Mural Arts Bike Ride

Philadelphia has a strong program that coordinates the installation of top-quality murals on blank walls throughout the city. Started in the 80s as an offshoot of anti-graffiti efforts, the Mural Arts Program grew in to a well-recognized community asset. Today, there are over 3,000 murals installed as of result of the program's efforts. They offer tours (walking, bike, and trolley) to the public. When I learned of the bike tour, I knew I had to give it a try. Yesterday, I joined four bicyclist and two guides on a five-mile tour that passed about two-dozen murals (I've linked to pictures of 15 in the map) in or near the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia. Stopping a many of them, the guide offered background on the artist, the content and other facts about the murals. In addition to this background information, I found it helpful just to have the murals pointed out to me lest I ride right by unaware. Many times as he started to slowdown at the approach to a mural, I found my head swiveling around to locate it. I appended the official tour with a loop through Fairmount Park to bring the total miles for the ride to eighteen.

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