Philadelphia Inquirer: Make way for the bicycles

No death cabs - for Cutie, or anyone else. No trucks, no buses. No roaring demon motorcycles barreling down behind you. For a few sublime hours Sunday morning it will be possible to ride your bike along many of Center City’s major arteries - the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Race Street, Columbus Boulevard - and not have to worry about cars and motorized vehicles.

At all. Call it bicyclist heaven. And call it Bike Philly 2007 - the inaugural two-wheel tour in what organizers hope will be an annual and increasingly crowded event. Inspired by mass car-free rides in New York (in the spring, the number of NYC riders was capped at 32,000), Chicago and Montreal, Bike Philly is beginning modestly - but with lofty ambitions.

Alex Doty, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and a cochair of the event, expects about 2,500 Philly cyclists to participate in this ride - which has an initial 10-mile, car-free stage through Center City, and then a subsequent 10-mile, car-free route through Fairmount Park. More ambitious folk can journey for another 15 to 30 miles of supervised, share-the-road riding through the Main Line, Conshohocken and back into the city. Support teams, bike mechanics, volunteer tour marshals - and rest areas with food and drink - will be positioned along the route.

The whole thing starts at 8 a.m. Doty and the Bicycle Coalition folks are encouraging families and kids to come along. This isn’t a race with spandexed Lance-wannabes peloton-ing along at 25 m.p.h. - it’s a leisurely two-wheel tour to celebrate one of the greatest transportation devices ever invented, and to roam our fair city on said machine. Non-polluting, energy-efficient, maneuverable, parkable, good for your body and soul - cycling is the ideal mode of urban transport. One of the goals of Bike Philly is to increase awareness of bicycle safety.

Proceeds from the ride - $45 for adults (plus $5 for children 12 and under), and $35 for students - will go to the Bicycle Coalition, and to the Police Athletic League’s “Cops Helping Kids” charitable nonprofit. Its mission is to promote cycling among young people. (It’s most advisable to register in advance, via http://bikephilly2007.com, but it will be possible to register Sunday morning, beginning at 6:30 a.m., at the steps of the Art Museum where the ride begins. Registration Sunday is $50, plus $5 for kids 12 and under, and $35 for students.)

Doty says that Mayor Street is registered to ride. And that Michael Nutter, more than likely his successor, has signed up, too. Perhaps the presumptive mayor-elect can help expand Bike Philly in coming years. In New York (where the city’s transportation director commutes to work by bike), Mayor Bloomberg and the police close off the 59th Street and Verrazano bridges and a huge swath of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to cars.

Cyclists get to cruise down these major thoroughfares, with staggering views of the city and the harbor. It’s a great experience. Imagine pedaling your two-wheeler across the Ben Franklin Bridge with no cars in sight, down I-95 past the stadium complex, on the Vine Street and Schuylkill Expressways. . . . That’s something to look forward to. In the meantime, enjoy the ride.