important issue and I'm happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer, for your testimony. I do have one question for you.

Yeah.

The Bike Lane Enforcement Unit of the PPA, is there a specific geographical boundary or are they out in the entire city?

So majority of them are focused in Center City, University City and South Philadelphia where the heaviest bike lane infrastructure is. And as we continue to increase, they'll branch out to different areas.

Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions of members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimonies. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the names of the next witnesses to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Chris Gale, Executive Director of The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Aliza Yousey, Secretary of Philly Bike Action. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you, Mr. Gale. Please state your name and proceed with your testimony.

Sure. Hi. My name is Chris Gale. I'm the Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Appreciate Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee for giving time to this issue. I'm here to speak in support of Bill 240657. As a quick overview, in 2009 bike lanes -- the Bicycle Coalition suggested bike lanes on Spruce and Pine as the best possible cross-connector river-to- river lanes in the city and these were after New York City built theirs. The original street design was two travel lanes and one parking lane. Curbside travel lane had no 24 parking signs allowing short-term loading of 20 minutes. Despite our best effort to encourage bike lanes, a compromise was reached to allow neighbors and houses of worship to continue using the new bike lane as a loading space. This compromised -- prioritized convenience for drivers to load and unload over the safety of vulnerable road users. In 2017 Emily Fredricks was killed at 11th and Spruce when a private trash truck made a right hook turn. Three days later another cyclist was hit and seriously injured by a vehicle while they were riding in the bike lane. The City responded by moving the bike lane to the left and adding flex posts. Flex posts are made to be driven over and are seen as industry standards as a temporary measure. Spruce and Pine have become two of the most utilized routes in the city for active mobility users, but they are consistently forced to enter the vehicle lane due to car stopping. This has caused conflict with drivers, which has resulted in numerous close calls and crashes. Since 2017 the City has prioritized no-stopping regulation to be the standard for bike lines across the city. Despite this practice, Spruce and Pine remain compromised. On July 17th of this year, Dr. Barbara Friedes was killed on the 1800 block of Spruce while she was riding in the bike lane, doing everything that a cyclist should do to be safe when a drunk driver drove over the flex post and through the bike lane at a high rate of speed, striking her from behind and throwing her over 20 feet. This is a stark reminder that compromising convenience over safety has reinforced the priority of driver needs over the safety of vulnerable road users. We support this legislation because a bike lane shouldn't be for parking or driving but to ensure that cyclists get to their destination safely. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Gale. Ms. Yousey, please proceed with your testimony.

My name is Aliza Yousey. I am a research lab specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the secretary for Philly Bike Action. I am speaking today in enthusiastic support of the Get Out Bike Lane bill. This bill is going to make a positive impact in people's everyday lives. In May of 2023, I got a bike and started using it to get around Philly. Eventually I started commuting from Old City to CHOP. It took 35 minutes off my one-hour commute and it made the city instantly more accessible to me. It really improved my quality of life in multiple ways. In October of the same year, I was on my way to work in the Spruce Street bike lane. I was passing 17th Street as I had done many times already that day, I had to maneuver around a parked car in the bike lane. On my commute I will have to do this 10 to 15 times each way. I looked over my right shoulder to check that the car behind me was going to let me in and I took my right hand off the handlebars to signal that I was moving into the lane. While my head was turned, I hit something in the road and my tire slipped and the next thing I knew my front tire was perpendicular to my bike and I went over the handlebars and slid several feet on the pavement in the middle of the road. I work with my hands so I had to take time off of my work. When I returned to work, my manager had to shift some of my responsibilities to my coworkers while I healed from my injuries. Looking back, I see that this accident was inevitable in the current conditions. With cars parked in the bike lane on almost every other block, you have bikes merging constantly in and out of traffic and drivers who expect them to be in the bike lane. Everyone is in a rush on their way to work. The current infrastructure is setting up conditions for people to get hurt. This accident did not leave me with a permanent disability. Others have not been so lucky. I walked away from this accident with my life. Others have not been so lucky. That is why I am here today to thank Council for the consideration of this bill, to thank Council President Johnson who introduced this bill. Ending temporary parking in the bike lane is a critical step to making them functional and safe. There is so much excitement for this bill, not just among cyclists. Business owner Patty Brett, owner of longtime Center City bar Doobies, which is situated on two bike lanes, has submitted written testimony for this bill. Not to mention the 6,000 Philadelphians who signed a petition to protect the bike lanes on Spruce, Pine and Allegheny with concrete. This is going to make a real difference in people's lives. When we protect the bike lanes, we see more kids using the bike lanes, more families, elderly people, people who are new to riding a bike around the city like I was and essential workers who commute by bike. And people who use bikes do their jobs, like bike messengers, are safer. I think that day is around the corner and a sincere thank you to Council President Johnson for introducing this bill. And thank you to Council as a whole for your support and consideration.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you again. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next panel of witnesses to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Prema Gupta, Executive Director of Center City District, and Job Itzkowitz, Executive Director of Old City District. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Ms. Gupta. Please proceed with your testimony.

Great. Good afternoon. My name is Prema Katari Gupta and I'm CEO of Center City District. Center City District is an independent private sector-directed authority organized under the Commonwealth's Municipal Authorities Act. Within our boundaries are 42 percent of the City's jobs and these workers come downtown from every corner of the city and region. And while the perception of the downtown worker may be, say, a partner to a law firm, our downtown workforce is, in fact, a diverse and interdependent ecosystem. Nearly two-thirds of jobs downtown do not require a college degree, janitor, baristas, hotel concierges, medical technicians. You get the picture. At CCD we have spent the last 33 years keeping Center City clean and safe with cleaning crews, community service representatives, homeless Outreach professionals, a relatively new bike public safety patrol, a unique partnership with the Philadelphia Police Department that includes a substation house within our offices and managing four downtown parks. Since the 1990s, we have invested more than $156 million in capital projects across our downtown and many of these projects have centered safety, including the pedestrian lighting poles that you see, throughout our downtown today. We also maintain more than 350 planters, many of which create a buffer between cyclists and traffic along bike lanes on JFK Boulevard and West Market Street in our Office District. We are very happy to be here today to participate in a conversation about safety on streets, specifically as it relates to bike lanes. We applaud this measure and we think it's an important starting point for the discussion about how we can create safer conditions for cyclists citywide. Recent tragedies in Philadelphia have brought the cycling conversation to the forefront. In Center City alone, traffic crashes have killed one cyclist and two pedestrians in the last year and seriously injured 13 others. Since 2019, there have been more than 800 crashes just within the CCD boundaries. And while many of these involve minor injuries, it's a fact that moving around our streets can be dangerous. So I want to be clear personally that -- and I realize that admitting this may be a little bit of a personal liability. I'm not a cyclist. I'm not a Philadelphia cyclist, I should say. And it's not because I don't love cycling. I've been really fortunate enough to cycle in a few different cities throughout the world, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Mexico City, but I will not bike in Center City, Philadelphia. I'm scared. I'm scared of distracted drivers and I'm scared of the correlation between growing American cars and cycling fatalities. Last month The Economist had a really great article called What To Do With America's Killer Cars, and it pointed out that American roads are twice as dangerous per mile than other similarly wealthy countries because of the size of our cars. Today the Toyota Camry is percent bigger than the 1980s version I drove in high school in the late 1990s. My husband's RAV4 is 34 percent larger than when the model debuted in 1994. 6 for 14 the lightest. 15 And I will say that this is 16 the second time I've referenced 17 these statistics. The first was 18 last month when my husband and I 19 were discussing whether or not it 20 was appropriate for our 12-year-old 21 son to be biking around our Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood with his buddies. I lost that discussion and I have become the wacky mom that tracks his air tag movements obsessively when he's out with his friends, but it's a freedom and comfort all of our children should have. So since we can't do anything about the size of cars, it is imperative to leverage proven strategies that can help to reduce crashes and improve the safety for cyclists and pedestrians in our streets. Part of that is enforcement of traffic laws and encouraging everyone to follow the rules of the road.

