City officials optimistic that 2017 will bring smoother, safer streets
Conversations about how Philadelphians should share the city’s roads often feel like a traffic jam: Tense, angry, and going nowhere fast. Little old ladies turn into virulent vulgarians, and Earth-worshipping vegan cyclists thirst for blood, while the outsiders just wonder what that honking is all about.
But in an interview with PlanPhilly, city officials from the Streets Department and the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) expressed hope that, in 2017, things would look a lot less like the incessantly immobile Schuylkill Expressway.
Last year was a transition year for Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, said spokesman Mike Dunn. This year, he said, the city wants to build on 2016’s work: 15 miles of new bike lanes, traffic calming on 5th Street and 2nd Street in Northern Liberties, the first Philly Free Streets event, and initial plans to improve Roosevelt Boulevard. In 2017, the administration wants to add more bike lanes, hold a second Free Streets event and continue Roosevelt Boulevard’s three-year, $5 million planning process.