Usually when a car parks in a bike lane, you know exactly who the bad guy is.
Not this time. A decades-old Chinatown funeral home is staging processions in a brand-new protected bike lane, and the video has gone viral. The city is stuck in the middle, and neither side is obviously wrong.
Video further below 👇
What Happened
Choi Funeral Home sits at 12th and Vine streets in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, right alongside a protected bike lane. According to NBC10 Philadelphia, the business stages funeral processions in it, leaving cyclists to merge into moving traffic to get around the parked cars.
Video then circulated showing a funeral home employee pulling a flexible post out of the ground so a car could pull in.
Owner and funeral director Jayson Choi says that video misleads. He told NBC10 the business uses the space only a handful of times a month, never for longer than three hours, and puts everything back afterward.
“When we finish and come back, we put it back,” Choi said.
The response online was immediate. A multi-part thread on the r/phillycycling subreddit drew hundreds of comments, mostly hostile, and Choi says he was blocked after trying to defend himself there. One-star Google reviews followed.
Choi is now spending $10,000 on security cameras. He worries mourners could be confronted, since service times are posted publicly.
The Details
Cars staged in that spot long before the bike lane arrived, Choi says, pointing to Google Street View. He also says the crew who installed the flex posts showed his team how to remove them, and he cites a Pennsylvania funeral-procession law as cover for what the business does.
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He has never been fined or ticketed, he places signs during staging, and he says he supports cyclists. NBC10 spotted one bent flex post at the location, but Choi blames other vehicles.
Riders see a different problem. Jacob Russell, an organizer with the advocacy group Philly Bike Action, says the real danger is getting pushed out of a protected lane and into high-speed traffic.
“To sort of get this nice upgrade and then have it rendered unusable, is, I think, a really emotional thing for people,” Russell said.
Russell does not want the funeral home gone. He calls it an important part of the neighborhood and has floated nearby parking lots or the travel lane as alternatives.
The city gave short answers. Asked whether anyone may remove flex posts, officials replied: “No.” They said they found no evidence that installers gave the funeral home permission. On whether parking in a bike lane during a funeral is legal at all, the city said it is consulting with the Law Department.
Philadelphia has told the funeral home to stop removing posts, says it wants the business to thrive while keeping everyone safe, and confirmed it is working on an alternative plan.
Why It Matters
Every city rolling out protected lanes eventually hits this wall. New infrastructure lands on top of neighborhood habits that have been running for decades, and something has to give.
Philadelphia has already solved a version of it. On Spruce and Pine streets, churches worked out alternative parking arrangements after a long-running campaign over lane blocking, and the lanes stayed usable.
Russell points straight at that precedent. “If they’ve done it there, I don’t see why we can’t figure out a solution,” he said.
That is what makes this story unusual. Both sides say the same thing: they want a way to share the road. Choi was asked to meet with the city, and an alternative plan is in the works. Nobody is demanding the funeral home close, and nobody is demanding the lane be ripped out.
So the question lands back on the rest of us.
Would you accept occasional, clearly signed, short-term closures of a protected lane for something like a funeral? Or is a protected lane only genuinely protected if it is protected all the time? Tell us where you land.
Watch the full NBC10 report:
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