John Dowlin, international bicycle activist and environmental crusader, has died at 82

John Dowlin, 82, of Philadelphia, longtime international bicycle activist, environmental and social justice crusader, editor, writer, and veteran, died Monday, Aug. 26, of complications from a heart condition at a private residence in Roxborough.

If an event or cause had anything to do with bicycles, cultural preservation, community improvement, the environment, or citizen diplomacy around the world, especially in Philadelphia, Mr. Dowlin was likely to be involved. He cofounded what is now the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia in 1972 and later the Save Our Sites preservation advocacy group.

An avid bicyclist, he lobbied loudly for more than five decades for bike lanes on city streets, accommodations for bikes on public transit, better bike parking, effective safety enforcement, and other improvements that affected the region’s riders. His slogan was “Bike for a Better City,” and his efforts resulted in car-free weekends on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, bike lanes on the Ben Franklin Bridge, better bike trails across the region, commuter bike road maps, and more bike racks around town.

He was on boards for the International Bicycle Fund, Neighborhood Bike Works, and League of American Bicyclists, and an editor for two decades at Network News for cyclists. He lay in streets to protest the lack of bike lanes in Philadelphia, and, when bike lanes finally opened on the Ben Franklin Bridge in 2019, he made a much-publicized first crossing in the bin of a cargo bike.

“One out of every three adults own bicycles in this country,” Mr. Dowlin told the Daily News in 1983, “and next to jogging and swimming, it’s the next popular participation sport.” Courtney Smerz, associate archivist at Temple University’s Greenfield Special Collections Research Center, said on its website: “John Dowlin used the bicycle as a means of political, diplomatic, and environmental activism.”

He came to Philadelphia from New York in the early 1970s, and, calling himself a “refugee from Detroit,” was determined to save Philadelphia from the urban upheaval he witnessed in his Michigan hometown. To that end, Save Our Sites’ mission, as stated on its website, “goes beyond historic preservation in the narrow sense, with the intention of preserving Philadelphia as a highly livable, traditional city.”

He worked with Drexel University and a Powelton Village neighbors association to improve the Schuylkill’s river banks in West Philadelphia. He wrote dozens of opinion pieces about all kinds of local issues for The Inquirer, the Daily News, the Broad Street Review, and other publications.

He even created what he called the Cycle & Recycle reusable wall calendar to promote recycling and his other causes. “He was an outside thinker,” said his son, Tim. “He was a bit of a dreamer but also knew how to get things done.”

Beyond Philadelphia, Mr. Dowlin was a U.S. delegate on the 1983 Moscow-to-Washington Bike for Peace tour. He particularly championed social relations with Cuba, and he organized goodwill bike tours there and in Mexico and Central America.

He created several citizen-to-citizen and other nongovernmental diplomacy and social outreach programs with Cuba and other countries, and told The Inquirer in 2005: “I like to use spare time in creative ways instead of sitting at the beach.”

» READ MORE: Mr. Dowlin on old cars and Cuban diplomacy

John William Beck was born Dec. 3, 1941, in Detroit. His mother died when he was a teenager, and he and his brother, Tim, moved to Ohio to live with relatives, assuming their name of Dowlin.

He graduated from Vermont Academy in 1960, enlisted in the Air Force, and served on base in New York until 1966. He also took classes at nearby Utica and Hamilton Colleges.

Later, he studied for a few years at Goddard College in Vermont and worked in New York as an assistant to public speakers and social activists. He met Mary Day Kent in New York, and they married, and had a son, Tim, and a daughter, Debby. They divorced later.

Mr. Dowlin lived for years in Powelton Village. He painted and refurbished homes, and embraced recycling and farm-to-table food chains. He taught classes on the politics of urban bicycling at Temple, mentored international college exchange students, and organized popular BYOB gatherings around town for progressive activists and speakers.

He played tennis and swam, added dining reviews to his writing portfolio, and donated many of his papers to Temple’s special collections research center. He was treated for a cerebral aneurysm in 2013.

Longtime tennis doubles partner Harrison Tao noted Mr. Dowlin’s “gentle tenacity, affability, soft-spokenness, and courtly manner.” Another friend said: “He brought such warmth and gentle delight to everything he did.”

His former wife said: “He was unique and intellectual.” His daughter said: “He was vibrant and jovial. He had a sparkle in his eye, and everybody smiled and was so happy to be a friend of his.”

In addition to his children, brother, and former wife, Mr. Dowlin is survived by two grandchildren and other relatives.

A celebration of his life is to be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.

Donations in his name may be made to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, 1500 Walnut St., Suite 1107, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102; and Neighborhood Bike Works, 3943 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.