Cyclist killed on Aramingo Ave signalling a clear need for concrete protection

Update: The victim has been identified as Glenn Colville. He was a father of three young girls.

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PHILADELPHIA – Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 12, a driver killed a man riding a bicycle in a hit-and-run on Aramingo Avenue near its intersection with East Lehigh Avenue. A 21-year-old person of interest is in custody, according to police.

This particular stretch of Aramingo Ave features a bike lane protected by flex posts, but a photo of the bike lane taken after the crash makes it abundantly clear that flex posts cannot keep people safe.

Philadelphians saw similar images of downed flex posts after the crash that killed Dr. Barbara Friedes on Spruce St. two years ago. In both instances, the cyclists did everything right. Drivers killed them anyway.

This weekend is not the first time a member of our community has died on Aramingo Ave. A pedestrian named Cristian Miranda was killed in a hit-and-run on Aramingo July 2024. In December 2025, a crash left one woman dead and two others hospitalized. In August 2023, in yet another hit and (Photo courtesy of Philly Bike Action) run, a driver who was racing another car hit a pedestrian with such force that police reported he was “knocked out of his sneakers”; the pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.

The City knows this road is dangerous. Aramingo Ave has appeared on Philadelphia’s High-Injury Network for almost a decade. According to PennDOT data compiled by VisionZeroPHL, at least 11 people were killed on Aramingo Ave between 2019 and 2023.

“This week, Philadelphia mourns yet another person hit and killed in an unprotected bike lane. Unlike concrete protection, painted lines and flexposts cannot protect riders from moving cars," said Philly Bike Action.

"In 2023, the City announced a plan to improve safety on Aramingo Ave, which would include protected bike lanes, corners, and medians--but the project remains stuck in bureaucratic limbo, with no public progress since 2024. We have lost yet another Philadelphian while we wait years for the City to implement its own safety projects.

Without additional funding for Vision Zero--and, critically, the political will to force the City’s bureaucracy to actually implement safety projects in a timely manner --more Philadelphians will die in preventable crashes like this one.”

In its plan for Aramingo Ave, the City’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) noted that of over 500+ local residents, workers, and business owners surveyed, almost two thirds supported sidewalk-level bike lanes. However, OTIS’s plans also note that plans to improve safety would only extend out to the intersection where this cyclist was killed if additional funding was allocated.

Currently, Mayor Parker’s budget allocates $5 million per year to Vision Zero--a wholly insufficient amount given the scale of Philadelphia’s traffic violence crisis. The horrifying events of this weekend clearly show the urgent need for additional funding to support the immediate installation of lifesaving safety measures.

“This weekend, a concrete-protected or sidewalk-level bike lane clearly could have saved a life,” Philly Bike Action said. “The data clearly demonstrate that Aramingo Ave is dangerous--yet plans to improve safety remain mired in bureaucratic limbo as still more lives are lost to reckless drivers.”