Churches are stepping up to protect cyclists in bike lanes. When will the city follow suit?

A central tenet of many religions and ethical codes is to love your neighbor and treat them well. Last week, two congregations on opposite ends of Center City — Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church and Tenth Presbyterian Church — demonstrated this principle by placing the lives of their neighbors above parking.

Every day, close to a thousand people on bikes ride on the Spruce and Pine Street bike lanes. These are of the few east-to-west bike lanes in Center City — the Pine Street lanes run east to the Delaware River, while Spruce’s head west to the Schuylkill — connecting residents across the city to businesses, schools, river trails, and jobs. However, on weekends these bike lanes become parking lots for religious institutions, forcing bikers like me to put our lives at risk and merge into traffic.

Religious institutions receive permits from the city so that their members can park for free in no-parking zones during services. Many of these permits are for blocks without bike lanes, allowing congregants to park nearby without endangering neighbors. But some permits also allow congregants to park in the bike lane. Fortunately, starting last weekend these bike lanes became significantly clearer: Old Pine Church, at Fourth and Pine Streets, and Tenth Presbyterian, at 17th and Spruce Streets, have listened to the community and discontinued bike lane parking.

As a Washington Square West resident who lives on Spruce Street and frequently uses the Spruce and Pine Street bike lanes, I would like to thank the Old Pine and Tenth Presbyterian congregations for deciding to remove the Spruce and Pine Street bike lanes from their parking permits.

In taking this action, they join the Ethical Society, St. Peter’s Church, and Old St. Joseph’s Church in leading by example.

However, street safety should not be dependent on the goodwill of religious institutions. It is the city’s responsibility to keep its streets safe. And the city has failed at that task dramatically, as demonstrated by the number of pedestrian and cyclist collisions in recent years.

According to figures compiled by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, a traffic safety advocacy group, 128 people were killed in traffic collisions last year, including 59 pedestrians and 10 cyclists.

» READ MORE: There’s another kind of violence crisis in Philly: traffic deaths | Helen Ubiñas

Our elected officials can and must do better. That’s why more than 5,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the city take three basic steps to protect residents.

The city must end its practice of giving permits to block bike lanes. The city must replace all “No Parking” signage with “No Stopping” signage along protected bike lanes. And — most critically — the city must fully protect major bike lanes with permanent concrete barriers.

Paint is not protection. As long as cars can physically drive into the bike lane, they will continue to do so. Physical barriers are needed to protect people on bikes from drivers.

As a resident of Spruce Street, I know that a small number of my neighbors vocally claim it would be unfair to prohibit drivers from stopping in the bike lanes in front of our homes. But this is a special privilege a majority of Philadelphians do not have: Most streets have parking on both sides and finding a spot directly in front of your house is close to a miracle.

And this small convenience for a few is not worth the danger it causes.

A better solution exists: loading zones. Residents do need to unload. Delivery drivers need to stop. Taxis need to pick up and drop off passengers. We need designated spaces on our streets so that all of these critical functions can occur without putting neighbors at risk. That’s why the city just installed new loading zones along Spruce and Pine. But more are needed.

People live on Spruce and Pine Streets to enjoy the countless benefits of being in one of the most beautiful and walkable neighborhoods in the country — not because they believe there will be convenient parking.

The majority of neighbors I have spoken to on Spruce and Pine support protected bike lanes. In fact, the views of local residents are what ultimately drove Tenth Presbyterian to give up its bike lane parking permits. As people who walk, bike, and drive, we want safe streets and an end to traffic violence. We are sick of putting our lives at risk every time we set foot outside.

Neighbors who support safe streets should take action before another life is lost: Sign the protected bike lanes petition, and contact your councilmember and the mayor. Our politicians must start listening to the entire community — not just to the small vocal minority who value parking over the lives of their fellow Philadelphians.

Sage Lincoln is an attorney who lives on Spruce Street. She is a member of the Washington Square West Civic Association.