This article was originally published by Christopher Carey on Cities today, the leading news platform for urban mobility and innovation reaching an international audience of city guides. For the latest updates, see Cities Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Youtubeor sign up for Cities Today News.
Philadelphia has unveiled a comprehensive roadmap on how to increase the number of passengers on buses, trams, subways and regional trains over the next 24 years.
The Philadelphia Transit Plan, a vision for 2045 aims to transform the city through a range of initiatives, including more equitable, frequent, safer and greener modes of transport.
“We cannot completely eradicate the racial systemic differences between our residents, recover from the current economic crisis, and tackle the climate crisis without investing in public transportation,” said Jim Kenney, Philadelphia mayor.
“The coronavirus pandemic and its economic challenges make transit planning more important than ever.”
The speed at which the plan can be implemented is subject to funding. Different outlines, based on current trends in city capital budgets and possible state and federal funding, therefore describe low, moderate, and ambitious scenarios.
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Five goals
The plan has five goals to achieve a more connected Philadelphia.
A focus on safety, reliability and cleanliness means adding bus lanes to reduce delays. further improvement of cleaning and security measures on vehicles and at train stations; and improving bus stop infrastructures such as emergency shelters and lighting.
Environmental measures include efforts to make life without a car easier. to adopt battery-electric Buses “as technology allows”; and switch to clean energy to power trains, buses and trolleys.
To make the transit system fairer, Philadelphia will reform its tariff structure, including the addition of a low-income passport program and the introduction of tariff caps. Further plans are the expansion of the frequent weekend services and the full accessibility of the underground lines MFL and BSL as well as the overhead line network.
Priorities for meeting today’s challenges have been set as the implementation of the network for the modernization of trolleys and bus priorities. Partnered with SEPTA in redesigning the bus network to better serve the needs of the city’s different residents; Support post-pandemic economic recovery through transit investment; and “ensure that every step of the transit driving process is tailored to the needs of the user.”
Long-term goals are to “redesign” the regional rail system as a frequent underground service that is integrated into the entire transit network. Philadelphia will also work with regional partners to create a stable source of funding for transit and coordinate land use planning and transit investments to ensure they are mutually supportive.
COVID-19 recovery
As with almost every transportation system, Philadelphia has seen an unprecedented drop in driver numbers amid the pandemic, which in turn has resulted in lost revenue and investment delays.
The plan notes that while the number of drivers has “moderately” recovered, there are concerns that people will not be comfortable returning to transit. Potential relocations from home are also likely to affect transit patterns and numbers in the long term, especially regional rail.
However, the city says the modes that recover the fastest are those that offer frequent, all-day transit services, rather than exclusively serving traditional commuters between nine and five.
The plan states, “Things are changing rapidly right now, but this is a trend that makes this plan all the more important.”
Mike Carroll, Vice President Transportation, said, “This plan builds on nearly a decade of planning carried out by the city, expands the history of inter-agency collaboration to improve transit service, and sets a vision for renewing and restoring transit looks like after a pandemic. “
“We also made sure we use a variety of engagement resources to share and test the ideas with residents and both transit drivers and non-drivers,” he added.
The roadmap is the culmination of 17 months of work carried out by the Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS) in close collaboration with the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA, and partners in the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), the Department of Transportation of Pennsylvania (PennDOT), New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit), and the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) Speedline.
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Published on March 11, 2021 – 10:00 UTC
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