A PennDOT crew grinding off a layer of asphalt from Baltimore Avenue last evening.
Many residents have been wondering what’s happening with Baltimore Avenue after SEPTA completed the 34 Trolley track reconstruction at the beginning of the month. The sides of the street were not resurfaced, which makes it hard to use, especially for bicyclists. Yesterday evening the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) crews began resurfacing work as part of a bigger pavement improvement project in Philadelphia that involves repavement of Baltimore Avenue between 61st Street and University Ave. The project is scheduled to be completed this fall.
Photo by reader Brendan McTear.
September 13th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Do we know when the repaving is supposed to happen? I only ask as we live on Baltimore and therefor park on Baltimore so it would be nice to have a heads up on when parking again will be limited to side streets, etc. thanks for any updates!
September 13th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Won’t this still leave us with the same issue (of the seam running down the bike lane?)
September 13th, 2012 at 10:43 am
Kelly: I saw that the south side of the street was already starting to be repaved, at least up between 48th-46th Street. You should hopefully get some signs on phone poles and such before the re-paving, but I know there was some seriously short notice when 44th Street was re-paved a few weeks ago (like the morning of).
September 13th, 2012 at 10:47 am
Kelly P. I agree. we live near 44th and it seemed like the residents were not prepared for the mass towing that occurred in the morning hours. The signs posted on Baltimore note Sept 11 – 13 6pm- 6am. Can we then assume that they are done for now?
Christina, if you look at the amount of area they removed it goes almost up to the trolley tracks so one can assume that the bike lane would be one continuous level.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:14 am
Some residents are still wondering where their cars are. Many were towed with little or no notice, and no signs were posted.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Having bike lanes is the stupidest thing to ever have, this is what my tax dollars go to. [deleted by Admin]
September 13th, 2012 at 11:31 am
Dear readers, thanks for your comments. We have forwarded some of your questions to PennDOT.
Just a reminder: any obscene, threatening, harassing, abusive, or hateful comments will be deleted.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Trolls are worse.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Thanks for forwarding! I look forward to any updates that you are able to obtain.
September 13th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
as long as it doesn’t prevent me from double parking on the alley to get my $5 footlong. Can I get an AMEN?!
September 13th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Yes, thank you for forwarding! No one I talked to saw any signs posted on the 5000 block of Baltimore. There was one SUPER LOUD yet completely unintelligible announcement broadcasted from one tow truck, a few minutes before towing began.
September 13th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Regarding the bikes lanes, I would argue bike lanes are a net benefit to tax payers rather than a cost. First of all the cost of installing a bike lane is just the cost of painting a line on the street. Bikes do not add to the wear and tear on the streets that cars and trucks do. Every bike you see out there is one less car length sized object in your way. One less car you have to compete with for a parking spot. One less person feeding into our nation’s dependence on foreign oil. One less person emitting carbon into the atmosphere just to get to work. One more person getting exercise and less likely to have exepensive medical costs down the road for things like heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. And the likelihood of a person on a bike stopping off on their trip to shop at one of the businesses on the street is higher than a person in a car who would be less willing to go through the annoyance of hunting down a parking spot for 5 to 10 minutes. That’s more buyers in our shops.
September 13th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
And yes, the city does an awful job of alerting people of these projects ahead of time. They do post signs on trees and light polls but frankly the amount of signs and posters on our streets makes it hard to notice yet another poster. I think it would help if the city took the time to put flyers on everyone’s doorstep on the block a day or two ahead saying the street will be closed. Or they could consider putting out one of those big orange diamond shaped signs on the block specifically saying the block will be closed to parking on these dates. The posters they put up are just not cutting it.
I have a couple of friends who completely missed the poor notice from the city when they resurfaced 44th Street. They basically woke up and found their car towed. And apparently after arguing with a police officer about how poorly the people were warned ahead of time the officer muttered “f— you” to my friend when walking away.
September 13th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
We need bike lanes on Baltimore Ave so the police will have a place to park their cars when they eat at Cedar Park Cafe.
