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Philadelphia's urbanist PAC. Better transportation, land use, and public space for the people. Weekly Newsletter:
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This is how the Mayor’s office chose to treat the voices of 6,000 constituents.
Despite having an appointment, we had to beg our way upstairs in City Hall and were met with silent, expressionless staffers in the hallway. We left the petitions on a table.
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🎉 HUGE WIN for road safety — Council President Johnson announced that he will be introducing a bill tomorrow that bans standing, stopping and parking in bike lanes CITYWIDE.
Thank you
@CouncilmemberKJ
for meeting with us today to prioritize safer streets.
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Spruce & Pine, when?
Low wall barriers AKA Toronto Barriers are now my favorite protection device for protected bike lanes.
It's not just about parking incursions, it's also about preventing out-of-control drivers from invading bike lanes and the adjacent sidewalks.
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Nobody should be able to drive 57 MPH on Spruce St.
No matter how drunk,
No matter how reckless,
No matter how stupid you are.
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Improving frequency is the way to improve ridership -- getting more folks to ditch their cars when traveling around Philly.
Weekend service every 30 minutes to PHL is huge! Plus hourly service on most other lines.
SEPTA will add 99 weekend trains and 24 weekday trains to the regional rail schedule starting Sunday, Sept. 8. See all the schedule changes here:
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This behavior is no different than the folks who smoke on the subway. A complete disregard for others.
These women are just chatting in the bike lane putting Philadelphians at risk. A protected barrier would stop this.
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Amtrak's 2022-2026 funding more than doubled, and the state just allotted $15M for rail capacity improvements between Philly and Reading.
This is our shot to bring passenger service back to Reading, Pottstown, Quakertown and the Lehigh Valley, and we have a 4 year window.
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It’s amazing how many of our city’s hospital workers commute by bicycle, scooter, and public transit.
We need our city to make this option safe and easy — and hospital leadership to have their backs.
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🙌
“I think the hypothesis is that people walking down the street benefits retailers more than people driving down the street,” said Prema Katari Gupta, president and CEO of Center City District.
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Once again, plastic flexposts are not real protection
This is
@JoeHoldenCBS3
with some breaking news in Havertown. A car drove through the front of Katz Pharmacy at Eagle and Darby Roads in Havertown. Police chief says injuries are minor. Investigation continues into how it happened.
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Still fighting for this 6 years later
.
@PhillyMayor
's transportation team is hosting TWO public meetings about safety changes to Spruce and Pine on 4/4 and 4/5. RSVP and demand Kenney install protected bike lanes THIS YEAR!
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Ballfields and South Philly’s only public Ice Rink — How much do our kids have to sacrifice for more highway off-ramps into their neighborhood?
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“Unlike gun violence or opioid overdoses, solving traffic crashes in cities is not a complex social problem. Mayor Parker has the tools she needs to make it happen.”
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We analyzed the written comments and found a majority of survey respondents oppose the plan in all of the project areas.
Penn's Landing: 63% Opposed
Walt Whitman: 61% Opposed
Broad Street: 54% Opposed ...🧵
here is a blog post about penndot’s survey about its I-95 highway widening project
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While we were gathering in front of City Hall demanding safer streets — another fatal crash happened.
#BREAKING
: Kelly Drive in Philadelphia is shut down in both directions Thursday evening after a fatal crash, police tell CBS News Philadelphia.
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Philly once had a 'Cars Cripple Children' billboard outside City Hall tallying deaths and injuries (h/t
@OLDIMAGESOFPHIL
)
#VisionZeroPHL
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Yesterday, traffic violence across our city left two neighbors dead and a third critically injured.
We are heartbroken and furious. Make no mistake, these deaths, these critical injuries, are fully preventable.
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The real results are out for PennDOT’s highway widening project on I-95 in South Philly.
When asked to choose an option, an overwhelming number of survey takers chose “none”
here is a blog post about penndot’s survey about its I-95 highway widening project
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It’s happening again: Council needs to hear from you about Washington Avenue! The Mayor’s office is getting cold feet and Council members are hearing from a few loud opponents who want NO changes. Show your support for the Mayor’s plan and spread the word!
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Guessing we’re gonna need more than a few 25 MPH signs and a fence made of white string if we wanna fix this.