While motorists and delivery drivers block -- when motorists and delivery drivers block bike lanes, cyclists must dart into car traffic or come to a halt, creating uncertainty for everyone on the street. Part of it is also looking at our streets and sidewalks themselves to see what's historically been done and what's right for evolution. For example, we have the opportunity to establish better loading zones and other tactics that manage how people use the space along the curb. We can find more guided ways for rideshare to idle without disrupting cyclists. Our cyclists deserve more durable infrastructure. I'm struck by the example of Mexico City where sturdy curb delineators have been deployed throughout the city to quickly and inexpensively create a network of several hundred miles of bike lanes. Mobility enthusiasts love Copenhagen, they love Amsterdam, but it is really great to see extensive improvement movements implemented in a far less wealthy city. Despite our conditions, Center City Philadelphia and South Philadelphia have among the highest rates of bike commuting in the nation. Since 2019 bike trips into Center City have grown by 67 percent to more than 18,000 on a typical weekday, and that is more than the amount of people who take Lyft and Uber combined. Fundamentally, our downtown only thrives when a mix of options to move around the city are employed. But to encourage people to make the choice to walk, bike or use public transportation, we need to demonstrate that it is safe, comfortable and convenient to do so. At Center City District, we believe that our downtown is the heart of opportunity, commerce, culture and joy for the entire city and region. The diverse interdependent downtown workforce deserves safe and varied ways of moving about the city. Thank you all for shining a light on this issue through the proposed legislation. Thank you for your time and consideration. )

Thank you so much for your testimony, Ms. Gupta. Mr. Itzkowitz, please proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Young and all members of the Committee on Streets and Services. My name is Job Itzkowitz and I'm the Executive Director of the Old City Special Services District. I'm here to testify to express strong support for Bill No. 240657, which is crucial for improving cyclist safety. Others have testified or will testify about the lives that can be saved from better protection and enforcement for Philadelphia's bike lanes, and I give a full- throated endorsement of that testimony. But my work I'm frequently asked about the unintended consequences of such changes. Accordingly, I want to emphasize how safer bike lanes will benefit and not harm local businesses. A look at national trends regarding bike infrastructure and retail success is informative. A 2021 report entitled Economic Impacts on Local Businesses of Investments in Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure reviewed studies 16 from cities like San Francisco, 17 Toronto, New York City, Portland 18 and Minneapolis. 19 The findings consistently 20 showed that adding or improving 21 bike and pedestrian facilities had 22 positive effects on retail and food 23 service businesses and no negative impact. Even when parking or motorized traffic lanes were reduced, businesses did not see a drop in revenue. A striking example, and this is a famous one in this work, comes from New York City where retail sales along 9th Avenue increased by 49 percent after a protected bike lane was installed compared to just a 3 percent increase on other streets without bike lanes. Additionally, cyclists were found to spend more per trip at local businesses than drivers, further underscoring the economic benefits of bike infrastructure. Concerns that bike lanes might negatively impact businesses by reducing parking have been consistently disproven. Recent headlines in San Francisco include San Francisco merchants saying new bike lanes kill business. That's not what studies show. And Valencia Street bike lane didn't hurt businesses report finds. Valencia Street in San Francisco saw a 60 percent rise in revenue with no significant decline in business due to new bike lanes. Testimony from a business owner in Providence, Rhode Island illustrates the transformative power of bike infrastructure. As they explained, we urge you to consider the bike lane -- and this is in a hearing. We urge you to consider the bike lane not only as a lane of traffic but also in the way it has transformed the neighborhood, making it safer and more inviting to the clientele we ultimately want and need to survive. Bike lanes have helped our neighborhood become more than a speedway to the highway. This research and the sentiments expressed by that Providence business owner is reflected in data and research conducted in Old City. Old City business owners have long understood and even advocated for the creation of safe bike infrastructure in the neighborhood. A 2015 Philadelphia Business Journal article showcased the impact of the Indigo Bike Share Program, a docking station installed in front of a women's clothing boutique replaced two on-street parking spaces. That was the first Indigo station to replace on-street parking. The boutique owners welcomed this change, predicting that it would increase foot traffic and visibility. These business owners understood that cycling infrastructure, even when it replaces parking, can bring more customers to businesses. " In creating Old City District's Vision 2026 plan, we surveyed business owners about how to improve Old City. In the 2015 Old City Vision 2026 survey, nearly 75 percent of business owners felt the neighborhood would improve if more people traveled to, from or through Old City via bicycle. A similar number thought the neighborhood would get worse if more people traveled to, from or through Old City by car. Further, more than half of survey respondents stated that they would be more likely to bike to, from, through Old City if there were safer bike lanes.

In line with these preferences, the Old City District Vision 2026 Framework published the following year in 2016, the following year after the survey emphasizes the role of bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly measures in creating a safer, more accessible and attractive environment for residents, visitors and business owners alike. For example, the planned Market Street Transformation Project originally proposed in the Vision 2026 Framework and studied in greater detail since 2017 will include a shared space plaza at 2nd and Market Streets and a road diet to accommodate new bike lanes from 2nd to 6th Streets. Work is set to begin imminently and will be completed for the events in 2026. Additional interventions include extending the bike lane on North 2nd Street from Race to Market Streets, which was recently completed and creating a new bike lane on South 3rd Street from South to Market Streets, which is expected to be completed shortly. Traffic studies show that these streets can accommodate protected bike lanes with minimal impact on car traffic, ensuring safe spaces for cyclists while maintaining efficient vehicle flow. Bike lanes benefit both cyclists and local businesses. By making our streets safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians, we foster a more vibrant and welcoming environment that draws in more customers, not fewer. On a personal note, every day I bike my 5-year-old daughter to school and then I bike to my office, then bike to pick her up at aftercare and we bike home together. I use the bike lanes on Spruce Street, Pine Street, 22nd Street and Washington Avenue. So beyond the laudable and important policy goals of regulation, protection and enforcement in Philadelphia's bike lanes, this bill is particularly important to me personally. I'd like to thank Council President Johnson and Councilmember Gauthier for introducing this important bill. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Itzkowitz. Are there questions of this panel by members of this Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, will you please read all the names of the next witnesses to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Louis Bartholomew, Executive Director of Queen Village Neighbors Association; Bill West, Board Director of the Center City Residence association; Xiaoxia Dong, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania; and Will Tung, member of 5th Square. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon. Thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairman Young, Vice- Chair Squilla and members of City Council. My name is Louis Bartholomew and I'm the Executive Director for the Queen Village Neighbors Association. I'm here today to speak in support of Council President Johnson's No 19 Stopping in the Bike Lane bill. This bill serves several purposes. It promotes safety for all road users by ensuring that bike lanes remain clear and cyclists don't weave in and out of traffic. It will promote safe cycling for work and play, an essential goal to get more cars off of our streets and reduce city pollution. And finally, it provides an opportunity for neighbors to use existing on-street parking more efficiently. Blocking bike lanes can have dire consequences to people walking, cycling and driving. When a car or truck is blocking a bike lane, it forces people cycling to merge with faster car traffic, increasing the risk of injury. We should not be asking folks who are cycling with their kids in a bike seat to be risking their lives and mixing with traffic on our busy streets. Keeping the bike lane clear of stopped vehicles will be a huge benefit to everyone, including drivers who will no longer have to deal with people cycling into and out of car lanes. Clear and safe bike lanes also encourage more people to cycle rather than drive freeing up space and decreasing car congestion. In other cities like Montreal or Minneapolis where dedicated bike lanes are being built and enforced diligently, there's been a large increase in the number of people cycling which has correspondingly decreased the number of cars on the road. This means the folks who still need to drive have fewer cars to contend with on the roads. Promoting cycling in Philadelphia is a crucial goal for the city as it will decrease pollution, decrease auto crashes and increase resident health. Enforcing no stopping in our bike lanes will also allow us to have a productive conversation with communities about more efficient ways to use our existing street parking. Many folks here today will speak and have spoken about the desire to unload groceries, perhaps luggage, furniture and for folks who are elderly or disabled to use the bike lane temporarily. I share many of those concerns raised today, which is why I support the creation of additional passenger loading zones on each block where bike lanes are present on the other side of the street, along with more loading zones generally on those streets. On the west side of Broad Street, for instance, where loading zones have been added along the Pine and Spruce Street bike lane corridors, OTIS is looking at expanding them possibly in the future since there have already been so many people using those zones showing that people clearly demand these types of flexible stopping areas and need more of them. By simply converting a few existing parking spaces on our streets to short-term loading zones, we would meet the currently unmet demand that folks have for these activities while also protecting people using the bike lane. At the end of the day, safety for everyone needs to be the number one priority, which is why stopping in the bike lane needs to stop. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Mr. West, please proceed with your testimony.