September 14th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Both the Philly streets department and PennDOT post information about road projects at least a couple of days before they begin on their websites. It would be wise to check those sites when you see that your street is being/has been milled. When in doubt, don’t park on a milled street. Sure, more signs would be greatly appreciated, but it also helps to be proactive and inform yourself in these matters. And please – don’t pick an argument with a cop who probably had nothing to do with your car being towed, or with posting signs about the impending paving project.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:30 am
Hurrah, I’m happy they are fixing the crappy bike lanes so soon, but it sucks for the people who had been towed.
September 14th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
I could live with the unpaved streets. Slows drivers by nearly 10mph. The bike lane was terribly unpleasant and will continue to be.
September 16th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Bike lanes are great but it seems that the biggest role that they serve is to show how crappy the cyclists in West Philly happen to be. They think they’re all fancy with their hand signals for turns but that is where their skill seems to cease. Bunch of morons. And I’m a cyclist. Imagine what drivers think!
September 16th, 2012 at 11:08 pm
OK, Happy Curmudgeon, I’ll take the bait. What sort of awe-inspiring skills are you bringing to the streets of West Philly that the rest of us morons should aspire to? (Preferably you’ll provide video evidence.)
September 17th, 2012 at 9:33 am
What hand signals are there besides “Hey, I’m turning/merging here.” and “Oh Jesus, don’t hit me!”? Curious.
September 17th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Great comment happy curmudgeon, finally somebody that make sense on this topic. applause
September 17th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
It’s the same old s**t different day. Bikes want equal space equal consideration. Fine. Get off the sidewalks. Stop at stopsigns. Wait for green lights. Start there.
September 17th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Give it up, Happy, & you’ll find yourself happier. Bikes won’t ever act like cars because they don’t need to and they shouldn’t be expected to. The Idaho Stop (i.e. bikes legally yield at stop signs) is routine practice already, is perfectly safe, and should be enshrined in law.
I wish it would happen, and we might be spared the constant whines of drivers who are so sad and frustrated to discover that a) they no longer rule the world, and b) they have to share the road with living (taxpaying!) human beings instead of other metal boxes. Get *truly* happy, man. Recognize life when you see it. Embrace it. Don’t hate it.
And I say this as a driver AND a cyclist.
September 17th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
As a driver, you know, I’m fine with the cruise through (Idaho) but not a fan of the no-look. Sure, it may be the smug few, but c’mon pick one. Be a law abider or a hell raiser. That means that either (law abider) we look our for each other or (hell raiser) you assume that nobody is looking out for you and you go like hell accordingly. Don’t be a part time hell raiser who gets mad when an old lady ignores your hand signals.
September 17th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
I’m afraid that for your own sanity’s sake, you’d be best advised to accept the fact that, like drivers and pedestrians, cyclists are part law abider and part hell-raiser. All of us who use the streets press the envelope in equal measure. When I drive or ride I have no choice but to assume the worst about ALL the people on the road and on the sidewalks – drivers and cyclists and pedestrians alike – and I’m constantly presented with evidence that unfortunately, this is the right thing to do. You have no choice either, and you never will.
True happiness will flow from acceptance of this fact of life, o unhappy curmudgeon.
Take solace in this: only thing that distinguishes cyclists and pedestrians from drivers is that they pay a much higher price for their indiscretions(see the recent “no look” accident involving a cyclist who got pancaked after running a red on Broad St. at 3AM; fox 29 covered). And the only thing that distinguishes drivers is the amount of damage they can do without harming themselves.
September 17th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
This is why the utter lack of sanity some bike riders show is so alarming. I went to pull out of my parking spot this morning, when a cyclist comes shooting up the street, riding on the wrong side of the road tight against the line of parked cars. Now luckily, he came into view before I had hit the gas to pull out, but had the timing been 2 seconds different, he might have run full speed into my front bumper. I couldn’t see him coming until it would have been too late for him to stop had I pulled out. I had plenty of room in front, and would have just hit the gas.
