The 2024 edition of the Philadelphia Bike Expo took place in the Center City convention center on March 16 and 17. This was the first time the expo was scheduled in the spring – and it was a welcome change. BNP members Dom Frascella, Dom Vasturia and William Jackson were there on Feb 16 to checkout the bikes and the gear, but also to circulate among the organizations representing various elements of  Philadelphia-area bike culture.

SEPTA booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo – with demonstration bus bike rack.

SEPTA – Their booth was promoting multi-modal transportation (combining public transit with one other type of travel, like a bike, as part of a single trip), and featured a hands-on demonstration stand with a standard bike rack used on the front of SEPA busses. This allowed attendees to practice the rather simple, yet intimidating, three-step process of pulling down the rack, loading an example bike, and securing the front wheel. What makes it intimidating is you need to do this while bus riders and drivers are waiting. We talked with them a bit about “Bus on Demand” coming to our area, and the possibility of borrowing one of these demo stands to promote understanding of the racks. We were told these demo stands get built as racks get decommissioned from busses and we might be able to get a demo stand of our own. We theorize we might be able to share one with The Partnership TMA of Mont Co., since they also do education on use of public transportation. So we signed up for more info.

Pennsylvania Environmental Council booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) – had a large display of maps and info promoting trails throughout the state and their efforts to create more trails and promote access to the trails. PEC is involved with exploring the connection of the Liberty Bell Trail from the southern border of Upper Gwynedd Township down through Norristown to the Schuylkill River Trail. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with the staff member working on this connection.

Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia – We made a quick stop in the afternoon to speak briefly with their Executive Director, Chris Gale. We thanked him for staffer Patrick Monahan’s quick response with supplying us with zoning examples related to bike parking/racks. We also talked a bit about our idea to spur use of apartment bike shares in our area.

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) – This group, based in Bethlehem, PA, is like Bike North Penn, but probably 7-10 years more advanced than we are. Not only to they promote bike infrastructure and do community rides (as well as other rides) they operate a community

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

bike cooperative where customers learn to fix their own bikes and can “earn” a bike by putting in time at the shop. They also organize bike safety/education programs for kids. We spent quite a bit of time talking to these folks about how they do what they do. It seems like they have some ideas which might work for BNP as we further develop our organization. One simple idea, which they report is very popular, is women-only community rides. We would suggest BNP members check out the CAT website for more information.

Other connections: Ran into Linda McGrane, one of the leaders of Suburban Cyclists Unlimited and who is also involved with the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia. In the past she was able to include information about BNP in the BCP monthly newsletter. She said she would also like to include something in the newsletter for Suburban Cyclists. We attended a seminar called “Folx N Spokes” which was dedicated to “supporting women, trans and non-binary riders in Philly and the region.” It ended up being more of like a meet and greet between groups. We spoke up that BNP has attempted to be as inclusive as possible and invited all to participate in our meetings and our rides. From these groups we also discovered “party-paced” bike rides!

Dom, Dom, and William at the Philly Bike Expo