Philadelphia Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan
Summary of Community Meetings Held in April and May 2009
Meeting Dates, Locations, and Content Four community meetings were held across the study area as follows: 1- April 16, 2009 in South Philadelphia at the Fels Community Center 2- April 21, 2009 in Center City at the Municipal Services Building 3- May 18, 2009 in North Philadelphia at the North Philadelphia Seventh Day Adventist Church 4- May 20, 2009 in East Falls at the William Penn Charter School Each meeting began with a welcome and introduction by Debby Schaaf, project manager for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, followed by a visual presentation at three of the meetings. This presentation showed typical conditions and facilities found in Philadelphia, and showed examples of how Philadelphia’s walking and bicycling system could be improved. The audience was then broken up into small working groups to mark up maps and collect ideas, comments, problems and suggestions. After a break and informal discussion, the working groups reported their key comments and ideas for the Plan back to the audience at large. Before concluding each meeting, Debby Schaaf outlined the next steps for the Plan, and urged those attending to complete the on-line questionnaire on the City Planning Commission’s web site. Important Comments from Each Meeting: Several key comments gathered at each meeting were as follows: South Philadelphia: • The narrow streets comprising the old street grid need to be redesigned to accommodate bicycles. Perhaps not every street, but a pair of streets about every one-half to threequarters of a mile should benefit from some kind of bicycle facility. • Illegally parked cars – a solution must be found for parking of these cars which currently endanger both pedestrians and bicycles • Crossing wide streets, such as Delaware Avenue or Washington Avenue is uncomfortable for pedestrians, even though Washington Avenue has bulb-outs. • Improvements should take into consideration the need for more trees and greening in their planning. • Diagonal streets, such as Passyunk Avenue and Moyamensing Avenue, should be investigated for bicycling facilities and improvement.
Center City: • Motor vehicle traffic makes biking in the street uncomfortable and scary. People want separated bike lanes and enforcement for menacing drivers who pass bicyclists too closely. Public education for both drivers and bicyclists is needed.
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Need to develop some type of bicycle facility on major routes such as Broad Street, and key east-west streets such as Chestnut and Walnut Street, or other one-way pairs. Adequate bicycle parking is much needed in most of Center City, along with lockers at the major train stations. Pedestrian crossing of large roads and intersection is not comfortable and must be improved. There is no overall planning for Eakins Oval, which is dangerous for both pedestrians and bicycles. Improvements needed for pedestrians include sidewalk extensions, and control of sidewalk cafes, food trucks, and other encroachments.
North Philadelphia: • Comfort stations for bicyclists - participants noted the need for locations where bicyclists could easily find water, air, benches and toilets. Existing City facilities were noted as a possibility. • Need for completion of bicycle lanes and routes - including such routes as from Center City to Diamond Street and Temple University, a good route to the Ben Franklin Bridge, enhancements to Ridge Avenue (noted as a good walking route), and a better connection from Kelly Drive through East Park into the neighborhood. Obstacles need to be eliminated - such as broken paving and Belgian blocks, dangerous inlets, dangerous and congested major intersections. Connections are important to the universities, including Temple, LaSalle, Philadelphia University, and others.
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Northwest Philadelphia: • The most direct routes for bicycling are often the most difficult, such as Greene Street, Wayne Avenue, Wissahickon Avenue and the like. • Facilities and routes are needed to encourage children and families to bicycle, such as secure and convenient bicycle parking, and bike routes to recreation centers and other points of destination, and the timely repainting of bike lanes. • Henry Avenue needs improved bike accommodation. It already has bike lanes along much of its length but they drop in and out and are squeezed by parked cars and fast traffic. • Wide intersections need better design and traffic control to benefit pedestrians: such as Ridge/Allegheny, and Ridge/ Henry/Cathedral. Henry Avenue and Lincoln Drive were noted as being difficult to cross. Next Steps: The data obtained at the public meetings is now being analyzed.