I'm here to reinforce Louie. Good morning -- no, hold on. That's wrong. Good afternoon. My name is Bill West. I am the Chair of the Streets Committee of the Center City Residents Association and I am speaking to you in that capacity. CCRA looks after the part of Center City west of Broad between South Street and JFK Boulevard. The Pine and Spruce bike lanes run east, west through the middle of this area from Broad to 22nd. All the comments and queries about our streets that local residents send to CCRA come to me and I answer them. When it comes to the proposed changes to the bike lanes on Pine and Spruce, residents have asked me where will Uber and Lyft go for pickups and drop-offs, how will my contractor unload tools and materials, how will I unload my groceries. Here's the answer: Loading zones. In June, the City and the Parking Authority installed loading zones at or near the beginning of each block on Pine and Spruce from Broad to 22nd Street. They're working well although not perfectly. They're so popular I think we're going to need to add some more. I do think loading zones are the correct answer for Society Hill and Washington Square West. As Chair of the CCRA Streets Committee, I have had a hand in getting those loading zones on Pine and Spruce west of Broad. They were inspired by the earlier expansion of loading zones on Chestnut Street, which of course is a commercial rather than a residential area. Chestnut continues to have challenges and I think the answer there too will be to add more loading zones. The basic mission of the CCRA Streets Committee is to help make our streets, safe, useful and pleasant for everybody. I hope you will agree that we have a distance to go before we actually get there, but I do think loading zones are a step in the right direction.

Thank you so much for your testimony, Mr. West. Please anyone, state your name and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairman Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Xiaoxia Dong. You may refer to me as Summer. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. I am here to testify on my own behalf, Bill No. 240657, introduced by Council President Johnson. This bill amends Title 12 of The Philadelphia Code to prohibit stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in the bike lane, under certain terms and conditions. I am a transportation scholar studying traffic safety, including safety of cyclists. The proposed bill is a necessary measure to advance the City's Vision Zero goals and a crucial step towards a multi-modal transportation system that is safe, efficient and equitable. Biking takes cars off the road, which helps to mitigate congestions in places like Center City, reduces demand for parking and improves air quality. The research is clear, better bike lanes create safer environments for cyclists and encourage more people to bike. Parked cars jeopardize cyclist safety by making bike lanes unusable. Research has shown that parked cars in bike lanes significantly increase cyclists' risks of crashing and falling. Cyclists will choose not to bike if they do not feel safe while biking. Having fewer cyclists means the benefits of the City's investments in bike lanes may not be fully realized. Car stopping in bike lanes also forces cyclists to swerve into the vehicle lane which disrupts traffic flow. The proposed bill, if complemented with adequate enforcement, will provide the City with an additional tool to enhance biking safety. It will place Philadelphia among several forward- looking peer cities that have banned stopping bike lanes, including Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Francisco. In Chicago, stopping in bike lanes could incur a $250 fine. In conclusion, the proposed bill 21 aligns with the City's Vision Zero goals and represents a crucial step towards a safe, efficient and equitable multi-modal transportation system in Philadelphia. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much, Professor, for your testimony. Mr. Tung.

Hi. Good afternoon, Chair Young, members of City Council. My name is Will Tung. I am not an Ivy League professor. I work as a fire captain in the city of Philadelphia. I'm here in my capacity as a private citizen living in Southwest Philadelphia as a volunteer with 5th Square, and more importantly, I'm here as a father raising a small child in the city and as a personal victim of traffic violence. I brought some slides to go with my chat here. 5th Square is in favor of Bill No. 240657. This bill will make our city safer not only for folks who travel by bike but also for people who walk. In 2023 Philly saw 126 traffic deaths. About half of them, 57 of them were people walking. The effects of car crashes also have an excess impact on low-income households and people of color. Serious crashes are triple the rate in low-income areas of Philadelphia and these losses are unacceptable and preventable. Looking at the slide, in 2020 my family and I nearly joined this statistic of pedestrian deaths while crossing 48th Street at Springfield Avenue in a marked crosswalk. My entire family, including myself, my wife and our then 6-year-old daughter was struck by a careless driver. So next slide. My daughter suffered the worst. She lost five teeth there. She fractured her jaw. We're all physically recovered now, but the psychological trauma is lasting. I still worry for her every day as she now travels from home from middle school by herself crossing multiple busy streets. As pedestrians, we don't have protective equipment like seat belts or helmets. We are reliant on the City to design safer streets with physical protection, open sight lines and more importantly slower vehicles. A person hit by a driver at 40 mph is 90 percent likely to die. At miles per hour, this number 16 drops to 10 percent. If you go 17 back one slide there. Since our 18 incident, the City Administration 19 worked with my District 20 Councilmember Jamie Gauthier -- so this is that same intersection, that same picture -- to reconfigure 48th Street with a parking- protected bike lane. So that red X is where we were struck, and you can see the roadway is reconfigured now. The bike lane has moved behind parked cars. And as a pedestrian, this configuration makes crossing the street so much safer. It shortens the distance we're exposed to moving vehicles and with the narrower roadway, cars drive slower. Also, there are flexible posts at the corners to make sure that people crossing the street are visible to drivers. This bill also enjoys the support of the City's only dedicated pedestrian advocacy group Feet First Philly. To read a little bit from their statement, this bill will help keep bike lanes clear, creating a safer and more predictable environment for pedestrians. Clean Air Council and Feet First Philly strongly support this bill and urge you to pass it immediately. Prohibiting cars from stopping, standing or parking in bike lanes will keep the sight line for pedestrians clear making it easier to see traffic and to be seen by drivers as they cross the street. Absent physical barriers to prevent cars from being in the bike lane, stronger rules that prevent this unsafe behavior paired with enforcement will give added protection for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users which is why we fully support this bill. So let's bring it back to recent events. In the video of the crash that killed Dr. Friedes, so this is a still image from that, you can see a pedestrian in the bottom on the right side of the screen jumping out of the way of the speeding car after it struck the doctor. That same day Chris Cabrera was killed by a car waiting to cross the street at Allegheny Avenue. Both Dr. Freides and Mr. Cabrera would both be with us today with real physical protection of bike lanes. And this bill is a vital component for this protection. As a last note, I thank Councilmember Gauthier and Council President Johnson for introducing this life-saving bill.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions of members of this Committee? (No response.)

I have one question regarding I guess the installation of that protective bike lane for you, Mr. Tung. At that particular time or have you seen a reduction in bicyclists using the travel lanes when a protected bike lane has been installed?

Yes, definitely. So 48th Street is a few blocks from my house. I don't see it every day. It's just one of the many streets we cross. I ride a bike occasionally myself and I prefer to use the protected bike lane on 48th Street. Right now we're waiting for a southbound pair to go with that. So that bike lane only goes northbound. So folks who ride south on 48th Street they still ride in the street. But I have noticed that bicycles -- if you're riding a bike on 48th Street, you're going to use that protected bike lane over the vehicle lane. Well, I will use it every single time and I've noticed a lot of cyclists using it.

Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you both for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the name of the next witnesses to testify on this bill.

No more witnesses to testify on the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Now, we will transition into our public comment session. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the first speaker for public comment.

Can we get Amanda Perezo, Kieno Johnson and Ben Schenerman. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Please state your name for the record. You're going to proceed with your testimony from I guess right to left please.

Hi. My name is Amanda Perezo and I'm a wheelchair user living in Philadelphia. I rely on my wheelchair to navigate this city and access all that it has to offer. Unfortunately, my experience has been significantly marred by the frequent and dangerous practice of vehicles stopping in bike lanes. As someone with limited mobility, I'm particularly vulnerable to the hazards created when vehicles block bike lanes. These lanes often provide the safest and most accessible path for wheelchair users like myself, especially when sidewalks and construction areas are blocked off, which is often the case. When vehicles obstruct these lanes, I am forced to make a difficult choice, either, one, maneuver into traffic. This exposes me to significant danger as cars may not see me or anticipate my movements. The risk of an accident is very real. Two, travel onto the sidewalk. This is often impossible due to curbs or other obstacles. Even when sidewalks are accessible, they may be crowded or uneven, making travel difficult and uncomfortable or, three, wait for the vehicle to move. This can cause significant delays disrupting my schedule and limiting my ability to participate in my daily life. I have personally experienced numerous instances where vehicles blocking bike lanes have put me in dangerous situations. For example, when I commute from my condo in Old City to my office in Center City where I work as a professor at Thomas Jefferson University, I often encounter cars that are blocking curbcuts and parts of the roadway making it difficult for me to maneuver and safely get to where I need to go. This is not just an inconvenience. It's a serious safety issue. The current law, which only prohibits parking on bike lanes, is insufficient to protect roamable road users like myself. Vehicles stopping for even a short time create the same hazards as parked vehicles. I urge you to support the new legislation that will prohibit vehicles from stopping or standing in bike lanes throughout Philadelphia, and this will make our streets safer and more accessible for everyone, including wheelchair users, cyclists and pedestrians. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Please, sir, proceed with your testimony.

