Authorizing City Council's Committees on the Environment and on Transportation and Utilities to hold joint public hearings to investigate the steps the City of Philadelphia and its various Departments are currently taking and are planning to take to investigate the creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program as an additional method of urban transportation to enhance the personal mobility of Philadelphia residents and workers.

WHEREAS

, Public Use Bicycle Programs have been recently installed in over 60 (sixty) cities around the world as an alternative to single occupancy vehicles in congested urban traffic and as a supplement to Public Transit Systems; and

WHEREAS

, In cities with Public Use Bicycle Programs in operation, there has been a documented reduction of automobile traffic by 4% - 5%. There has been even a greater percent reductions in automobile traffic in the central business cores; and

WHEREAS,

It has been documented that a Public Use Bicycle Program in a city one-third the size of Philadelphia has, in a two year period, shifted 16 million miles of personal travel to bicycles and reduced carbon dioxide pollution by 5,200 tons; and

WHEREAS,

Studies have found that Public Use Bicycle Programs significantly improved public health. The ease and convenience of the programs has lured large numbers of participants to use bicycles as part of daily conveyance. The increase in physical activity has both aerobic and anaerobic benefits; and

WHEREAS,

A Public Use Bicycle Program would greatly benefit the burgeoning Philadelphia tourism industry by allowing tourists to easily and economically get around to the City’s different attractions; and

WHEREAS,

A Public Use Bicycle Program can serve as a bridge between a departure point to a public transportation node, or from a transportation node to a destination point, therefore making public transportation a more attractive form of travel; and

WHEREAS

, The populace of the City of Philadelphia has demonstrated that it is receptive to alternative and innovative types of transportation by its overwhelming embracement of vehicle sharing through PhillyCarShare; and

WHEREAS

, Funding for a Public Use Bicycle Program can be financed either through the city’s own budget or with little or no cost to the City through a stand alone non-profit organization or as an additional part of the advertising revenue from the City’s street furniture contract; now therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,

That Council hereby authorizes the Committees on the Environment and Transportation and Utilities to hold joint public hearings to investigate the steps the City of Philadelphia and its various Departments are currently taking and are planning to take to investigate the creating of a Public Use Bicycle Program as an additional method of urban transportation to enhance the personal mobility of Philadelphia residents and workers

End