A little while ago I wrote about the interesting [lack of] bicycle access from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to the Schuylkill River Trail, which is across the way, but a level lower than the station. It seems that I missed something crucial.
When I asked about access to the trail at the Traveler’s Aid booth, I was directed to the stairs I’d mentioned in this post. On a subsequent visit, though, while photographing Basil, I realized that, further down the river, was a structure that looked as if it included a ramp. Or two.
There are sets of stairs, and ramps hither and yon, attached to the structure above. Below, one of the ramps:
I can only surmise that Basil’s intrinsically unobtrusive nature led the fellow at Traveler’s Aid to believe that I was simply a pedestrian, and in no need of an incline in order to make my way to the trail.
The ramps are easier to navigate than the stairs. Signs forbid riding bicycles on them, but not one cyclist I saw obeyed — though, in fairness, no cyclist I saw shared either ramp with any pedestrians, so one imagines that the injunction was perhaps not critical to the circumstances.