My name is Kieno Christopher Jamal Johnson. I used to live in West Philly. I'm in Upper Darby now, and there's a lot of sentiments today that I didn't know that was around really, a little bit ignorant to it even though I'm in a wheelchair. But a lot of times I will ride the bike lane because I don't want to hurt nobody on the sidewalk and it's a good way to just get where I need to go quicker. You got to watch out for swinging doors all the time. You could get hit by an Amazon package and it's always that swerve into the street or swerve into the car thing that comes into your mind because whatever obstacle's in front of you, you try to take the path least -- that thing, you know, you're trying to reduce the hurt on everyone's case because there could be somebody right in front of you in your face standing there or there's a bike following me close or however this is behind me and I got to stop suddenly. I don't have stoplights on the back of this thing. I have lights but it don't say stop, when not to stop. So it creates a lot of swinging out in traffic. And then say I'm held up behind someone delivering a package, I'm sitting there going back and forth waiting for a chance to go in and, say, I get a chance, there is always the chance that a car will still pull into my lane while I'm turning because they don't see. So there's a lot of intricacies to it. And it's not just that. Bicycles, wheelchairs, skateboards, roller blades, you know, if you got wheels, you kind of see each other as brothers. That's what I think anyway at least for right now the way the city is, you know, besides other brotherly love stuff that we don't really see. I guess that's it.

Thank you so much, Mr. Johnson, for your testimony. Sir, please.

Hello. My name is Ben Schenerman. I've lived in Philadelphia for a decade and currently live on West Rittenhouse Square. I'm here today to ask City Council to pass the no stopping and bike lanes bill so we can have safer streets for everyone. July 5th of last year around 7:30 p.m., warm and sunny, I'm on my bike heading down Pine Street to meet my girlfriend for dinner at a jazz club. I'm about halfway down the 1700 block and ahead of me is a van parked squarely in the bike lane. I check over my right shoulder and see an SUV way back at the intersection at 18th Street. It seems like I have plenty of time to pass the van so I signal my merge, pass the van and merge back into the bike lane. Now, the SUV must have flown through the intersection because as I'm slowing towards the stoplight at 17th Street, the driver pulls up to me, rolls down his window and shouts, hey, man, I could have killed you, as if he didn't have all the visibility and time in the world to let that pass happen. I want to note here for those of you who don't regularly use bike lanes in the city, when the wind is in your ears, you can't always hear cars coming up behind you, especially with electric vehicles. So even if you check over your shoulder before passing a stopped vehicle, your information is necessarily out of date by a few seconds while you're passing. Even at the speed limit, a car can catch up to you within seconds. But if we remove the possibility for cars to stop in bike lanes, this public safety issue ceases to exist. So at this point I could tell the driver had been distracted and yet he was blaming me for my theoretical death. I expressed my frustration at his behavior. In response he screams, oh, hell no. 6 Then swerves his SUV into the bike lane and stops on a dime forcing me onto the sidewalk. He throws open his door, jumps out and punches me in my right ear. SUV guy's fleeing the scene. I'm scrambling to a cobblestone alley, now crying on the phone that I'm not going to make the date and we need to go to the ER instead. My point is this, had the van never been permitted to stop in the bike lane I never would have had to enter the driving lane and this entire fiasco would have been averted. Thank you for passing this bill and thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony and for describing your experiences to us. We really appreciate your testimony today. Mr. Pullin, could you please call the names of anyone else wishing to comment on this bill.

Can we get Stu Bykofsky, Maria Vickers and Nicole Galli. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Dropping like flies.

Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you, Council Chair. My name is Nicole Galli and I am a longtime resident of Pine Street in Philadelphia. I'm a homeowner and I'm also a proud business owner in this city. My neighbors and I are concerned about the safety and well-being of all Philadelphia residents. We are deeply concerned that this proposed law like the other initiatives recently proposed by the Office of Multi-Modal Transit unfairly and unreasonably burdens Pine/Spruce Street residents without providing adequate traffic safety for all residents, including pedestrians and bikers. The City's planning for the Spruce/Pine bike lanes, including the proposed law, have not even considered reasonable and proven alternatives that would be less burdensome on the residents and more effective for traffic safety. This includes options such as speed cushions, raised crosswalks, speed cameras and enforcement of existing laws. Although typically 10 pedestrians are killed in traffic for every cyclist killed in Philadelphia, traffic planning on these blocks has only narrowly focused on enhancing existing bike lanes. Neither stopped vehicles in the bike lane nor the absence of physical barriers caused the crash that killed Dr. Friedes this year or Ms. Fredrick's in 2017. Dr. Friedes was killed by a speeding and drunk driver. Speeding and impaired drivers are two of the leading causes of traffic deaths. Preventing vehicles from stopping in the bike lane or even from moving into the lane through physical barriers would not have prevented an accident. Had these measures been in place, it is highly likely that that victim would have instead been a pedestrian. Measures like those we are proposing, however, could have prevented the entire incident or at least dramatically reduced its impact for all. The City's plans to enhance bike lanes address the perceived safety needs of only one group of Philadelphia residents. Not only do these measures fail to adequately address the safety needs of all residents, they also severely negatively impact the quality of life for residents who live along these corridors, notwithstanding the loading zones. Yet residents who oppose these proposals and ask instead for alternative measures are unfairly portrayed as the enemy of bikers and their safety. To be clear, we are not the enemy of bikers. Indeed many residents who oppose these changes are themselves active bikers in the city. Were the proposed measures to enhance bike lanes the most effective or only options to ensure traffic safety, placing additional burdens on these residents might be reasonable, but they are not. Thus, I implore City Council and other City officials to stop moving ahead with this bill 5 and with the other proposed bike lane enhancement measures and instead focus on identifying and implementing reasonable alternatives and more effective measures for ensuring street safety for all residents that are less burdensome on the residents of the Pine/Spruce corridor. Thank you for allowing me to make these remarks.

Thank you so much for your testimony. (Applause.) Mr. Bykofsky.

I am Stu Bykofsky, the CEO of Byko Media LLC. Dear Councilmembers -- Councilmember, this is a sincere invitation for you to visit me at my Spruce Street home. Today you can arrive by Uber, by car, by taxi. You can pull up to the curb which is a no-parking zone to exit the vehicle. If Bill 240657 is passed however, you will be unable to exit your vehicle without risking a $125 fine. And if you want to send me a nice fruit basket for appearing here today, the driver will have to chuck it out the window because the van will not be able to stop in front of my residence. Think about that. I wonder if the cosponsors really thought this through or did it just sound like a good idea like having bike lanes installed on the right-hand side of Spruce and Pine Street. The experts said that was the thing to do. Less than a decade later, the bike lanes were moved to the left-hand side of the street, whoops. Most of the testimony I've heard today was about bike lanes and had nothing to do with the specific issue of no stopping in bike lanes. Current law allows temporary stopping for discharge of passengers, for instance, in no-parking zones. Those exist on almost every block of Spruce and Pine and present an extremely minor obstacle for cyclists. Safety has been raised several times. If this bill 13 passes, how will my elderly and infirm neighbors safely exit or enter a taxi or Uber in front of their home. Stopping in the operating lane is unsafe and it's also illegal. How can FedEx, UPS, Amazon, DoorDash and other services complete deliveries. The bill as written makes no mention of loading zones. It does not request curb carve-outs as are found on South Broad Street, Market Street East and elsewhere. If exceptions such as loading zones are not written into the bill, then they do not exist. As written, Bill 240657 is worse than the Phillies post-season performance. It is a solution in search of a problem but can be saved. On my short block between Juniper and Broad there are two restaurants, one dry cleaner and one convenience store, all of which receive commercial deliveries. You could add language to require loading zones close enough and large enough to handle the volume. That's pretty much what we already have. Why change it. Change isn't always progress and this is change without purpose. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you so much for your testimony. Ms. Vickers. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon. My name is Maria Perez Vickers and I live at 1326 Spruce Street in Center City Condominium with 182 condos and approximately 325 people living there. I'm here today in response to the Mayor's promise to listen to all stakeholders as you consider Council President Johnson's proposal to the ordinance, which would ban any stopping in any bike lane anywhere in the city. And I echo Stu's comments that for someone living in Center City Philadelphia in a highly dense area where loading and unloading is a crucial part of our everyday life not only for the residents who must take transportation, live their lives, buying groceries and delivering them home and unloading them, taking a taxi, going to the doctors when they're incapacitated, the businesses, the small businesses under our building and are part of Center City One which constantly receive deliveries and customers crossing the street to the loading zones that are there now temporarily which are also inadequate, poses its own threats. People get run over. People get scared with traffic coming on and not stopping. We don't have a traffic sign at Juniper and Spruce. We have no 13 regulated speed limit, no traffic calming strategies like speed bumps. So I think one of the things that we really hope that you will do as you progress with taking testimony and considering amendments to this ordinance is to see what you can do about thinking about the everyday life of a couple hundred people who live there, who don't have one parking space in front of their home that is convenient for them to a light without worrying about oncoming traffic. You've heard a lot about traffic violence and, yes, we want what is fair for everyone. But we seem to have been forgotten. We're in Center City Philadelphia. We put up with high traffic and a lot of other insults. We put up with bikes on the sidewalks, which is another issue that is not addressed here. We would like to have a more holistic ordinance which addresses the problems that come with bike riding in every form. I have seen cyclists jump from the bike lane onto the sidewalk to continue in the flow of traffic because they had to stop for signals. So I think that there has to be a more targeted view of these issues and take a look at all the problems that we're encountering. In the spirit of having a peaceful and safe environment for everyone, we recognize that we need to accommodate people who want to ride bikes, we need to accommodate pedestrians, we need to accommodate automobile drivers. Please consider all of these stakeholders as you listen to the testimony and make your decisions. I am authorized today to offer a letter which was written by the President of our Condominium Association Jeff Jacobs. He sent it to the Mayor on October 12th and I would like to move it into the record if I may at this point. In it, it covers many of the issues we have already discussed here. But he makes a visionary proposal which I hope Council will take a look at. And, that is, to relocate the bike lanes to Sansom Street and close it to vehicle or traffic, creating a river-to-river cycling and walking corridor. This is a long-range plan in the next five years perhaps, but it's something that may really help to solve the problem that we all seem to have with bike lanes which disrupt certain functions right now and create dangers for bikers and others who are disabled. So I would urge you to take a look at that. This represents the view of several hundred people and I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)

