This is this time of year when Penn students start moving out of their dorms, which causes temporary closure of several blocks of Spruce Street. This year, Spruce Street will be closed to traffic from 34th to 40th on Tuesday, May 12 and Wednesday, May 13, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., according to Penn’s Division of Public Safety announcement.
SEPTA Routes 40 and 42 will be re-routed during the move-out. Please go to SEPTA’s website for more information.
Here are some additional advisories:
• Access will be provided to the Ryan Vet Hospital.
• No taxi cabs will be permitted access.
• Vendors will be permitted access to enter the street prior to the 8 a.m. street closure.
• Bikes will need to be walked on Spruce Street while the streets are closed to traffic.
Penn police will be on site to assist with traffic flow.
May 12th, 2015 at 10:05 am
Based on what I saw this morning, zooming down the sidewalk is just fine and dandy, though. Just don’t you dare consider going into the completely empty street, or you’ll be yelled at.
May 12th, 2015 at 11:56 am
Last year at this time I was riding my bike home from Center City on South Street. As soon as I crossed over 34th on Spruce on the empty blocked off street riding in the bike lane, a cop told me I needed to “dismount and walk.” Ten seconds later three girls on their bikes rode up behind me on the sidewalk. I looked back at the cop like “what the hell???” and got back on my bike and rode the rest of the way.
May 12th, 2015 at 8:56 pm
i’ve seen a penn police officer tackle a cyclist to the ground to the concrete off of their bike after the cyclist didn’t hear the threats to dismount. should’ve been a lawsuit vs upenn. i think the upenn police are totally rude about cylists on spruce street during moveout.
May 15th, 2015 at 11:29 am
this happened to me. Although I managed to swerve around the policeman and get away. This was not, however, during move out. It was an ordinary day on spruce between 38th and 24th.
I filed a complaint on the upenn police website. I am sure they all got together and had a conference before calling me back. Because, it just so happened that the policeman who attempted to tackle me was the one to call me about the complaint. I told him that I am a tax paying citizen and that his actions were inappropriate. He got agitated and started yelling at me over the phone.
My question is, what if he had managed to tackle me that morning as I was riding into work? What if I had been seriously injured, or even worse, the policeman? I am sure the police department would have found the officer completely indemnified.
I agree, the UPENN police are consistently rude to pedestrians. Does it have something to do with them being a privately operated police department? (does not have to answer to the public because privately funded?)
Also, I think it is rude of UPENN to close off streets and make entire areas of the city inaccessible to people who use the public streets as commuting routes to center city.
I have been dealing with this issue for years and I find it to be a consistent pattern with UPENN. I thought UPENN would have more foresight that they should include the community, rather than create its own independent settlement
May 15th, 2015 at 1:36 pm
It’s a good thing you were not harmed, but what prompted the cop to try to tackle you in the first place?
May 18th, 2015 at 12:46 pm
Since you asked, i will elaborate.
it doesn’t matter what i did. cops should not tackle people on bicycles. I don’t understand when this is acceptable. This is the use of excessive force. I could have been seriously injured. I forgot to mention that the policeman was forcing me into oncoming traffic. He had his arms extended out at both sides. He started in the bike lane, and continued to nudge me over to the left. (i was heading east on spruce, near the hospital.). This incident occurred at the middle of the block. Not at the pedestrian crosswalks, with the red lights.
At the previous intersection, Ii rode through when there was a red light at the pedestrian crosswalk. There were no pedestrians crossing at the time. as you probably already know (based on your argument) what i did is illegal. technically, i should have dismounted my bike, at which point i would have been considered a pedestrian, and legally crossed the pedestrian crosswalk. Again, no pedestrians around. There was a policeman at that intersection. He walkie-talkied to the guy down the street (i assume this to have happened. in retrospect, i remember hearing them talk but did not realize this detail until later when I ran through my head the events.)
Again, the policeman attempted to tackle me in the middle of the block, where i had the right of way, and I was not breaking any laws at that time. The attempt to tackle me was the only notice recieved. (i was not under arrest, or they were not previously “pursing me” in any way whatsoever that was made clear to me.)
So, Dan S, is this provocation enough to justify an attempt to assault me on behalf of the policemen? Or, were they using excessive force.
Technically, I was assaulted by the police, because , if you look up the definition of assault, even the threat of assaulting someone and/ or the attempt to assault someone, even if it never happened, is technically an assault. So, I was assaulted. When the policeman screamed “Im going to KNOCK you off your bike” and then proceeded to attempt and come close to doing so. This is an assault by definition.
May 18th, 2015 at 2:58 pm
Just to clarify, I was not questioning why you were nearly tackled because I felt that you probably did something to justify the use of force, I was just wondering what would make a cop respond to a biker in such a way.
That being said, no, it was not acceptable for the cop to attempt to tackle you off of your bike. Perhaps if you were considered a dangerous suspect trying to flee the scene of a crime on your bike, then they might be able to justify slamming you to the ground to prevent your escape. In your case, no way.
Not that it makes it ok, but practically every single person on a bike goes through the pedestrian crosswalks when the lights are red on Spruce between 38th and 34th. As long as there is no one in the crosswalks, I ride through them every single time. To me, it is equivalent to a pedestrian crossing the street when the “do not cross” hand is illuminated but no cars are coming in either direction. (and to any anti-bikers who read this, please tell me that you never cross the street when it is not legal to do so or even cross mid-block outside of the crosswalk area.
The crazy thing is, my incident happened in nearly the exact same spot as yours. Maybe the cops are just grumpy because they have to deal with performing the B.S. detail of blocking off a major street so some kid can load up their daddy’s car with lamps and pillows. But that is not an excuse for what they tried to do to you.