August 03, 2015
No longer will bicycles left for dead by their owner -- because of some thief or vandal, taking up valuable spots to lock up your own bike -- sully Philadelphia sidewalks.
At least that's what the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities hopes when it performs an abandoned bike sweep Aug. 12-13.
The Office said on its website that the sweep is being conducted to free up sidewalks and parking spaces for other cyclists.
According to Holly Otterbein of PhillyMag, the original post referenced a focus on "priority zones for the papal visit."
Yet she spoke to Denise Goren, the director of policy and planning at the Philadelphia Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities, who said the blog post was incorrect (the papal reference has since been removed) and that they've performed these sweeps regularly in the summer and winter for the past five years. However ...
"We're trying to clean up the city because company's coming."
Goren also told PhillyMag that the sweep will focus on Center City and move outward.
The city defines an abandoned bicycle as one having any of the following qualities:
...missing wheel and tire; significantly bent or corroded wheel; missing tire without missing wheel; significantly corroded and flat tire; missing seat; missing handlebars; missing pedals; missing, broken or inoperable chain; or broken or significantly bent frame.
If you want to report an abandoned bike call 311 or submit a report to the Philly 311 website.
