It could have been me.

The other day as I was riding a bike across town to my hair appointment near Rittenhouse Square I witnessed another near miss. Riding behind a young woman, I audibly gasped and slammed on my brakes as a left-turning truck nearly hit her at an intersection — literally in the same bike lane a block away from where Dr. Barbara Friedes was killed last month by a man allegedly driving under the influence.

For all intents and purposes, the separated bike lanes on Spruce and Pine are typically a pleasant way to get across town. The tree-lined streets are beautiful and, provided no one is parked in the bike lane, it’s a relatively stress-free ride. I use them multiple times every week and will even alter my route to ensure I’m at least cycling on the safest infrastructure I can find.

But when I left the salon, bicycle helmet in hand, I was told to “be safe.” My friends love the exercise and freedom of cycling to work but joke darkly about how they nearly get killed three to five times a day. My friends with children make sure they don’t stand too close to the street when they wait to cross because even the sidewalk doesn’t seem safe. Meanwhile, my friend in Amsterdam makes fun of Americans for wearing hi-visibility gear and helmets, while she bikes to the beach from the city in flip-flops and a sun hat.

As the sign at Barbara’s memorial rightly states: It doesn’t have to be like this!

It shouldn’t be hard

In 2019 I conducted a study with the Lindy Institute of Urban Innovation at Drexel University on making more parklets, pedestrian plazas and bicycle corrals on our streets. These small-scale interventions have a host of benefits — from traffic calming to providing space for socialization — so we were out to find ways to increase these impactful improvements in our public realm.

Like so many things in Philadelphia, the onus for any of these upgrades lies on the individual. For someone to make a public parklet, you have to be a business owner with the knowledge, interest and willingness to invest in a structure that you yourself would then have to design, construct and maintain. Without a clear incentive, outreach and support from the city via design and sponsorship, the program was basically nonexistent. Only a handful of mostly Center City businesses installed parklets. The best known example of a pedestrian plaza, the Greys Ferry Triangle at 23rd and South streets, took years of advocacy and grassroots fundraising to become a reality. In short, it was inaccessible, inequitable and a clear indication of the city’s lack of focus on improving the public realm.

When the pandemic hit, one of the silver linings was the enactment of many of our recommendations, including so-called “streeteries,” which were privatized for outdoor dining, with fees and site inspections waived or reduced, and the designs reflecting the business’s personal aesthetic. We even had nearly pedestrianized streets reminiscent of Italian piazzas filled with patrons day and night. This was due to the unfortunate necessity to safely dine outdoors and keep our restaurants afloat, of course, but I was hopeful that if there was one thing that would stick from that tumultuous time, that would be it.

But no dice. Where once there were hundreds of streeteries scattered throughout the entire city, now we have reverted back to nearly the original number because of a reintroduction of regulations. When City Council raised this issue in April I was hopeful again — maybe the pressure will result in a reassessment of the situation! If my report couldn’t do it, perhaps Council can. (Or City Controller Christy Brady, who released a report Wednesday about the benefits of streeteries and the ways in which the City makes it hard to build them.)

As we gear up for the semiquincentennial event here in 2026 in Philadelphia, I can’t help but think of Paris as it prepared to host the Olympics. It’s a city that has made strides beyond our wildest dreams in advance of the world’s gaze upon its streets and public spaces. Despite Philly being named the most walkable city (again) and feeling like the closest to a European city we can get in the United States, we’re still light-years behind what Paris and other cities have done to make their streets safer for everyone.

What we can do

So what’s missing from our city? If you ask me, it’s all about care.

If I’ve said it once I’ll say it again — when I look for model leadership I look to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. She’s a woman who prioritizes clean rivers, play streets near schools, and truly protected bicycle lanes across the entire city, not just downtown. Someone who puts community above enforcement and who looks at the city as a holistic ecosystem. A leader who cares.

Mayor Parker doesn’t have to promise a swim in a newly-cleaned Schuylkill River to emulate Hidalgo. She can follow the example of New York City Mayor Eric Adams by appointing a Chief Public Realm Officer, a cabinet position given broad authority to work across the otherwise siloed and entrenched departments in charge of the myriad of technical and social complications around making streets for people. In the short time that she has held the position, Ya-Ting Liu has worked to create a standardized streetery design kit of parts, fast-tracked life-saving and low-lift changes like reducing crossing distances through curb bump-outs, and supported permanent changes to the pedestrian streets that were retained after the pandemic.

Thankfully, some progress is being made in Philly. After the movement for Philly Free Streets stalled, the Center City District is making some streets open to pedestrians on every Sunday in September. The Avenue of the Arts is planning a block-long demonstration project to beautify Broad Street and calm traffic. City Council was able to pass legislation that allows businesses to expand their streeteries to be more than just their property line and will provide “navigators” to assist with the process. Mayor Parker has distributed teams of street cleaners to clear out derelict alleyways and give our streets a much-needed refresh.

Now we just need to take it further:

• Let’s bring back a more expansive open streets event — like when it was the entire length of South Street or even encompassed North Broad.
• Let’s actually make an artistic and inviting Avenue of the Arts, shorten crossing distances and calm the street through a reduction of lanes.
• Let’s make the first pedestrian street and bring back the dining that was so loved along streets like S. 13th in Midtown Village.
• Let’s make protected bike lanes that prevent needless deaths and add to the Vision Zero budget, not decrease it.
• Let’s make a world-class city to be proud of and care for the populous so they don’t even want to throw their garbage on the ground in the first place.

We have to believe that it can happen here, despite the cynicism that even I can all too easily fall into. These human-scale elements are what really make a difference, not band-aid “solutions”, brute force, or high-tech sensations. We are all in the public realm in some way every day. We move through it, we meet in it, we laugh and cry and live in these shared places between our buildings. Whether walking, biking, pushing a stroller or simply standing on a corner — we all deserve a more dignified public realm. If we want a safer, cleaner, greener city, we must start there — and start now.

Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman is an urban anthropologist at Drexel University and the founder of THINK.urban.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misstated Christy Brady’s title. She is City Controller.

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