Thank you so much, Ms. Vickers, for your testimony. The Chair notes that the letter of Mr. Jeff Jacobs, President of Center City One Condominium Association, will be made part of the record. Mr. Pullin, could you please call the names of those wishing to give public comment.

Can we get Alexander Roederer, Sam Mink, Justin DeLoatch and can Will Tung come back up. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. We're going to go from I guess your right to left.

Good afternoon, Councilmembers. My name is Alexander Roederer. I live in Center City near Broad and Pine, just a few hundred feet from the Pine Street bike lane. I'm here to testify in strong support of Bill 15 240657 banning stopping and parking in the bike lane. I frequently use the Spruce and Pine bike lanes to get around the city to doctors' appointments in Old City, to get groceries on South Street, to get to Rittenhouse Hardware, to see my friends in West Philly via the South Street Bridge or up to the Art Museum via the Schuylkill River Trail. Every time I use these bike lanes I inevitably encounter people stopped or parked in the bike lane on nearly every block. Each time I have to merge into traffic to get around them, and I know I'm taking my life at risk to provide that convenience to other people. If you're on a bike, you're very aware of that fact. Every time I have to be worried that a driver will not see me, cause a crash in which I could be injured or die. Much of the criticism I've heard around this bill centers on people's desire to stop in the bike lane so that they can unload their vehicle directly in front of their house or to have their taxi pull up at their doorstep. I would remind these critics that for many in the city this is a luxury that they cannot enjoy. Most streets in the city have parking on both sides and the rest of us somehow get by. Regardless the city can, and I am heartened to hear, is proactively improving the situation by continuing to designate more loading zones on each block, which would provide loading and unloading access to everyone, not just people lucky enough to live directly on a bike lane. As I understand it, over 45,000 people a week use the Spruce and Pine bike lanes. That's just those two bike lanes, let alone the 22nd Street one, the 13th Street one. Our safety matters, and making people feel safe when using bike lanes encourages folks to use their bikes, which makes Philly cleaner and greener and reduces traffic for those who really do need to use their car. So please help make these bike lanes safer by keeping them clear and pass this bill. Thank you to Councilmember Gauthier for introducing this bill, and thank you for hearing my testimony today.

Thank you so much. Please proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Sam Mink. I am a business owner in Center City as well as a parent of a 10-year- old. I'm here to speak in support of Bill No. 240657. We live in Bell Vista and I ride my bike with my son. He rides his bike, he's 10 years old, to school every morning. We live at 10th and Bainbridge. So in order to get to Spruce Street, we've got to go north on 11th Street. We go down to 25th. His school is at 25th and Lombard. And every day that we're riding down Spruce Street, there's at least three to five either cars or delivery trucks parked in the bike lane that we have to swerve around. And while this is disconcerting for me as an adult riding my bike, it is very scary for my son who is a good bike rider but still has to merge into traffic that is going 20, miles an hour. 6 And soon he'd like to be riding his 7 bike on his own to school and we 8 don't feel very comfortable that 9 it's a safe environment for him to 10 do that. 11 Not only do I live in 12 Center City, but I'm also a 13 business owner. I have about 120 14 employees that work in Center City. 15 And about 40 percent of those 16 employees ride their bikes to work 17 every single day. So it's about 18 almost 45 to 50 of my employees 19 that ride their bikes to work and 20 at least two to three times a year, 21 we have employees that have crashed 22 on their way to work. And a lot of 23 times that's because people are 24 parked in the bike lanes and 25 they've got to swerve around. Sometimes they unfortunately get hit by other cars. So I am very much in support of 240657 to make biking in Philadelphia much safer. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Mr. DeLoatch.

Good afternoon, Chair Young. My name is Justin DeLoatch. I am here as a moving business owner to address Bill No. 240657 Get Out of the Bike Lane introduced by Council. I am strongly in support of this bill 16 discouraging parking in bike lanes. As a moving business owner, I assure Council that no business owner wants to jeopardize the lives of anyone much less -- no business owner wants to jeopardize the lives of anyone in passing this bill -- will not jeopardize the health of anyone much less end our industry. All of Council -- I'm sorry. All these concerns of this bill can be dealt with by loading and unloading zones. Parking in the bike lanes jeopardizes the thousands of bike riders that commute daily in our great city by forcing them into travel lanes used by moving vehicles weighing thousands of pounds. All the concerns -- I support the creation of moving loading zones with any roadway redesign so that moving and delivery businesses like mine have the ability to operate lawfully without jeopardizing lives. I'm sorry. There is a lot of stuff that bikers have to go through. I'm just going to talk to you bluntly and plainly. We face a lot of putting our lives on the line. When people park in the bike lanes, we have to go out into traffic. And people are like why are you in the travel lanes. We are in the travel lanes because people park in the bike lanes. When we are biking into the travel lanes, we don't want to upset other drivers, but we have to do that. If someone opens their door and we're in the bike lane, we will fall off our bikes, possibly fall on the ground and get run over. People don't realize the many different challenges that bikers face along with pedestrians and wheelchair users. Wheelchair users also ride in the bike lanes. I know that I'm supposed to say what I wrote down here, but there's so much stuff that we have to deal with. And like I said, we're not the only ones that use the bike lanes. Because of impassible sidewalks, people that use wheelchairs are also in the bike lanes. But first things first, there's a precedent that gets set when we don't enforce the laws that are already on the books much less not protect the people that -- just protect lives of people that use these bike lanes. But, yeah, as a small business owner of a moving company I am in strong support of not allowing parking in the bike lanes. And once this has passed, I believe that loading zones will also be next on the docket which would address what some of the other people that oppose this bill would like as well. Yeah, so thank you for hearing me. (Applause.)

Thank you for your testimony. And you're not limited to what you wrote down. This is your opportunity to comment on how you feel about this particular bill so however you feel. So anyone in the audience, please just let us know. That's why we have this hearing. So thank you. Chair recognizes Mr. Tung again.

Yes. Thank you so much for -- I'll be quick since this is public comment. But I do want to note we had 126 people killed in our streets in 2023. Nearly half of them were pedestrians and this doesn't have to happen. There are other cities -- not only overseas, but here in America there are other cities, Hoboken and Jersey City, have achieved Vision Zero. They've achieved zero roadway deaths. And a lot of these measures are well within the powers of this building of the Mayor's Administration and City Council and we rely on you to keep us safe. I want to thank the other folks who testified in support and we heard from people, from wheelchair users, from business owners, from residents associations, from victims of traffic violence like myself, bicycle advocacy and pedestrian advocacy groups all in support of this bill. And I also want to push back a little bit on some of the comments said about not having a say in how safe your city is if you don't live on the block that you travel through, right, that your concerns aren't legitimate because you're not a resident of that very block that the roadway is getting designed. Especially if you live in a high-use corridor like I do in Southwest Philadelphia, thousands of people travel on that street and I feel like the folks who travel on the street who want to be safe should also have a voice too. So thank you so much for your time. (Applause.)

Thank you so much. Mr. Pullin, could you please call the name of the next person to comment, public comment.

