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Bike Lane On 13th Street In Philadelphia Is Here To Stay

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - City officials have declared a six-month test of a new bicycle lane on 13th Street in Center City a success, so the lane will now become permanent.

The Nutter Administration last spring chose southbound 10th Street and northbound 13th Streets as test locations for the latest bicycle-only lanes. The testing of 13th street is now complete, and Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler says reducing the car lanes from two to one did not significantly increase auto traffic.

"The data shows that in one or two locations it did in fact cause longer queuing, so we tweaked it in those intersections where we saw some of those issues.  One of the more interesting pieces is that nearly a quarter of all traffic were bicycles during the morning peak at Walnut Street."

So the bike lane on 13th, Cutler says, is here to stay.

"We certainly believe that the 13th street bike lane is a success, and we are looking to stripe it and make it permanent within the next several weeks."

Cutler says two minor tweaks -- the removal of some parking spaces on 13th at Walnut, and the relocation of a bus zone on 13th at Market -- are planned to reduce minor car back-ups at those locations.  She says those changes would have been warranted even without the bike lane.

Testing of the bicycle lane on southbound 10th street got a later start, and no decision on making that permanent will come until next spring.  East-west bike lanes on Pine and Spruce were made permanent two years ago.

Reported by Mike Dunn, KYW Newsradio 1060

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