Being a hell-raiser is one thing – plenty of car people ignore red lights as well, so it’s not really fair to single out bike riders on that score. But some just ride like total and complete fools. And contrary to what seems to be a popular belief, I would NOT be OK pancaking a bicyclist just because me and my car would likely come out unhurt, even if I wasn’t at fault. I mean, I’ve never run anyone over in my car, but I imagine it would be a pretty awful experience, no matter how moronic the person is that I run over.
September 18th, 2012 at 11:31 am
“only thing that distinguishes cyclists and pedestrians from drivers is that they pay a much higher price for their indiscretions”
Except for cases in which cyclists on the sidewalk endanger pedestrians; then, pedestrians are paying the price. And yes, we should all be alert for irresponsible behavior when walking/cycling/driving, but a pedestrian should not have to worry about a fast-moving (and relatively quiet) cyclist coming up behind them, or speeding around the corner of a sidewalk.
Is yielding at a stop sign safe for cyclists? Often, yes. But does it also create a social norm that allows other cycling laws to be ignored? I believe it does. And obviously drivers need to be more careful as well, but we shouldn’t excuse cyclists for reckless behavior just because drivers can also be reckless.
September 18th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
It seems like there are some people who are opposed to bike lanes, because not all cyclists follow all of the current traffic laws all of the time. How does eliminating bike lanes make cyclists more likely to follow traffic laws? Or is the suggestion that eliminating bike lanes for everyone is an appropriate punishment for those cyclists who don’t follow all of the rules all of the time? Should we get rid of roads all together, because there are drivers who don’t follow all of the traffic laws all of the time?
September 18th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
I don’t think anyone was advocating getting rid of the bike lanes. After all, moronic bike riders are still a distant second to moronic drivers in the race for what is more agitating when trying to drive in West Philly.
September 18th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
I suppose this is a big horselaugh, but isn’t there anything we can do about those tows that were effectively without warning?
September 19th, 2012 at 6:55 am
Those tows were CRAZY. I was at the Green Line and it was like a military strike — there was this fleet of tow trucks and all of a sudden the block was clear of cars.
September 19th, 2012 at 9:29 am
Mark, have you dealt with PPA before? If it is for money, it is not worth it.
September 20th, 2012 at 11:55 am
My neighbor finally found her car that was towed from the 5000 block of Baltimore, around 54th & Cedar. It was quite the scavenger hunt, but at least it wasn’t impounded.
September 24th, 2012 at 8:48 am
well so much for fair warning…they towed again on Baltimore this morning. No signs on my street at all. thank god for my neighbors texting me so I could dead sprint out to my car before it was towed. Seriously..how can they not inform us of the road work?
September 24th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Ok, so that’s what I get for trying to write a long comment on my iphone instead of on my computer. I accidentally copy and paste part of my shopping list over it. Embarrassing. Thank God it was just toothpaste and mouthwash!
What I was going to say was:
There was one sign posted on the nearest tree to the corner of 44th and Baltimore Avenue. This in my opinion is completely inadequate. If you are parking your car on this block you are not very likely to notice this one sign on a very busy block unless you park right there. You are not going to be able to read it while driving around the corner unless you have amazing vision and driving skills. Even if you park a few spaces down you are very unlikely to see this sign after you get out of your car. Even if you walk past the tree after parking that this sign is posted to, the sign itself is facing the street so a pedestrian is not likely to see it either. Finally our neighborhood is full of a myriad of signs for yardsales and what not that these parking signs are competing with.
In my opinion they need to put out a lot more signs per block or come up with one big harder to miss sign with the details for that block. It would not hurt to also put flyers in local resident’s mailboxes announcing the parking restrictions. It may not prevent all people from parking in the wrong spot but it would dramatically reduce the amount of cars towed which means less headaches for car owners and less money spent for the tow truck armies that descend on the block.
September 24th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
@brendangrad – It’s okay, we deleted it.
September 24th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
brendangrad that is the block i park on and am supremely thankful for my neighbors who leave early in the morning and texted to inform me of the towing that had begun. that “lone sign” is ridiculous and I only noticed it this morning while doing laps in my car trying to find alternate parking arrangements.