It's not counterintuitive- it's almost always better to bike with the speed of traffic. I used to go quite quickly and found that it was more dangerous in that I didn't have enough time to stop or safely swerve away from a pedestrian or car. More than anywhere else that I bike, on Spruce Street, people and cars either don't look or they look and a bicycle doesn't register as traffic to them. There is a big lighted sign on Walnut in the same general (Penn Campus) area that reads "Share the Road". Something like this would be useful on Spruce.

Agreed - based on your phrasing ("even going very slowly"), I just wanted to make sure you had explored the possibility.

Thanks ChrisMD123 , please report, http://potholes.phila.gov/csstreets

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