Outside this Philly church Sunday, activists partied to stop cars from parking in bike lanes

On a typically quiet Sunday morning outside Tenth Presbyterian Church in Rittenhouse Square, a local group of bike safety advocates gathered for a protest party. About 30 cyclists showed up with coffee and churros while a speaker played Shakira’s “La Bicicleta” and other tunes fitting their Latin dance party theme.

While the atmosphere was friendly, their purpose was disruptive: Safety advocacy group Philly Bike Action (PBA) brought bikes and cones to block cars from parking in bike lanes outside the church. Activists held signs asking for drivers to “Honk if you love bike lanes,” and honks punctured the air often, followed by cheers.

Philly Bike Action’s concern isn’t directly with Tenth Presbyterian, but with its parking permits. The city grants the church six blocks of parking for its congregants on Sundays, which allow cars to park in current bike lanes. The organization says the situation is unsafe for cyclists who use Spruce and Pine Streets as critical thoroughfares for biking crosstown, so they’ve gathered volunteers to prevent congregants from parking and keep the bike lanes open during church service. This week was their second event, and they plan to continue weekly until the issue is addressed.

“We call it a party, not a protest, and the reason I wanted to frame it like that is we wanted to be as least antagonistic as possible,” said Caleb Holtmeyer, a lead organizer for PBA, which was founded in April 2023. “These are very hard conversations to have — anything to do with parking people will be very defensive and take it pretty personally. It is pretty tense.”

Philadelphia grants parking permits to houses of worship that sometimes interfere with bike lanes across the city. PBA has identified seven places where Sunday parking impedes cycling and implores organizations to stop applying for and using the permits. Last year, PBA convinced the Philadelphia Ethical Society, St. Peter’s Church, and Old St. Joseph’s Church not to seek renewals.

Their efforts have increased as there have been greater calls to curb traffic fatalities in the city. In 2023, 126 people died in car accidents, including 10 cyclists, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Since 2020, at least 24 cyclists have been killed in Philadelphia after colliding with cars or buses. Some activists at Tenth Presbyterian had attended a ghost bike memorial at FDR Park on Saturday to remember Mario D’Adamo III, who was killed by a car last August.

Cyclists overwhelmingly say the city isn’t safe for biking, so any encroachment on already existing bike lanes provides an additional hazard. Tenth Presbyterian is what Holtmeyer calls a “poster child of the situation” because their permits cover more ground than others. When the church went to apply again in January, PBA contacted the Rev. Timothy Geiger and alerted him to the issue. The pastor has spoken multiple times with Holtmeyer and other volunteers about their need for safe bike paths and says he’s working with PBA and Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition to find a solution that can work for both parties.

“We’ve had parking privileges on the streets for long before there were bike lanes, going back I don’t even know how long — at least 40 years, maybe longer,” said Geiger, who lives in Glenside and started at Tenth Presbyterian in January. “The parking spaces that we have in the two corridors here on Spruce Street and on Pine Street add up to about 98 parking spaces that are pretty much filled every Sunday. … We want to figure out some way that we can help the bikers to have a safe border to ride in, but we also need a way to continue to offer some sort of relatively convenient parking to people who come here to church.”

Geiger said out of about 600 parishioners attending Sunday services, 450 people drive and need parking. Some are elderly with mobility challenges while others are young families, so parking farther away can create hardships. Tenth Presbyterian uses two parking lots near South Street and once had a reduced-rate agreement with a lot on 17th and Pine Streets. Geiger said he recently tried to resume a similar agreement with that lot but he was unsuccessful.

After learning about PBA’s planned Sunday protests, Geiger informed his congregants — including residents from West Philly, Northern Liberties, Fairmount, South Jersey, and the Philly suburbs — that parking will be more limited. He said church attendance was down last week during PBA’s first event, which he attributed to the concern about parking availability. He hopes that while the protest continues, attendance will remain consistent.

“We have had a positive experience with Philly Bike Action so far. They’re obviously protesting, they’re trying to create awareness for their cause, but they’ve been respectful of us. They’ve kept the noise down,” said Geiger.

Despite the discomfort, the church set up a table with coffee, water, doughnuts, and granola bars for the bikers. Bemused and confused churchgoers talked to some activists and took photos, while others were uninterested. One person had a sign asking, “Where would Jesus park?”

“I can definitely see both sides, but I do think it’s always been a sacred thing for people to be able to come to their place of worship, and to be able to access that,” said Neilie, a parishioner who drives in from the Philly suburbs and asked not to use her last name. She said she used to take the bus into town, but mentioned experiencing safety issues.

Larry Andreozzi, a longtime parishioner who lives in Overbrook Farms, believes the street parking spaces are important for the church to maintain. “Most of the older folks use the front [on Spruce Street] so they have easy access to the church. I know a lady who’s 90 years old who’s parked underneath that tree for the last 10 years,” he said. “There’s a really easy solution — to get off their bike at 16th and Spruce and walk it on the sidewalk for three blocks, for four hours out of the week. Then get back on their bikes. It takes like a minute.”

Activists say in the last decade since the bike lanes were installed, more Philadelphians have been biking in the city and using these lanes, especially on Spruce and Pine Streets, to connect to the Schuylkill River Trail. Weekends are popular times, for both recreation and commuting. On Sunday, Spruce Street buzzed with activity from cars to bikes to golf carts.

Most cars avoided the busy area, but one car parked and an activist knocked on the driver’s window to get them to stop. It was tense for a moment before the activist realized they were an elderly couple and some parishioners walked up to the car to help them exit safely.

“Everyone we’ve spoken to has been sympathetic, they can acknowledge that this is not an ideal situation and it does have a negative impact on the greater neighborhood and the community using these roads,” said Jessie Amadio, a Drexel alum who lives in Girard Estates and volunteers with PBA. “We’re just applying some of that gentle pressure … to give them a little bit of that extra push to start making changes.”

Amadio says cyclists are constantly facing fear because of aggressive drivers who are careless about sharing the road with bikes or pedestrians.

“We’re actually terrified all the time,” she said. “There’s a real psychological protection element to having a free, clear space.”

PBA has been asking people to sign a petition to demand that the Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability stop issuing permits to houses of worship that allow congregants to park in bike lanes. It’s earned more than 1,000 signatures. Amadio says that they’re hoping Tenth Presbyterian will commit to not applying for parking permits again next year. Geiger, the pastor, said that decision would have to come from the church’s board of elders, who have not yet made a determination.