Hello! One of the recurring events we are doing as part of the our bike advocacy group is Mass Email Monday. We really want people to become confident reaching out and having conversation with their district council people. Before staging an demonstration or protest, it is important to at least attempt having a conversation with those in charge. We plan to do this email campaign each week for a topic we choose each month. This month we are doing bike lane parking. It seems to be a hot topic. I have provided a rough template that can be used after filling in the blanks and changed for the specific needs of your neighborhood, district, or personal experience.
“Hello Council(man/woman/person),
I wanted to reach out and express my disappointment with the PPA bike lane parking enforcement. Although the program was recently rolled out with much applause, it does not seem to be having the intended effect on reducing bike lane parking. I commute along the Spruce/Pine bike lanes every day and there are consistently vehicles parked in the bike lane which forces me to ride in traffic. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have been harrassed and threatened by drivers for riding in the auto lane. Bike line parking also limits bike lane use by more vulnerable riders including kids, the elderly, and disabled people. I have heard of some local RCOs calling for corner loading zones in the parking lane opposite of the bike lane. I think this is a great idea as it will give drivers a place other than the bike lane to temporarily store their vehicles. This, along with the changing the bike lanes from “no parking” to “no stopping” zones would be extremely helpful in making the bike lane enforcement more effective and Philadelphia a safer place to ride a bike.
Regards, _ “
Contact information for your district councilperson can be found here: https://phlcouncil.com/council-members/ You can just copy and paste the above template into the contact form on the website or you can try directly emailing. Email addresses usually follow similar pattern. Mark Squilla is my district councilperson so I just use [email protected] I usually email one of his staffers (Anne Kelly) too as they tend to have more time to reply. In that case it would be [email protected].
Don’t worry if you don’t get a reply immediately. It may take awhile. If you don’t hear a reply within a week, you can just forward the email saying “Hey, I wanted to follow up on this.” Don’t let them think you stopped caring or let your business get brushed under the rug. You may feel annoying and if so you are doing it right. As they say, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”