Can we get Michael Seidman, Gale Hearn and Linda Skale. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. You're in a very unique situation. You have to do what King Solomon did after hearing all this testimony. I live at 1326 Spruce Street Center City One. It is probably the most unique block on Spruce Street when it comes to bike lanes.

Could you please state your name for the record, sir.

Michael Seidman, S-e-i-d-m-a-n.

Thank you.

On my side of the street where Center City One is going west, you have stores in the arcade, you have the entrance to our garage, you have a humongous loading dock for the Art House and the Loch Bar on the southeast corners of Broad and Spruce. Across the street from our building are three apartment buildings and meter and parking places controlled by a kiosk. Right now if this bill is passed as it's read, we can't stop anywhere to load or unload anything, to get into or out of a cab or an Uber or a Lyft. You really -- to appreciate our problem, you should come to see it in person. It's only a few blocks south of here. We have no space to put anything. We need a place to unload. We need a place to load. There's no place to do it, Especially you look at our block with what's to our left, the garage and the loading dock, and what's across the street from us, apartment buildings and parking places, there's no place for us to be able to stop and unload groceries or luggage or get into or out of an Uber or a Lyft or a yellow cab. You have a decision to make and you have to be very Solomonic in doing it because you have to appreciate everybody's position, including the bikers. I don't have a problem with the bike lane. What I have a problem with is not being able to get groceries into my home or luggage into my home. We have a lot of elderly people in our building and we don't move as fast as everybody else. We don't want to stop in the traffic lane. But unless you give us a position and a situation where we can do what we need to do to exist, then you're doing us a disservice in favor of the bikers. And I think you have to appreciate the situation and help everybody because we all are citizens of this city and we need the help and you're the only one in a position to do that for us. I'm hoping you will. Thank you very much for the opportunity. (Applause.)

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.

Can you please speak into the mic.

Oh. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, my own Councilmember Councilman Squilla, whom I don't see at the moment, but members of the Committee. My name is Linda Skale and I oppose the bill being considered today. I have lived on the 500 block of Pine Street for more than 41 years. I am here today to ask that you, the City Council, the Streets Department and the Mayor think carefully about the adverse effects of the City's current proposal to prohibit stopping in bike lanes on Pine and Spruce Streets. I speak for many of my neighbors on these two streets, but more particularly in the residential neighborhood east of 7th Street. When I say that, such a blanket provision would seriously impact the quality of life on these streets. Most residences on Pine and Spruce have no rear access. Due to this fact and as a result of the installation of bike lanes, I can tell you from my first-hand observation that delivery trucks, contractors, taxis, Ubers and others, including emergency vehicles, have no choice but to use the bike lanes to safely load and unload passengers and supplies. Often the bike lanes are used by parents of young children to safely get their children out of or into their car seats. Elderly and disabled residents likewise depend upon the bike lanes to safely get in and out of transport vehicles. When the bike lanes were installed years ago, the City 12 told us that there would be short- 13 term stopping. That was the 14 bargain. And now, the City is 15 threatening not to hold up their end of that bargain. Rather than prohibiting short-term stopping in the bike lanes, we feel strongly that the City should focus on enforcement of existing laws to protect the safety of pedestrians, motorists and bikers alike. We suggest that the City add clear signage indicating that vehicles stopping to drop off or load passengers and materials in the bike lane are strictly limited to minutes or less. 4 We also suggest new signs 5 reminding bikers that they too are 6 subject to traffic rules and to the 7 same 25 mile per hour speed limit 8 as motorists. Therefore, please do 9 not vote this bill out of 10 Committee. Please hold it until 11 more engagement can occur. Some 12 are pushing you to rush this bill. 13 Please resist doing that. Thank 14 you. 15 (Applause.) 16

Thank 17 you so much. 18 Please proceed with your 19 testimony, ma'am. 20

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

My name is Gale Hearn and I also oppose the bill 25 being considered today. I have lived on the 500 block of Pine, like my neighbor Linda, for more than 44 years and in the neighborhood for 56 years. I've seen a lot of neighborhood controversy and I know the importance of realtime information. So I went out this morning and collected some data. It happens that my usual morning walk is down on Penn's Landing, and that means that I access that by going from 6th down Spruce and then I return along Front Street and then Pine, so that's the easternmost part of the Spruce and Pine bicycle lane, and I walk immediately beside the bicycle lane. m. as I walked eastward beside the bicycle lane, I saw no vehicles at all in the bicycle lane and five bicycles passed me going westward in the bicycle lane. m. rush hour. m. between Spruce and Pine and I saw one bicycle that partially used the bike line. And then I headed across up the six blocks up Pine Street getting home around a little after 9:00. What did I see in that section? Again, as in the other two, no vehicles in the bicycle lane. I saw three cyclists headed eastward. So that was more than a mile and something of walking alongside the bike lane this morning collecting data. I saw a total of no vehicles at all in the bike lane and nine cyclists. I have some conclusions from that. I do this every day so there was only one thing that was unusual, and that was the no vehicles at all at rush hour. You would expect at least a few construction crews or something unloading. And I think what I'm seeing is the effectiveness of the enforcement of the present regulation. We heard earlier that it's being enforced now. Now, where it says no parking, they're not parking anymore. Those bicycle lanes are basically clear. The other thing that I was sort of surprised by was the fact that there were, in fact, at rush hour fewer bicycles than I would have predicted. So when I look at these two things together, I have to ask can't we share this space, is it impossible to share this space. It just seems to me we can do better and we can share it. And that brings me to the thought that there are people in the neighborhood who really need to get to their front door by vehicle, and I'm thinking of folks with small children and I'm thinking of course obviously of the elderly. Many of us elderly folk, some can't function without drop-off and pick- up at the front door. Just to get out of the house they have to get an Uber or something and they have to get it at their front door, medical appointments, many things. They need to have vehicles stop where they can reach the vehicle. Just to get to the corner from my house is more than 50 yards. Just asks the Eagles how hard it is to go 50 yards. If you don't know, you weren't at the game. Okay. But that aside, I really feel that -- well, there's one other thing I just have to share. I'm sorry. But this really upset me this morning and I want to share it with all of you. I did see nine cyclists, right. Five of those cyclists were not wearing helmets. I cannot believe that disregard for personal safety. I can't believe we are not emphasizing more in this city the importance of wearing a helmet. These were regular cyclists. They all look like people going to work. I just don't understand that and I hope people will work harder to get them to wear helmets. That's a real safety issue in my mind, but that's neither here nor there. The final observation, that comment aside, I want to reiterate that as of this morning the present laws are working fine. They are being enforced and people are responding. The no-parking in the bike Lanes has, if enforced, keeps people out of the bike lanes, keeps cars out unless presumably they really, really need them and that changes, I think, the picture entirely. That's basically why I oppose this new, more restrictive legislation.

And I hope that you will not vote it out of Committee or not move it forward until there has been more engagement with the community, more consideration of all the people involved so that it can be safer for everyone. Don't be rushed into premature action please. Thank you. )

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next witnesses to testify.

Can we get Alex Malone, Mason Carter and Arunie Jayatilleke. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Can you please begin with your testimony. If you have any written testimony, could you please supply that to us so that you'll be able to summarize what your testimony is. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, my name is Mason Carter and I am here today in support of Bill 12 240657. I am someone who is a very multi-modal person. I ride my bike a lot. I drive. I take transit. I walk. And what I'll say is that for me I kind of come from somebody that has used in the past when I lived on 7th and Pine, I've had experience, a lot of experience, on the bike lanes having to load things. And I am an amputee, so I do need to be close to do this, especially when I was living on a third-floor walkup. And I think that honestly it'll be better this way for bikers, for if you have the loading zones and they're really working well and they're well-enforced. This will actually be a better system than kind of what's happening right now which is chaotic. I mean, it's unpredictable as a biker. It's unpredictable as a driver, really for anybody. And so, I think that as long as we're getting those loading zones in, we'll actually improve the way that we're doing this. And I also just wanted to mention too that today from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. I volunteered for the Bicycle Coalition to do bike counts specifically on 21st and Pine. And in the span of 15 minutes, I counted 40 bikes that passed me by. And so, there is a lot of people that are using these lanes and a real spectrum of people that are using it. It was wonderful to see. And I saw with my eyes what happens when people are using -- usually I'm on my bike when this is happening. But when I actually see just standing there and having to really observe this, having cars going in and out of the bike lanes, it slows car traffic, it's really dangerous for bicyclists. I've witnessed numerous conflicts and it's really just not working. And so, I think that this is going to be a really good first step and I strongly encourage this. There will be people that are going to object to this. But ultimately, I think that this is something that is really, really worth trying and let's see if it works. I have a very good feeling that it will work well for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Carter, for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, could you please call the names of folks wishing to testify on this bill.

