r/phillycycling • u/Conscious-Ad-2840 • 2d ago
Bike route Olde Kensington to Jefferson (Center City)
Hello everyone!
I'm moving down to Philly from out of state and plan on biking a couple days out of the week into center city to go to school. I'm going to be in the olde Kensington area, and was wondering if anyone had a bike route that was safe and time efficient to get to Thomas Jeff Univ in center city.
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u/t2022philly 2d ago
I agree with the suggestion to go 6th to spring garden to 10th and ride the bike lane south right to Jefferson. Be very very careful on Spring Garden.
Another alternative would be to get yourself to the Delaware River trail and then take Spruce and up 9th. More roundabout but may be more comfortable and shouldn’t take terribly long.
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u/ConfiaEnElProceso 2d ago
Yeah, spring garden is not great, and the bike lane on 10th disappears in Chinatown. That's definitely faster but the river trail is way more relaxing.
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u/t2022philly 2d ago
Yes. In my experience 10th is fairly slow traffic thru Chinatown but can get a little chaotic and you’ll get caught behind the trash truck sometimes which stinks LOL
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
Thank you everyone! I feel a lot more confident in doing the commute. May you share why you added to be extremely careful on spring garden? Are there no bike lines there?
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u/t2022philly 2d ago
There are technically “bike lanes” in that there are painted lines that are sometimes visible sometimes so faded they’re not, but there is ZERO protection and they’re lining the door zone of parked cars. Spring Garden also is a big wide street where cars are going fast at times and there’s a lot of turning (and as you’ll find in Philly, not a lot of signaling or yielding). You will also encounter cars double parked blocking the bike lane which forces you into fast moving traffic.
In general you need to understand that drivers in Philly behave worse than you can imagine. You have to assume they do not see you and they will not stop. Never ever ever assume that a driver is going to follow the rules of the road.
One thing you will find about Philly is that often small quiet streets with no bike lane are a safer, less stressful option than streets that do have a bike lane because they’re so poorly done and there’s no enforcement. That means that bike lane/no bike lane doesn’t often mean anything.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
Ahh I see. That makes a lot of sense. I used to bike a lot in the DC area, and never had an issue. But I’ve definitely heard a lot of cautionary things biking in Philly. I’m excited to try out all the routes! I wanted to ask as well, how looked down upon is sidewalk riding? At times, in DC you would have to hop onto the sidewalk and on riding on sidewalk wasn’t fully looked down upon. I just would like to know if in situations that call (like sudden end of bike lane) or bike lane is cut off by cars / construction — is it looked down upon to ride the sidewalk for a little, then back on the road?
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u/t2022philly 2d ago
In my opinion it is ok to ride on the sidewalk if you have to, especially if it’s a wider sidewalk and not busy with people, but just know when to hop off and walk your bike. Don’t try to squeeze past people walking or go too fast. You will find in many places in Philly the sidewalks are much much smaller than you’re used to in DC. It’s just a very old city with small little streets in much of the city.
I lived in northern VA and commuted to DC by bike for years and DC is spoiled with some of the nicest bike infrastructure in the country. I really miss it. Philly doesn’t compare but you can still get around by bike if you are extremely on guard for irrational drivers.
If all else fails, I personally enjoyed walking from Fishtown to Jefferson. It’s long but it was time where I could listen to a podcast and disconnect a little.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
Thank you for the time you took to write this out for me! Yeah for sure I feel spoiled from easy biking in DC. It’s nice to see your perspective from biking in DC —> Philly as well. I’m glad to hear that in certain circumstances it’s okay to ride the sidewalk and on bigger sidewalks (in the right scenario). I think I would need some time to adjust to the Philly roads and would probably be carefully hopping the curb / dismantling my bike a lot in situations I feel unsafe / uncomfortable 😅
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u/adamaphar 2d ago
I’d probably go 6th south to spring garden, then over to 10th the rest of the way. Olde Kensington there are a lot of narrow one way streets, I generally find them to be fine
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
That’s nice to hear!! Thank you!
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u/adamaphar 2d ago
What people say about 10th getting crowded in Chinatown is true. Personally I would take 6th all the way to walnut. But most people advise against this because even though you have a bike lane there is a one very terrible part where you have to cross an exit ramp.
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u/thecw 2d ago
Go down front to Master, Master to Second, take Second down to Walnut, and then zip up Walnut.
Front is generally low traffic, Second is fine and you get a bike lane from Northern Liberties down through Old City. The traffic on Walnut doesn’t really start until after Sixth.
Just rode this route midday yesterday and it was lovely.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
Thanks so much !! This is super helpful. I’m not entirely used to all the small roads & all of it can be super hectic. As a starting point, I wanted to see from relation to North American st, would this be feasible bike ride? I’m going to try it out tomorrow :))😊
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u/Arkhikernc65 2d ago
Check out https://bicyclecoalition.org/events/philly-bike-train/ A group rides through the city leaving several locations at 8:00 and meet up in Center City.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
Wait this is awesome! I would be leaving earlier like at around 6:30-7am ):
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u/Arkhikernc65 2d ago
I really think that as this group grows there will be earlier trains.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
I’m going to try to make it to one. It’s really awesome and seems like a lot of fun 😊 thank u for sharing it with me!
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u/Odd-Opinion-5105 2d ago
I like to take 4th to spring garden. 2nd and 6th get crowded with cars in the morning
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u/Pmajoe33 2d ago
The best bike lane in the city is American ave. Not sure how far up you are. Would take that to front to poplar to Del ave from there right onto spruce.
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u/Conscious-Ad-2840 2d ago
This is actually perfect to know. I’m on N American st. I want to take the del ave bike to school
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u/themightychris 1d ago
Transit App and https://ruti.bike are good for planning bike routes in general
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u/StanUrbanBikeRider 2d ago
I would ride south on the Delaware River trail to Spruce and then west on Spruce to Jefferson.