Wednesday was a grim day for Philadelphians who travel this city via bike or foot. On Spruce Street near Rittenhouse Square, 30-year-old bicyclist Barbara Ann Friedes, a medical resident at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was struck from behind by a speeding car. She died of severe head injuries, despite wearing a helmet and riding in the bike lane.
Across town around the same time, a car hit a 50-year-old man standing on a street corner in Kensington. He died at the scene. And a few hours earlier, a car hit a 26-year-old woman crossing the street in Germantown; she was in critical condition at Einstein Hospital, as of Thursday morning.
They were just the latest in a string of accidents involving pedestrians this year. According to the Philadelphia Police Department, car crashes have killed 45 people this year, including 22 pedestrians.
“These crashes are a grim reminder of how our streets give priority to the convenience of motorists over the safety of people biking and walking, the most vulnerable road users.” — Steph Davis, 5th Square
These collisions are not a consequence of living in a city. They are the result of speeding, poorly-designed streets, an overabundance of cars and lackluster policymaking. Philadelphia has been a Vision Zero city for eight years, a designation that prioritizes preserving human life by slowing down cars, adapting transportation and street design, and reforming the system rather than counting on better human behavior.
As Steph Davis, chair of urbanist advocacy group, 5th Square, said Thursday: “We are heartbroken and furious. Make no mistake, these deaths, these critical injuries, are fully preventable. These crashes are a grim reminder of how our streets give priority to the convenience of motorists over the safety of people biking and walking, the most vulnerable road users.”
Since Mayor Jim Kenney enacted the City’s Vision Zero plan in 2016, the problem has gotten worse, not better. Philadelphia has three times as many traffic deaths per 100,000 people as New York City. Last year, according to data from The Bicycle Coalition, 126 people died in traffic accidents. Of those, 57 were pedestrians, 10 were on bikes, and 43 were hit-and-runs. Five children are hit by cars in Philly every week, and residents of color are more vulnerable.
In March, Mayor Parker re-upped the City’s commitment to Vision Zero, pushing the goal of zero traffic deaths to 2050 — that’s 20 years later than the last goal — and ordered the Vision Zero Task Force to develop a plan by the end of October 2025.
Meanwhile, speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard — which dramatically reduced accidents — are now permanent, and the City plans to install cameras along Broad Street, currently the most dangerous road in Philly, starting early next year, with several other corridors to follow.
That is a step in the right direction. But we can, and should, do more.
Here are some ideas for making our streets safe for pedestrians, bikers and all of us:
Install pedestrian scrambles
Install so-called “pedestrian scrambles” or diagonal crossings, which use traffic lights to stop vehicle movement in all directions, allowing pedestrians to cross the street whichever way they choose. As soon as the light changes and pedestrians are off the road, traffic starts up again. Dozens of U.S. cities, including Chicago, Boston, Nashville and Pittsburgh have pedestrian scrambles, and as Courtney DuChene reported in 2022, studies have found that installing scrambles can lead to as much as a 50 percent reduction in pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.
Make small road changes
Adopt the small but meaningful road changes that have led Hoboken, NJ, to have zero pedestrian deaths in the last six years, like setting cones in high-risk intersections as makeshift roundabouts to force cars to slow down; corralling bike stands in areas protected by plastic barriers; making bike lanes everywhere in the city more visible by painting them green; adjusting traffic lights to give pedestrians more time to cross without cars turning; and creating “daylight” (ie visibility) between drivers and walkers, as with plastic delineator poles to prevent people from parking right up against the crosswalk.
Use smart tech
Use smart technology smartly. Cameras equip SEPTA buses and send the license plates of cars illegally parked in bus lanes to the Philadelphia Parking Authority, who mail tickets to the owners. Intended to decrease the wait time for buses, this also makes it safer to enter and exit buses and to cross the road. The City has also piloted the use of smart loading zones for deliveries in parts of Center City, though it has not yet announced if that was successful in cutting down on congestion or accidents.
End councilmanic prerogative
End councilmanic prerogative, the unofficial “policy” that allows City Councilmembers to rule their districts like mini-fiefdoms, with different rules for different parts of the city. Live on Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson’s side of Washington Avenue, for example? Forget about implementing citizen- and transportation department-approved renovations that would have made it safer to cross, bike and walk along.
As Jon Geeting put it a couple years ago: “One of the iron laws of Philadelphia politics is that if you want to have less of something, put it under the control of the councilmanic prerogative system. Whether it’s housing, outdoor dining, bus lanes, bike lanes — you name it — once it’s under the sway of District Councilmembers, you are practically guaranteed to see less of that thing.”
Build 20-minute neighborhoods
Work diligently, collectively and determinedly towards building a 20-minute city in every neighborhood. Want to limit the number of drivers speeding towards jobs, appointments, shops and other services? Then ensure they have all of those within a 20-minute walk or public transit ride from their home. This idea — popularized in Paris and Portland — hearkens back to what cities used to be, and has benefits that go well beyond pedestrian safety: cleaner air, healthier and more equitable neighborhoods, vibrant local business communities.
In Paris, this idea has gone hand in hand with reducing the dependence on cars over the last three decades. Since the mid-90s, the amount of Parisian driving has gone down by about 45 percent, while Metro ridership has risen 30 percent, and biking has gone up tenfold. That is because of more than 400 miles of protected bike lanes; pedestrianized streets, including all the avenues along the Seine River in summer; and an ever-broadening subway system. As I wrote, shortly after returning from that frankly incomparable city a few years ago: Its current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, The Atlantic’s CityLab has noted, is responsible for “some of the most systematically anti-car policies of any major world city.”
Lead on this
Which brings us to maybe the most important solution of all: Lead with intention. It was a good idea to become a Vision Zero city. Under Mayor Kenney, that idea failed to make our roads actually safer, and save actual lives. Mayor Parker has another chance to do this right. As Davis said this week: “We need our city government to respond with real change and real investment in roadway safety. We want everyone to be safe whether they are riding a bike lane in Rittenhouse, standing on a corner in Kensington, or crossing a street in Germantown.”
