A City Council committee held off on voting on a bill authorizing a new bike lane around City Hall this week, causing consternation among cyclists and traffic safety advocates who were expecting the measure to advance.

PennDOT has already milled the asphalt around Penn Square, where City Hall is located, and still plans to repave and install the bike lane later this month. But without passage of the bill, the lane will be considered a pilot project that could eventually be dismantled.

More than 20 people testified in favor of the legislation at a session of council’s Committee on Streets and Services on Monday, according to Dave Talone, an organizer with Philly Bike Action. But Councilmember Jeffery Young, the bill’s sponsor and the committee chair, announced he was putting the bill on hold. 

Talone noted that PennDOT is installing the lane at no cost to the city, and the project has been endorsed by the area’s registered community organizations and hundreds of residents.

“Councilmember Young refused to even give a reason for holding the bill. Why hold it?” Talone said after the meeting. “Over 1,400 people signed a PBA petition in June to support the bike lane and three different local RCOs wrote letters of support for this hearing. There is no opposition to the bike lane. Why is he ignoring his constituents?”

Philly Bike Action activists rode past City Hall in February as they called for more funding for street safety projects. (Alex Cayley/Philly Bike Action)

Young’s 5th councilmanic district includes Penn Square in its southeast corner. It’s unclear exactly what prompted him to hold the bill or when he will release it for a vote, but he suggested he first wants to see how the lane works out and whether it needs changes.

“We understand that many people are eager to move forward with incorporating this type of traffic infrastructure. We want to make sure that there is opportunity to review the impact of such infrastructure in our city’s densest corridor,” he told Billy Penn.

“Looking at the testimony from the Streets Committee meeting on September 29, it’s clear that there are different types of infrastructure needs in communities across the city. We want to make sure we have the flexibility to observe the results and make any necessary adjustments to improve the quality of life for all users before permanently making it law,” he said.

The committee voted in favor of several bills on other Streets-related matters, putting them on track to eventually get full City Council votes and the mayor’s signature. The bike lane bill could still be brought up for consideration again at a future committee meeting.

Bike advocates began lobbying for installation of the bike lane earlier this year, after they learned PennDOT’s schedule of repaving projects this year would include Penn Square. They asked council to authorize the lane in time for it to be incorporated into the repaving work. 

In June, Young introduced the bill allowing the removal of a car lane and addition of a bike lane on three short sections of road — South Penn Square, East Penn Square/Juniper Street, and a portion of JFK Boulevard. Fifteenth Street on the west side of Penn Square already has a bike lane, which will be connected to the new sections.

The bill did not get a hearing before council went on summer break, but the introduction was enough to let PennDOT move ahead and finalize a design in cooperation with the city.

Young has alternately opposed and supported the presence of bike lanes since he joined council in January 2024. 

A few months after taking office he suggested removing a recently installed two-way bike lane on west Market Street that had drawn complaints from nearby residents. He cited initial confusion among pedestrians and other road users after the lane was built, and its lack of connection to other bike lanes. That lane remains in place.

Earlier this year, he switched to the role of bike lane advocate, introducing and voting for three bills to add new lanes in three areas: on 13th Street through Temple University, along North 23rd Street north of Market, and on North 22nd from Spring Garden to Green Street.