State Leg. Candidates Respond to 5th Square's 2018 Questionnaire

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ACTION ITEMS 

Mayor Jim Kenney’s transportation team is hosting TWO public meetings about safety changes on Spruce and Pine on April 4th and 5th. Streets and OTIS are considering safety improvements to the city’s most popular bike routes as part of repaving this year, like moving the bike lane to the left-hand side, but they aren’t considering any new protected bike infrastructure—despite having federal funding in-hand for protected bike lanes. RSVP and demand that Mayor Kenney install protected bike lanes THIS YEAR as part of this repaving project!

The May 15th primary is approaching fast, and there’s less than a month left to update your voter registration. Make sure to register with a party before the deadline. If you do not, you will not be to vote for any primary candidates. There are lots of great urbanist candidates who are running for office this year, some of whom we’ll be endorsing in just a few weeks.

Speaking of candidates, check out our blog all the responses from state legislative candidates to our 2018 Questionnaire. Read the responses from state legislative candidates running in the 177th District (Riverwards/Lower Northeast), the 181st District (Temple/Lower North Philly), and the 184th District (South Philly, east of Broad). Leave your reactions in the comments, or send us an email with your observations at [email protected]. 

EVENTS

NEWS

Bus ridership in Philadelphia dropped 10 percent in the last year, according to a report from the Federal Transit Administration, a loss that represents one of the biggest drops of any major city in the country. SEPTA surface transit (buses and trolleys) provided more than 159 million trips in 2017, according to the data. That’s 18 million fewer trips than the year before. The numbers aren’t a total surprise to SEPTA officials, who have been discussing how to respond to a trend of vanishing bus riders since 2015, and hired famed transit consultant Jarrett Walker’s firm to analyze the bus network. But this should be just as much of a hair-on-fire moment for City Council, who have nearly as much control over transit ridership as SEPTA does through their power over streets and land use. Councilmembers should use their time during SEPTA’s budget hearings this year to ask what actions City Council can take to help recover lost bus ridership.

Just in time for spring: new bike lanes in Fairmount Park and the Parkside neighborhood of West Philadelphia. City Council is now considering the long-awaited extension of an existing lane on Parkside Avenue and new lanes in Fairmount Park to create an easier connection for riders headed downtown via Martin Luther King Drive. The proposed bike routes were introduced at Council’s Thursday meeting by 4th District Councilman Curtis Jones. PlanPhilly quotes 5th Square co-chair Dena Driscoll arguing that paint isn’t good enough and the lanes need physical protection to provide any real safety benefit. “I think if we are looking to give cyclists a safe place to cycle we should be adding protection to every new bike lane that is coming out right now,” Driscoll said.

Increased online deliveries are causing more traffic congestion, PlanPhilly reports, and it’s a function of the City’s failure to prioritize street space. One of the big issues, according to DVRPC Senior Transportation Planner Mike Ruane, is that old cities like Philly never set aside space for modern delivery needs. Right now, the city’s considering a number of strategies to get delivery trucks out of the way of the rest of us, like promoting off-peak hour deliveries, encouraging greater use of alternative pick-up locations, and swapping out some parking spots for loading zones. While there is no silver bullet fix to these issues, the city and UPS are working together to develop smaller strategies to help alleviate the congestion.