The Hub 5/16/19: Clean Air Council’s Weekly Round-Up of Transportation News
“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation-related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up to date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
BillyPenn: A $1 million pedestrian plaza is coming to Reading Terminal Market – The 1100 block of Filbert Street in Center City Philadelphia is set to become a car-free zone on a regular basis. The redesign will feature bollards to close the block off to cars during set hours and dedicated areas for seating. Cities around the world are creating dedicated pedestrian plazas to advance their Vision Zero goals of eliminating traffic deaths, and this plaza is set to be the first of several to come to a busy Philly Street.
Philly.com: Speed cameras approved for Roosevelt Boulevard – Philadelphia City Council unanimously voted to approve speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, one of the deadliest roads in the nation, after advocacy from groups like Clean Air Council. There will be 11 cameras along 11.5 miles of road. These speed cameras will be the first of their kind in the state of Pennsylvania, and are a key step towards Philadelphia’s commitment to Vision Zero.
PlanPhilly: Want to know when the city is filling that pothole? There’s an app for that. – PavePHL is an interactive map that allows the public to see when the Streets Department will be filling potholes in a given area. The city repaves about 131 miles of road annually, and builds capacity every year. Despite this, there is still a 13 year backlog of repaving.
CityLab: What It Takes for These City Parents to Live Car-Free – Parents who work to reduce and eliminate car trips face a slew of challenges. Families that get around by bike, subway, and bus often face accessibility issues due to inadequate infrastructure in the United States. For this sampling of car-free and car-light households, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Streetsblog: There’s a Right Way to Spend Trillions on Infrastructure – As the United States wraps up another “Infrastructure Week”, it’s important to take stock of how infrastructure can shift behavior. We can use infrastructure to encourage reduction of single occupancy vehicle trips. Investment in transit, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure has been proven to reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life for those who live and work nearby.
Strongtowns: America’s Infrastructure Priorities Need Repair – Many states have focused infrastructure spending on building capacity for cars for the past half a century, often at the expense of keeping existing roads in good repair. Advocates of diverting spending to maintain existing infrastructure posit that the cost of new roads being built does not factor in the necessary maintenance spending. As a result, the backlog of infrastructure maintenance continues to grow.
Image Source: Billy Penn