Divers going into Schuylkill River to search for car that went into water off Kelly Drive around 4am. SkyFOX shows the oil slick which seems to be location.
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These deaths can be easily prevented with better road design
We need more than thoughts and prayers
We need physical protection
Parker avoids committing to protected Spruce-Pine bike lane after traffic deaths, Vision Zero cuts
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Barbara’s parents speaking out:
"The streets need to be safe and the barricades need to be up," said Mary.
"Our daughter wasn’t the only tragic loss. There’s been so many and how many is enough, at what point is enough," said John Dietrick.
Less than a week after 30-year-old Barbara Ann Friedes, a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia died in a multi-vehicle crash while riding her bike, calls for action are growing louder in Philadelphia among the cyclist community.
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As it turns out, you CAN get to heaven on the Frankford El
SEPTA awarded a contract to Hitachi Rail STS USA, Inc. for the purchase of modern railcars to replace our aging Market-Frankford Line [L] fleet: .
#ISEPTAPHILLY
#waytogo
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The true survey results showed clear opposition to the expansion of I-95.
The fact that PennDOT needed to be compelled to release this info shows the agency’s determination to proceed despite public input. [1/2]
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We CAN have nice things!
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This is what every corner in Philly needs to look like, we deserve it.
Who even are we, if we let Pittsburgh outdo us?
It’s great that this neighborhood street in Squirrel Hill gets a high-quality traffic calming solution.
So when will every neighborhood in the city experience this quality of life?
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Yet another incident on Kelly Drive. This time a car plunges into the Schuylkill near the Girard Ave bridge.
Crews have spent hours searching for a driver after a car was seen going into Philly's Schuylkill River Friday morning.
@Siobhan_McGirl
has
#breaking
details from the scene.
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Another college is offering SEPTA Key Advantage, paying a bulk-rate for SEPTA rides for its students! A win-win!
This program was a huge advocacy win for us and we are thrilled to see a growing list of institutions signing on.
Every Philly-area college needs to join!!
Beginning in September, full-time Bryn Mawr students can participate in SEPTA's Key Advantage UPass Program and receive free
@SEPTAPHILLY
Key Cards. Bryn Mawr is the second higher-ed institution to participate in this program. Learn more
#BrynMawrCollege
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“Philadelphia DESERVES safer streets for everyone, and we already know how to make that happen, but we need the city of Philadelphia to take action now.
“To restore vision zero funding, and to implement concrete protected bike lanes now.” says
@KaraNextWeek
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Great to see this robust protection on Grays Ferry Bridge! Thank you
@PennDOTNews
and to all of you who helped advocate for safety on this project.
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A few vocal residents are against protected bike lanes because they say one travel lane on Spruce or Pine will make it impossible for them to load stuff from their cars
Here is a map of one-way, one-travel-lane streets in Philly
They’re literally everywhere
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Great work
@phlbikeaction
in ending religious exemption to parking on ALL of Spruce and Pine! This is a huge win for bicycle safety!
🎉 Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel (BZBI) has obtained a permit that does not include the Spruce bike lane.
Sanctioned bike lane parking on Spruce & Pine is now over!
Next step: Concrete protection for the Spruce & Pine bike lanes. Join us at City Hall on September 5!
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Kudos to
@phlbikeaction
for making one of the most-traveled bicycle corridors in our city so much safer.
This shows that consistency and grassroots activism can have real results.
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It's time to build the Roosevelt Blvd Subway.
It would serve:
☑️ 1 out of 3 people in Philly
☑️ our city’s most diverse neighborhoods
☑️ bus riders who are now forced to sit in congestion and delays
Sign our petition with
@BlvdSubway
👇
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Transit funding isn’t just a Philly issue. So many communities across Pennsylvania are reliant on SEPTA contracts for manufacturing jobs.
We can’t afford to let transit fall off the cliff.
SEPTA’s CEO Leslie Richards says fare hikes and service reductions are on the horizon due to the $100 million state budget shortfall.
The current effects of the shortfall have enacted a hiring freeze and mandatory overtime for workers.
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"We should be allowed to grieve and miss our daughter without trying to make streets safer because that should be common sense and it should already be in place," Laura Fredricks said.
CBS News investigates deadly bike lanes in Philadelphia, featuring stories of tragic losses and calls for safer streets.
@LizCrawfordNews
reports.
