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Bike Talk: Blurry Vision

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Illustration by Sean Rynkewicz

Illustration by Sean Rynkewicz

By Randy Lobasso

Could you imagine if there were absolutely no traffic deaths in Philadelphia each year? 

That’s the idea behind the city’s Vision Zero action plan—a series of policies meant to bring traffic deaths down to zero by 2030 using engineering, education and enforcement. It was created by Mayor Jim Kenney after he, and all other mayoral candidates in 2015, pledged to create safer city streets using the Vision Zero plan, if elected. Philadelphia was in a good position to move toward Vision Zero, specifically because many other cities had already committed, and found out what works and what doesn’t.

This October marked the second year of Philadelphia’s commitment to Vision Zero. As such, the city released its annual update on the program, noting the numerous ways the city has attempted to change existing street infrastructure and educate citizens in an attempt to make Philadelphia’s streets safer and more pedestrian friendly.

In some ways, the city has made progress. Philadelphia’s mayoral administration has supported a protected bike lane network; shorter pedestrian crossings; bus and other transit improvements; and targeted enforcement, including the signing of a speed camera bill for Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia’s most dangerous thoroughfare, according to PennDOT.

But it’s hard to ignore the fact that between 2017 and 2018, traffic deaths increased, despite the city’s Vision Zero efforts. 

The Bicycle Coalition and Vision Zero Alliance began tracking Philadelphia’s total traffic fatalities in 2016. Since then, the number of total vehicular deaths of all road users, on local roads, state roads and interstates through Philadelphia, has hovered stubbornly at around 100 people per year.

In 2018, 42 out of 103 traffic deaths were pedestrians—more than any other subgroup, including drivers—and four were bicyclists. Additionally, as has been reported by NBC10, there are around 40 hit-and-runs each day in Philadelphia, the vast majority of which are never solved. This shows that there is more work to be done to curb driver negligence and bring total traffic deaths down.

The section of the report that really jumps out is the city’s work on Roosevelt Boulevard.

Roosevelt Boulevard saw 21 fatal crashes in 2018. The Bicycle Coalition and the entire Vision Zero Alliance worked throughout last year at the state level to push for the installment of speed-enforcement cameras, which have been proven to reduce traffic deaths, on the thoroughfare. The road is also being re-engineered. 

After passing the legislation in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, the bill was signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf. Philadelphia City Council took up enabling legislation, where it was championed by councilperson Cherelle Parker and passed easily.

However, the cameras have yet to be installed. While I have been told they will be by the end of the year, each day their installation is delayed puts additional lives at risk.

The city also notes that it secured more than $13 million in grants to support nine projects along the high-injury corridors. It began construction of semi-upgraded bike lanes on Spruce and Pine streets and pushed for the passage of numerous ordinances for Complete Streets projects, including protected bike lanes, along numerous streets throughout the city; unfortunately, only a small subset will be completed by the end of the year.

As a society, we normalize this slow progress. There has never been a national conversation about the destruction motor vehicles cause to streets, our air, our bodies and our communities. The point of Vision Zero is that we should not tolerate this. 

While there are a lot of good projects included in the City’s Vision Zero program, many of those projects have not yet come to fruition or have taken longer to complete for a variety of reasons, which is frustrating considering how important they are.

Vision Zero is not just a safety issue. Making alternative means of transportation safe will not just make people safer on the streets, it will also get more people out of their cars and into buses, onto bicycles and other micro-mobility devices. Such is good for the city’s economy and, more importantly, it’s good for the environment and the overall health of our citizens. 

When people and safety advocates say more needs to be done, it’s not just because we want Philadelphia to live up to its potential as a great biking city, it’s also because we want the city to be a safe, healthy, sustainable city for everyone, no matter their means of transportation.

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