Newsletter: Bus Network Redesign, 5th Square Transit Committee, Dockless Bike Share

(Photo: Jeff Fusco | Philly Mag)

Read about SEPTA's big bus network redesign initiative, and want to help advocate for better, more frequent bus service? Join our new Transit Committee.

ACTION ITEMS

Want to get involved in helping make transit work better for all Philadelphians? Organize with us! We're forming a new Transit Committee to plan our advocacy strategy and political action for better buses, subways, and regional rail, and we need your help. We need people with all kinds of skills—from research, to grassroots campaigns, to transit policy, to coding and GIS, to lobbying—to get involved and help make this effort a success. Fill out this form to join the 5th Square Transit Committee and we'll get in touch about our first meeting.

EVENTS

Thursday, June 28th, 4:45 pm

PHL Innovation Picnic Bike Ride

Clean Air Council is hosting a bike ride to the PHL Innovation Picnic in the Navy Yard on June 28th! This ride will start at the south side of City Hall by the Octavius Valentine Catto Monument at 4:45 PM. The 5 mile bike ride will head east on Market Street, south on 10th Street to Citizens Bank Park, west on Pattison Avenue to Broad Street, and finally into the Navy Yard and arrive at the PHL Innovation Picnic.

Thursday, June 28th, 7:00 pm

West Passyunk Zoning Meeting

A zoning meeting will be held on Thursday in the 1st District Community Room, at 24th and Wolf. Residents will vote on whether they are for, against, or neutral toward the proposed application, which the WPNA Zoning Board will take into consideration when sending their recommendation to the ZBA. Your input is valued and appreciated. All are welcome to attend.

Saturday, June 30, 3:00 pm

Kitchen Crawl: a Travelling Cocktail Party

The Kitchen Crawl is a South Philly interpretation of a traveling dinner party, offering samples and sips of Philly’s local food scene at homes of South Philly Food Co-op member-owners. Small groups will travel from home to home, including a stop at the future store location at 2031 S. Juniper. The event is an opportunity for neighbors to have authentic interactions with chefs, entrepreneurs, and fellow food enthusiasts that make up Philadelphia’s vibrant culinary community.

Thursday, August 2, 8:00 am

Rebuilding of Mifflin Square Park

This presentation, Hosted by the Design Advocacy Group of Philadelphia will summarize the lengthy but important process taken to develop a Conceptual Plan for Mifflin Square Park, a one square block neighborhood park in a low income and highly diverse neighborhood.

MERCH

5th Square is selling a limited run artist series t-shirt, featuring an original illustration by Kate Otte. Proceeds from sales will go to fund our 2019 political activities for City Council races. You can get a shirt at half price ($10 instead of $20) if you become a member, and sign up for a $5 recurring monthly donation.

NEWS

The long-awaited Jarrett Walker + Associates report on SEPTA’s bus system was unveiled earlier last week. The report from JW+A lays out the choices and trade-offs involved in redesigning the bus network to grow ridership and serve more people with frequent, reliable, and convenient service, with the aim of increasing freedom of mobility for residents across the city. 5th Square applauds the work done so far in identifying deficiencies in bus routing, performance, and fare policy, and we encourage SEPTA and City Hall to learn from this report and the work of other cities as it begins the process in earnest.

Regardless of any specific routing changes SEPTA pursues, there are a number of systemwide policies that must be revised and renewed to make the bus reorganization work. Foremost among them is the need to eliminate the $1.00 transfer fee in favor of a free-transfer time window. Making it more attractive to transfer between buses and trains can enable the elimination of costly duplicative routes with low productivity, and the strengthening of higher-ridership routes with more frequency. Help build support for this initiative by signing and sharing our free transfers petition, or by joining our new Transit Committee.

Bike-share news: PlanPhilly reports that Indego will expand to AT&T Station and the Navy Yard this Summer. Last week Council also passed a bill to regulate and license dockless bike-share, e-scooters, and pedal-assisted bikes.

Many City Councilmembers—especially Kenyatta Johnson and Blondell Reynolds Brown—still sound clueless on Vision Zero the same week that a 5 year old was struck and killed by an unidentified motorist on the 5000 block of Irving street in West Philadelphia, and a 40 year old bicyclist was killed by a dump truck making a right turn.

OPPORTUNITIES

SEPTA is hiring a Senior Program Manager, responsible for the 'Comprehensive Bus Network Redesign' project (!!!)

Mural Arts is hiring a Director of Communications and Brand Management

Amtrak is hiring a Senior Architect

The Parking Authority is hiring a Residential Permit Parking Supervisor

The City's Commerce Department is hiring a Manager of Corridor Development

The Vision Zero Network is hiring a Policy and Communications Director

PIDC is hiring a Director for Navy Yard Leasing and Business Development

Drexel's Metro Finance Lab is hiring a Co-Director

Mt. Vernon Manor CDC is hiring a Community Development Associate

5th Square is Philadelphia's urbanist political action committee. We're an all-volunteer grassroots organization advocating for safe and affordable transportation, abundant housing, and more and better public spaces. You’re receiving this email if you signed up via our website, attended one of our events, or supported one of our advocacy campaigns. Our work is made possible by generous, passionate people like you. Support our advocacy with a recurring monthly contribution of $5 or more.

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