Can we get Charles Goodwin, Lloyd Brotman, Niara Lezema and Claudia Carabelli and Kimberly Model. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Mr. Goodwin, please proceed with your testimony. State your name for the record.

Can you hear me? Hello. Okay, that's working. Thank you. My name is Charles Goodwin. I live at 22nd and Pine on the bike lane. I am a past President of the Center City Residents Association and the current Treasurer of the 8th Ward Democratic Committee, and I want to be clear that I'm speaking through neither of those organizations when I am testifying here today, just in case there's any confusion about that. I'm also a cyclist. I bike almost daily on the Spruce-Pine corridors. I've been biking on those streets for the years I've 7 lived in the house we live in now, 8 and I've been biking for almost 35 9 years in Philadelphia when I first 10 came to town. And I'm actually 11 really troubled by the current 12 proposal because it does nothing to 13 control speed. And I think it's 14 actually going to induce more bad 15 behavior and chaos on our streets 16 than the present situation, which 17 is kind of bad enough. 18 What we need is some speed 19 control to save the lives of the 50 20 pedestrians and 5 cyclists 21 typically killed every year on the 22 streets of Philadelphia, and we're 23 not really doing anything for 24 speed. But a number of years ago 25 or a few years ago I asked the bicycle person at OTIS, since I have a bike lane in front of my house, whether I got to load in front of my house, I got 42-pound bags of kitty litter to carry in from the car when we come back from BJ's. It's not easy to bring those in the house, but I asked the bicycle person at OTIS whether I should load from the traffic lane or from the bicycle lane. And what she told me was the bicycle lane and literally with an eye-roll, like how could you be so stupid to ask this question. And the logic here is if I stop in traffic, motorists behind me will swerve into the bike line to go around me. And those motorists are not going to stop to do it. They're going to just proceed. They're not going to look in their blind spot where there could be a bicyclist or knowing our bike lines, a bicyclist, a scooter rider, a jogger, someone on a moped, like a Vespa scooter, because let's be real about who uses bike lanes, and sideswipe that person or rear-end them, which will produce terrible results. That's exactly the accident that brings us here today, is someone swerved out of a traffic, someone driving almost twice the speed limit or more than twice the speed limit double-drunk over the limit, came up to a car stopped in the street, I don't know whether it was parking or loading, but came to a car parked in the street and automatically swerved the wheel to the left to go into the bike lane to go around that car and we're just setting this up to happen again. What happens in the present situation, yeah, I'm biking on Pine Street. There's almost always a car or several cars a block. I come up behind the stopped vehicle, I curse because I'm annoyed. Then I stop and I look over my shoulder and I proceed cautiously. Motorists aren't going to do this when they see stopped cars in the traffic lane. The behavior is just different. So what we really need is something that controls speed. It's really kind of a bit of a Wild Wild West on our streets here. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. Can we just slow it down. We saw the slide earlier and someone presented if there's an accident at miles an hour, 18 there's a 90 percent chance of 19 survival of the pedestrian. If 20 there's an accident at 40 miles an hour, there's a 90 percent chance of death of the pedestrian. So what can we do to get traffic down to 20 miles an hour so that literally bicyclists and motorists can all enjoy the street together, have a city that's so safe that a toddler stumbles off the curb into traffic and cars will stop and the kid will be okay.

This just imposes costs on residents and it's going to make the streets more chaotic because you're going to have people still parking in the bike lane because, well, we know how people take the street safety laws or the parking laws in Philadelphia. And you'll have people stopping in the traffic lane, all of them loading. So we will have bicyclists slaloming around cars in the bike lane and we'll have motorists slaloming around cars that are stopped in the parking lane. We will be back here in three to five years with another horrible tragedy discussing how did this ever happen. So really it's like let's just think this one through please before we actually make this -- I mean, I know how annoying it is to have these cars in the bike lane park. Yeah, it's very frustrating. But when I stop and I look over my shoulder and I proceed into traffic, I don't swerve into traffic. I wait, I'm not threatened, but I can't control the driver swerving in the street to avoid a car -- using the bike lane to go around a car parked in traffic. And we're going to just have more cars parked in traffic. I had this with an Uber driver just the other day. He wouldn't pull up to the curb because he'd been confronted by cyclists and didn't want to get them angry, so he's letting me off in the bicycle lane basically so I step into the bike lane. That's not safe at all for me. It's not safe for the bicyclists either as I open my door to get in the bike lane. I mean, this is just not the solution. I mean the solution is speed control and it needs to be done with physical measures so that people can't drive too fast in Center City. I don't know how anyone was ever driving 57 miles an hour on Spruce Street at what was it 6:30 in the evening. I mean, that's insane. How can that happen. And I mean, we have all sorts of technologies, whether it's speed bumps, rumble strips, elevated crosswalks, speed cams to just slow it down. And so, we really need to stop, think. Let's not make these streets more chaotic. Let's figure out how to make these streets safer for everyone. )

Thank you so much, Mr. Goodwin, for your testimony. Please state your name and proceed with your testimony, sir.

My name is Lloyd Brotman. Thank you, Chairperson Young and Councilwoman Bass for being here and giving us this opportunity to not only speak to you but to hear one another because there's far too little dialogue to solve these problems. And I think sometimes if you put us all in a room and let us talk to one another, we'd probably figure it out and you wouldn't have to take action. I've lived in the 2100 block of Pine Street for 39 years and been in the neighborhood for over 50 years. I was an early adopter urban biker in the 1970s when I routinely road from 23rd and Spruce to Temple University for graduate school. Pine Street neighbors applaud your effort to make the bike corridor safer for cyclists, but let me add that we'd also like safer streets for bikers and pedestrians and we'd also like to preserve quality of life for residents. We hear far too little about the quality of life for the people who live on those streets. Following the tragic Spruce Street accident, bike advocacy groups petitioned for barriers. The Mayor asked OTIS for a proposal to redesign Pine and Spruce Streets. OTIS responded with a plan that includes installation of curbs and barriers and they made it very clear that the change in parking rules you are considering constitutes the first contingent step toward implementation of their design. I along with my neighbors feel frustrated that OTIS did not seek community input on this proposal, which will instantly and inequitably degrade quality of life for city residents and ignores a more commonsense inclusive approach that could easily be enacted today. OTIS's proposal will create a divided highway with restricted curb access and inefficient dangerous conditions. Traffic will be unable to yield to emergency vehicles. Emergency responders access to properties will be delayed. Sanitation workers will be blocked from crossing side-to- side. Cattle-shoot lanes will cause slinky-style traffic jams on adjacent streets. Many properties on Spruce and Pine are exclusively accessed via their curbed front doors and do not have rear access. Inhabitants, some with mobility limitations, will be unable to drop off children, elderly relatives and groceries. Disabled or injured residents will be unable to navigate in and out of their homes. Moving vans will be unable to get into position. Furniture large appliances will be impossible to deliver. Property maintenance from painting to construction will also be impacted. If forced to use loading zones far from midblock and often unavailable, people with limited mobility and caregivers will be unable to function independently. It's unclear whether this legislation makes any accommodation for resident-attended vehicles. We are law abiding citizens who do not want to become law breakers just to drop off groceries even if the PPA is winking at us to go ahead by redefining no stopping as unattended. Bad enough that despite our present right to stop, we get heckled, cursed at and spit upon by angry bikers. Instead of no 25 stopping, why not post signs that say unattended vehicles will be ticketed and ticket them and tow them. We agree that we have a street safety problem, but we don't agree that by eliminating stopping or installing barriers, streets will be safer. It's hard to live in an urban area for many reasons. If you make these corridors resident-unfriendly and diminish quality of life and destroy the historically certified landscape, which is a whole other issue, residents will exit the city, property values will plummet and our tax base will be eroded. We see no need for new laws when existing speed limits and parking restrictions have not even been enforced. Proven traffic control methods such as speed cushions and bumps have never been tried on these streets. Bump installation could slow traffic to 20 miles per hour which would reduce crashes and improve Center City quality of life.

And finally, it is fiscally irresponsible to spend our limited resources on any City blocks other than those documented on your own High Injury Network map. Again, I thank you for this chance to comment and would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with you on solutions. )

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, please call the names of those wishing to testify on public comment.

