Philly Plain Dealer

One month ago a report was released that Philadelphia leads all major cities in traffic deaths. News that surprises me and all other Philadelphians. The traffic fatality rate per 100,000 residents is 9.04, which compared to Chicago’s 7.15 is almost a full two resident fatalities above, and an ugly statistic compared to New York City’s 2.86 residents. 

In the wake of this Summer’s Philly Cycling Classic, you have to wonder, as a city what are our goals with improving this problem?

As you drive around the city or watch people bike around you do begin to ponder, how much do we care about pedestrians here? Of course it’s only been one month since the report was released but there hasn’t been major action or a response taken from the Mayor’s office since. Potentially if we had someone like Zohran Mamdani, maybe the city’s government would be quick to respond back to a deadly crisis and begin to remedy the issue over time.

I’ve spent a lot of time researching, driving around the city frequently, and talking to friends who bike as their mode of transportation. It’s caused me to overthink what I’m writing about and what I want to see. But I’ve realized it now. 

For starters, I’m not a cyclist. I never really learned how to ride a bike post training wheels, I grew up in a cul-de-sac off of route 9W in New York, so my parents made a choice to not seriously teach me how to ride bikes. Nor were they bike riders themselves.

Still, driving through New York City, peer pressured by my friends as soon as I got my license, and then moving to Philadelphia for school 10 years ago, I’ve learned, the roads will always be narrow, have traffic and most importantly have bicyclists riding by you. 

In Philadelphia it feels more personal. Maybe it’s because of the roads being tighter, less streets being closed completely to bicyclists or being in a smaller city just in general, we will always share the roads with them. 

So how did the issue of sharing the road or respecting the rules of the road get so bad here?

Well for starters as a society post COVID, we’ve become more anti-social. The pressures of coming back to life after a tumultuous two years of little to no contact with each other along with rising prices, there’s been a breach within the social contract. 

There’s always been an attitude coming from drivers within this region, the South Jersey and Philadelphia areas, a culture of driving fast and recklessly to get to where you want to get to and not care about the damage you may have caused on the way. 

One of my least favorite driving “rules” in the city is the “South Philly roll”. It feels like a lousy excuse as to why people can’t be bothered to fully stop and take a moment to check their surroundings at a stop sign. Of course I get it when you have to slowly roll into the crosswalk, as there are many pickup trucks and work vans that park in crosswalks and obstruct your view of any oncoming traffic, be it pedestrians, cyclists or vehicles. 

So what can we do? 

Well I’m not the mayor, nor am I interested in running for any public office and I didn’t go to school to become an engineer but if I had a say in this, there are ways to fix some of these issues and reduce the fatality rate. You never want to be number one in the bad categories. 

There should be concrete barriers to prevent drivers from hopping into the bike lane. We can’t go back in time and save people, but we can prevent further tragedies from happening. What will it take for city officials to do something? Adding a much more sturdy barrier could prevent and potentially damage cars who somehow end up in the bike lanes. 

Eliminate some of the four-way stop signs. This might be a more personal nuisance to me, but the four-way stop sign down by John’s Roast Pork does not work. People constantly speed down the bike lanes to make a right turn as other cars try to also navigate the intersection and then become confused as to whose turn it is to go when you have so many aggressive drivers deciding to just make their move without waiting at the stop sign. Needs to be eliminated and add more bike lane protection there. 

As I’ve said, I don’t know how to ride a bike, and I frequently drive, so this feels a little bit like stolen valor, but I have been hit by a car before when I had the right of way crossing the street. We shouldn’t pride ourselves on driving aggressively and quickly. I’m not sure if cameras are the way to go, as they’ve only seemed to make people more clever and decide to speed on the side streets instead of Broad Street now. Ways to reduce speeding in the roads, closing down more roads to drivers, roads like East Passyunk and Walnut Street, could be solutions to reduce the fatality rate. Again I’m not a mayor and this is just wishful thinking that one day we’ll have one who will take action. But hey, at least we’re the number one NFL city. Go birds, drive salefully.