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"Most of SEPTA’s board never uses the system or averages less than one trip per month"
Thank you
@dailypenn
for your coverage
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This is a preventable crash not an “accident”
The speed cameras for Broad street can’t come soon enough, but it needs to be paired with a roadway redesign if we are serious about achieving vision zero.
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Public spaces must be safe for everyone, period. It is beyond unacceptable for violent groups of vigilantes to threaten and assault Philadelphians in our public spaces, as happened in Marconi Plaza in the past two days.
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This guy isn’t the first and won’t be the last drunk driver in Philly. We need REAL protection from reckless idiots piloting 2-ton vehicles through our neighborhoods.
Update from
@NathanielPosts
: during Vahey’s arraignment this afternoon, prosecutors said Vahey had a prior DUI conviction. In 2009, he was arrested with a 0.20 BAC while driving the wrong way down Pine near 10th. Record was expunged after completing alcohol treatment program.
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We’re working on it!
After a few days in Philadelphia my top takeaway from the stories of locals and my own experience is that this is a city with great bones and even more potential, but a lack of funding and political will still makes car-free living harder than it should be here.
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We take so much of our extensive transit infrastructure for granted. SEPTA just needs the funding to operate it to its full potential.
Philly doesn't get nearly enough credit for having an extensive transit system with all kinds of different transit modes and fascinating history. Learn more about this gem of a transit city in today's video!
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Infrastructure improvements are cheaper, and longer lasting, than police overtime
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"There is no sense in any of it. There is no justification, there is no logic," said John Dietrick, Friedes' father.
"It was so simple to prevent.”
The parents of Barbara Friedes, a CHOP doctor who was killed while riding her bike in Center City, say her death could have been prevented. They are joining advocates and Philly cyclists in calling for change. Full story from
@siobhan_mcgirl
HERE:
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Chinatown represents some of Philadelphia's best urbanism. We stand behind the effort to keep Chinatown vibrant and affordable. Take a look at our full statement 👇
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Thank you
@CouncilmemberJG
!
🧵 Today I joined community members from across our city at a vigil honoring Dr. Barbara Friedes & other victims of traffic violence.
Traffic deaths are preventable & we have to do much better as a city at using infrastructure to protect cyclists & every person using our roads.
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Now is the time to demand safer streets from our elected officials
We need protected bike lanes on Spruce and Pine Streets with permanent hardened barriers and an end to the dangerous practice of using these lanes for vehicle parking and loading.
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Look at this hardworking ❄️ cutie ❄️clearing the bike lane on Market! Thanks
@PhilaStreets
!
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Imagine each trolley representing 50 cars stuck on century-old infrastructure.
Trolley modernization cannot come soon enough.
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Our city needs to seriously consider a land value tax that guards against such land speculation.
Philly’s property tax regime gives speculators the upper hand — taxing empty lots and vacant buildings at a much lower rate than occupied ones.
How speculators fueled a nightmare for Kensington residents — and could soon cash in
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Congratulations to
@PatriciaMadej
from
@PhillyInquirer
for winning our 2020 Urbanist Media Champion Award. She provided detailed policy reporting on the issues that mattered for transit, safe streets, and other transportation funding issues in PA & Philadelphia
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Opponents want to toss the surveys because they got outvoted.
@phillyotis
bizarrely extending the survey deadline til January 3rd. How many times are they going to move the goalposts to accommodate 45 opponents? Irresponsible bad government on display here
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✅ SUPPORTER SURVEYS: 750
❌ OPPONENT SURVEYS: 45
Organizing gets the goods
@PhillyMayor
it’s time to move forward with these much-needed safety improvements. Please don’t delay this project any further!
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💯 from the Inky on what the City needs to do to put people before parking:
🚫 Nix the parking tax cut
🧹 Commit to street sweeping
🚌 More bus lanes
🚲 More protected bike lanes
🍽️ Keep streeteries, not parking spaces
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Heartbreaking piece by Dr. Friedes’ colleagues
“We call on the Mayor and City Council to honor her life, and the lives of our patients and families […] by investing in safe streets for Philadelphians.
“We all deserve to survive our journeys home.”
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Sign our petition to Tell PennDOT: Don’t Widen I-95 in Center City & South Philly.
This project threatens the well-being of our neighborhoods by worsening air quality, increasing noise pollution, and harming our access to the waterfront. [2/2]
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Powerful words from a Spruce St resident:
“It is the city’s responsibility to keep its streets safe. And the city has failed at that task dramatically, as demonstrated by the number of pedestrian and cyclist collisions in recent years”
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🚶🏼♀️🚲Grays Ferry Bridge Update🚲🚶🏽
Remember our petition last year calling for protected bike lanes on both sides of Grays Ferry Bridge? We just got news that
@PennDOTNews
move forward with these protections!
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We are grateful for Mayor Parker publicly responding to our petition asking for safer bike lanes throughout Philadelphia.
We hope this office and City Council will have the political courage to stand up for roadway safety as plans become more concrete.
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Transit is not an extension of the police.
@SEPTA
exists to serve riders, not cops.
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Putting more homes right where transit is is important for both our environment and for making transit accessible to more people. But City Council is actively hostile to growing our city sustainably.
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Great news!
@PhillyMayor
Jim Kenney listened to your calls and emails and has VETOED the Society Hill zoning overlay that his
@PHLPlanDevelop
Commission and advocates criticized as “exclusionary”
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When 100% of public space has ceded to motor vehicles, you can fear getting run over by a car 100% of the time when you are outside your house.
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$130 million can pay for:
Either
🅿️💸 A tax cut for private parking companies
OR
🚌👍 Transit fares for low-income Philadelphians
Which do you think would be better for our city?
Find out how you can act 👇
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Huge win for safety on Washington Ave! We texted hundreds of people nearby and generated hundreds of survey responses from near neighbors calling for the 3-lane option. The best deal for pedestrians, transit riders, and people on bikes
NEW: Washington Avenue is going to be reduced from five lanes of vehicular traffic down to three next year, with the goal of reducing traffic accidents and fatalities.
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The city can prevent horrifying scenes like this with real physical protection everywhere.
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Hi
@SEPTA_SOCIAL
, were the police officers (👇) transported by SEPTA bus drivers all wearing masks, as required by SEPTA’s mandatory mask policy? Your riders have a right to know.
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The entire team at
@PhillyVotes
deserves our thanks for their work carrying out the election. They should know that the whole city denounces the threats and bigotry they've received for doing their job.
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Tell
@DVRPC
: No highway expansions in Connections 2050! Submit your comments by 8/30 at 5pm here:
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Trolley modernization is the Kenney admin’s
#1
transportation infrastructure ask to the feds, and ours too. Amazon has other options but SEPTA’s options are all worse.
@SenTonyWilliams
and
@CouncilmemberKJ
should stand with SEPTA. Support our campaign!
NEW: SEPTA’s trolley modernization project faces a setback after Amazon outbid the agency on a Southwest Philadelphia parcel it wanted to turn into a trolley barn.
via
@rw_briggs
+
@darrylcmurphy
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The wheels are in motion and there’s no going back now🚊
Whether it’s in Harrisburg, DC, or at city hall, let’s keep up the pressure on elected officials and finally get to work on a project 100 years overdue.
Today we briefed our U.S Senators, U S Representatives, PA State Representatives, and Philadelphia City Councilmembers on the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway.
More information to come.
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Absolutely gut-wrenching story of yet another pedestrian roadway death. [1/2]
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Our full press release here:
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Updated map of the Safer Washington Ave supporters who listed their blocks on the petition (now past 1500 signers!) This is more people than the 20 or so people who
@PhillyOTIS
wants to put in charge of making the Mayor’s decision
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Self-driving technology is snake oil that the auto industry is using to stay relevant.
A drunk driver killed two people by relying on this unproven tech on I-95 in Bridesburg.
It will never replace walking, biking and public transportation.
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1. Common =/= popular.
Cavities are common, not popular.
2. Commuter data is a flawed mobility measure. It shorts walking, transit, biking.
Census: Driving is most popular commuting method for Philadelphians.
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Beyond disturbing. Philadelphians were marching peacefully to demand justice, putting 676 to the best use it has ever had since it first started choking this city. Why are we paying to enable this impunity from the police?
Extraordinary, aggressive tactics by Philly police on 676.
@EllieRushing
: "Police threw tear gas at every safe escape off the highway. There was nowhere to run without going right into the smoke. People were grabbing each other, dragging their friends up walls..."
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👀
ATTN:
@PhillyMayor
will respond to our petition tomorrow morning at City Hall. Short remarks will be followed by a 2 mile bike ride. Please join if you can
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Our houses of worship saw the urgent need for safety on Spruce and Pine and answered the call.
Now it’s time for our elected officials to step up by making the lane ‘no stopping’ and providing real physical protection.
Religious institutions will no longer be able to legally park in a critical bike lane in Philadelphia — a critical victory for advocates who had mobilized to fight the exemption after a crash killed a cyclist who had been riding on the same street.
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SEPTA’s Fiscal Cliff looms larger than ever as they implement a partial hiring freeze and we face an impending fare hike.
Transit Funding needs to be a priority for our state legislature in the fall.
The agency’s Andrew Busch said the freeze is the result of no guaranteed state funding, meaning the agency needs to make cuts to prevent major fiscal troubles.
With the reductions, SEPTA could also raise new revenue through a fare hike.
Full story ->
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This is a welcome move as SEPTA should not be subsidizing driving.
Even with the new fees, parking at many stations is still cheaper than taking a round-trip bus ride. The agency needs to accept transfers between these two modes.
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.
@CMMarkSquilla
what is preventing you from sounding like this? You represent basically the same constituency as Senator Saval
I’m calling on
@PhillyOTIS
to publicly state its intention to move forward with its own Final Design Decision.
I urge all Philly residents who want a safer Washington Ave to write, call, and email
@PhillyOTIS
with their support for the Final Design Decision, too.
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Memo to
@PhillyOTIS
:
Defending a plan that explicitly sacrifices safety for kids crossing the street isn't 'equity'.
Retreating behind closed doors and using advocacy organizations as a fig leaf isn't 'inclusive'.
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Thank you
@CouncilmemberKJ
for stressing the importance of transit funding, not just for our region, but also for the financial stability of the commonwealth.
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Currently, the Spruce Street bike lane is delineated by paint and a few flexposts at intersections.
This failed to deter this reckless driver, failed to keep her safe, and failed to keep her alive.
Paint and plastic posts are not protection.
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8
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Minimum parking requirements
What's 100% a total scam, but we still accept it in society?
21K
1K
13K
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Huge roads built for speeding should no longer be our status quo
A woman got out of a car and was promptly struck by a hit-and-run pickup truck driver in North Philadelphia early Thursday morning.
Here's what Philadelphia police are saying about the deadly crash:
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South Philly neighbors: Help send a compassionate message about the safe injection site on Broad St. If you’re willing to go public with your support, sign onto this letter and tell us why you’re
#YIMBYforSIS
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🏆
“We need to make sure that people can get through the city safely whether it’s pedestrians, bicyclists, we have folks in wheelchairs. We have seniors, parents with coaches … We got to make sure the city is passable for folks to travel safely.”
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Hey
@PhillyMayor
is your go-slow order to
@PhillyOTIS
still on or are we ready to fix this street?
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We should not be limiting the number of people that can live, work, and shop along Girard Avenue, one of Philadelphia's major transit corridors.
Sign 👇 to ask
@PhillyMayor
to veto the downzoning of Girard Ave.
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Mayor, you must stop repeating baseless claims, made without evidence, that have been used to justify assault on protesters.
Your police yesterday gassed hundreds of Philadelphians practicing their 1st Amendment rights. A pointless IA investigation won't cut it.
We stand by that in response to a state trooper being surrounded in his vehicle.
But we learned that there may have been additional uses of tear gas.
I am deeply concerned by this development. All of these incidents will be investigated by Internal Affairs.
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We need to think big.
We finally have a chance to transform a traffic corridor into a true civic space, and we shouldn't waste it.
Philly is moving forward on a long-term plan to overhaul much of the Parkway with an eye toward improving access for bikes and pedestrians.
"We’ve got a parking lot at the end of our Champs-Élysées. That’s not the best use of that space.”
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Props to
@phlbikeaction
for staying the course and achieving real movement towards a safer Spruce and Pine streets for all users!
BIG WIN ALERT: Old Pine Street Church has WITHDRAWN its bike lane parking permit effective immediately!
We want to thank leaders at
@oldpinechurch
for reacting to recent events with dignity and grace. We applaud this demonstration of leadership in the faith community.
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