Do we have a Niara Lezema and Ylanah Sloan and Claudia Carabelli. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is Niara Lezema and I am speaking today in support of Bill 240657. Unlike many of the other people who have spoken today, I'm a relatively new resident to Philadelphia. I moved to 1326 Spruce Street earlier this year from New York City where I was an avid biker. And one of the reasons I was excited to move to Spruce Street was because of the bike lane. I was used to biking around Midtown Manhattan without fear of being hit by a car because no cars were ever impeding my way in the bike lane. I have not been able to bike the way that I thought I would be able to since moving to Philadelphia because even walking around the city it's easy to notice on the streets that cars are often in the bike lane impeding traffic for who the bike lane is met for. On my first week of work in Philadelphia, two of my new coworkers got into bike accidents, which it continued to chill my desire to bike in this lovely city. When I finally did have the courage to go on my first bike ride, a car swerved into the bike lane on Spruce Street and the person biking next to me told the driver, please watch where you're going someone died further down the street, as we all know the tragic accident earlier this year killed Dr. Barbara Friedes in the bike lane on Spruce Street because it is too easy for cars to move in and out of the bike lane, forcing bikers to try to react when they are not surrounded by steel and do not have airbags at their disposal to keep themselves safe. The safety of those who the bike lanes are intended for I believe is paramount. It is hard to bike through a city when you do not know where danger is coming from and how you're going to maneuver. Each day, each route is a new challenge. Thank you for hearing my testimony.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Could you please proceed with your testimony.

Yes. My name is Ylanah Sloan and I live at 1326 Spruce Street. I'll try to be brief because people have pretty much said everything that I was interested in saying. But I will say that I really oppose the current legislation. For one thing there are no loading zones required in the legislation. And I want to impress on you how important that is. I am visually impaired. I was born with cataracts and had surgeries early in life, but I don't see normally. And I also have some neurological challenges to walking. Now, that means I need to have often times groceries delivered and it's very perplexing to me under your current legislation how delivery trucks would be able to be stopped in order to deliver the groceries. There is a woman in my building as far as disabilities go who is both blind and missing a leg due to a truck accident, and how is she supposed to get her needs met. And there's a convenience store. I don't know how people are supposed to load or unload given the current legislation. I also want to register the fact that I haven't been in this chamber since the bike lanes were changed from one side of the street to the other on Spruce Street, and I guess I am shocked to see that while the bicycle lobby is very well-developed, other stakeholders are not either considered or organized. And I would also oppose the legislation to give time to apartment people that live in apartments, people that live in condominiums, people that own stores, all their needs be taken into consideration. That's mainly what I wanted to say. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you so much for your testimony. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this bill 17 from the public?

Can we get Duncan Atkins and Kimberly Model. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Hello. Thank you, Councilmember Young, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Bass and Councilmember O'Rourke. Thank you all for hearing everyone's voices today. My name is Kimberly Model. I'm going to read what I have written and then I'm probably going to speak a little bit to what others have said, if that's okay.

If you don't mind, I mean because a lot of the testimony has been repetitive, if you can add things that's novel, that would be helpful for us.

Yes. Yeah, I will do my best. My name's Kimberly Model. I'm in the 2601 Parkway Building. I'm testifying in favor of the No Stopping in the Bike Lane bill. I bike as my primary means of transportation. Most of my friends also ride. Perhaps that's self-selectively. But in households in Philadelphia do not have access to a car. Allowing cyclists the space we need on the road just to get around increases the equitability of transportation in the city. This bill is about safety first. It prioritizes vulnerable road users over cars in space that's supposed to be designated for cyclists, for scooters, for wheelchair-users. Parking and stopping puts -- I'm going to skip this because you all have heard how merging makes it dangerous. Making our streets safer for bikes, for scooters will encourage people to ride. It'll reduce cars -- sorry. It'll reduce crashes and traffics and ultimately, no stopping in the bike lane is here to make this city safer, cleaner and greener. As a rider, I hear from so many people that they wish they felt comfortable riding, like seriously I hear that from so many people that I talk to. They wish they felt safer -- if riding in Philly was safer, they would. And I've been riding in Philly since I was a teenager. Most people don't have that. Most people don't have that basis of experience and I still don't feel safe all the time while I'm riding. I wear a helmet all the time, but a helmet only protects about this much of your head. Your neck, that can break in a crash. If it doesn't kill you, it'll put you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. Most of your torso has a lot of important organs, your lungs, your heart, your stomach, you know, important things you need in order to live. An injury to your torso is probably also just as life-altering as an injury to your head. I hear that a lot of people have concerns that they want more loading zones. And I think that's kind of the obvious thing the City needs to do is put more loading zones in order to put, one, no 3 parking in the bike lane and, two, actual protection so that riders can't be rear-ended so that cars just can't get into the bike lane to make us merge around. And one person said that separation or protection in the bike lane would not have saved Dr. Friedes, and that's just categorically wrong. If there was concrete protection, a car just would not have fit into the bike lane and it would have crashed into a post or into a barrier before it crashed into a person. That's all I'm going to say. Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for your testimony. Sir, please state your name and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is Duncan Atkins. I live on the 1600 block of Walnut Street and I'm here to ask City Council to support safe streets by passing Bill 4 240657, the No Stopping in Bike Lanes bill. I want everyone, not just the Councilmembers but also the people in the audience, to imagine a scenario with me. Imagine you wake up in the morning, you get ready to go to work and when you step outside of your house, there's a car parked on the sidewalk fully blocking the steps down from your house. The only way you can get to work is climbing down the railing, crossing into the street in order to get past this car parked on the sidewalk and get on the sidewalk on the way to work. Imagine if that wasn't the only car blocking the sidewalk forcing you into traffic. Imagine this was every single day for every single errand that you had to run. The City gave you a number to call and report this but the problem never got better because the car in front of your house had a 20-minute grace period before they could be ticketed. Imagine the people blocking your steps outside of your house told you they'd just be a minute, that you could just go around. You would be rightfully frustrated. Now, imagine if you knew someone who was hit and killed by a car because they had to walk into the street to get where the sidewalk should take them. Imagine if there was a history of people getting killed by cars on the street so that people who just need a minute could prioritize their convenience over your safety. We don't have to imagine because that is the reality that people on bikes face every day in this city. I personally use the Spruce and Pine bike lanes for the majority of my commuting and I can count on one hand the number of times that I have ridden them without there being one or more vehicles parked inside the bike lane forcing me out into traffic. Voting yes on this bill will solve this problem. I implore you to close this absurd loophole and give people on bikes the same basic standard of respect we give people on our sidewalks. A couple of things that I wanted to add in. This is just one of a number of other safe streets changes. I am fully in support of other interventions like raised crosswalks, daylighting and other changes, but I believe that this is a necessary component of a entire galaxy of ways to make the streets safer in this city. I heard somebody say that bike lanes are not historic for Philadelphia. Cars aren't historic for Philadelphia. The city has existed since the 1600s. There has only been cars for about 100 years. You can go back and look at Inquirer articles about driving in Fairmount Park and how upset people were back then. And finally, we live in one of the most dense areas in the entire country. It's unreasonable to expect the ability to have deliveries and drop-offs made right in front of your house. I have to walk to multiple different grocery stores to get my groceries. I have to haul any sort of stuff, you know. I use the Indigo bikes, so I have to park at whatever Indigo station is open and walk to my apartment. There's never going to be a reality where you're going to be able to drop stuff off right in front of your house in Philadelphia. That's just impossible. Thank you for your time and attention and please vote yes on the No Parking in Bike Lanes bill.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else -- and thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else in the chambers wishing to testify on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. We are going to end the public hearing and we're going to take a brief recess to establish a quorum. (Brief recess.)

We will get back into our public meeting. I would like to thank our witnesses for joining us today. Mr. Pullin, could you please call the roll to establish a quorum for the public meeting.

Councilmember Bass.

Aye.

Councilman O'Rourke.

Present.

Vice-Chair Squilla.

Present.

Chair Young.

Present. Thank you, Mr. Pullin. A quorum has now been established. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on amendment to Bill No. 240812.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 240812. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee and I move that the amendment to Bill No. 7 240812 be adopted. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 240812 be adopted. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

Ayes have it. The motion carries. And the amendment to Bill No. 240812 has been adopted. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 2 240657.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 240657. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 10 240657 be adopted. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 240657 be adopted. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it and the (inaudible) of the Chair of the motion carries. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill Nos. 240613, 240657 as amended, 240748, 240749, 240812 as amended, 240813, 240814, 240815, 240816, 240118 --

881.

Excuse me, 240818, 240819, 240820, 240821, 240822 and 240824.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that all bills read into the record be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that all bills read into the record be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of these bills at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

All opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it. The motion carries. Bill 15 Nos. 240613, 240657 as amended, 240748, 240749, 240812 as amended, 240813, 240814, 240815, 240816, 240818, 240819, 240820, 240821, 240822 and 240824 will be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading at the next session of Council. Do any members have any remarks? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. This includes the business before the Committee on Streets and Services today. (Committee on Streets and Services concluded at 4:20 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL