Why do pedestrians and cyclists keep dying in traffic accidents in Philadelphia?
The death of a bicyclist killed by an out-of-control driver on Spruce Street last week, and the deaths of a pedestrian and a toddler in a stroller in North Philly, have led to renewed calls for more robust traffic safety measures, such as the installation of concrete barriers along bike lanes.
The fatal crashes have also stoked concern among road safety advocates about the Parker administration’s commitment to Vision Zero, a city program aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities.
They note that, while Mayor Cherelle Parker has committed herself to Vision Zero, her administration also cut the program’s budget.
In addition, a statement Parker released after the spate of traffic deaths focused largely on the city’s automated red-light ticketing program — which would not affect Spruce Street and other areas with bike lanes.
Here’s a look at the city’s recent history of trying to improve safety for all street users.
Galvanized by a cyclist’s death
Philadelphia has for years had a higher rate of pedestrians being struck and killed by cars than many other cities.
Philly has 7.4 traffic deaths annually per 100,000 residents, according to the city’s 2023 Vision Zero report. That’s slightly lower than Los Angeles, but higher than New York (2.64), Boston (3.23), San Francisco (3.55) and Chicago (6.28).
In 2016, which saw 98 traffic deaths, then-Mayor Jim Kenney signed onto Vision Zero and created an Office of Complete Streets.
The city started building more separated bike lanes, created Neighborhood Slow Zones with speed bumps, completed “road diet” projects to narrow streets and slow down traffic, and in 2020 installed automated speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, where many fatal crashes occur. Automated red-light cameras have also been installed on the Boulevard and in other locations.
A galvanizing event for the Vision Zero movement was the death in 2017 of Emily Fredricks, a 24-year-old pastry chef who was struck by a garbage truck while bicycling in the Spruce Street bike lane.
At the time, the city had not yet installed flexible posts along the bike lane, in the face of protests by residents who didn’t want to lose the ability to unload their cars in front of their homes.
As road diets and other measures were installed, annual traffic deaths decreased a bit — there were 84 in 2019. The city says there’s also been a trend of serious crashes falling sharply, and less speeding in Slow Zones. Nonetheless, when the pandemic hit, fatalities soared, to 152 in 2020, 123 in 2021, and 124 in 2022.
Last year, the city saw 126 traffic deaths, including 57 pedestrians and 10 bicyclists, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. That was the most cyclists killed since 2019, the Inquirer reported.
The number of deaths finally seems to be dropping this year. In the first six months of 2024 there were 52 traffic fatalities, just slightly more than in the first half of 2019, per the Bike Coalition. There’s been just one cyclist fatality — Barbara Friedes, the CHOP oncologist killed on Spruce Street last week.
Varying opinions on cars and Vision Zero
Despite the Vision Zero push, some public officials have not been fully on board with the city’s goals of promoting transit, safe cycling and walking, while in some cases taking road space away from cars.
Former Council President Darrell Clarke once described himself as the kind of person who drives his car to the corner store rather than taking public transportation, and advocated requiring developers to build more parking spaces to accommodate drivers.
In 2021, then-Councilmember Parker proposed sharply cutting the taxes that private parking lots and garages pay on their revenues, with the goal of encouraging more people to drive into the city. One activist with the urbanist PAC 5th Square argued that would undermine Philly’s Vision Zero goals.
Earlier this year, Councilmember Jeffrey Young called for removal of the Market Street bike lane at 22nd Street, citing objections from nearby residents.
However, since taking office in January, Parker has seemed supportive of traffic safety efforts. She signed an executive order committing her administration to eliminating traffic fatalities, and her managing director, Adam Thiel, gave the opening address at a Vision Zero conference in April.
The city has continued creating new separated bike lanes, such as one on 48th Street that was just completed, and is preparing to install automated speed cameras on the entire length of Broad Street.
However, Parker’s first budget, passed in June, cut the Vision Zero budget from $2.5 million a year to $1 million. It also projected spending $9 million on the program over 6 years, compared to $15 million during the Kenney administration.
That drew a rebuke from the Bike Coalition, which said it was disappointed and called on “City Council and the Mayor to do more to save the lives of vulnerable road users.” Critics also pointed to the small number of Slow Zones approved every year despite high demand from neighborhood groups.
City officials defended the spending plan, saying there’s money for traffic safety efforts in other budget lines, including a Street Department budget for traffic-calming projects and the funding for speed cameras.
After Friedes’ death and two other serious accidents last week, Parker released a statement saying she was “deeply saddened” and said she takes “traffic safety very seriously — and very personally — as does my entire Parker administration.”
Yet much of the statement focused on her past work as a councilmember and state legislator pushing for speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, without mentioning bike lanes, Slow Zones, road diets, or any other measures that advocates say would prevent more deaths on Spruce Street and other smaller streets.
Calls for better bike lanes
Advocates say there are a few things the city could do to improve street safety for pedestrian, bicyclists, wheelchair users, and other non-motorists.
For one, City Council could truly ban parking in bike lanes, said Caleb Holtmeyer, a co-founder and organizer with Philly Bike Action. On blocks with “No Parking” signs — as opposed to “No Stopping” signs — drivers get a 20-minute grace period during which they can block a bike lane without getting a ticket, leading to vehicles frequently blocking the lanes on Spruce and other streets.
Holtmeyer and other activists also say the city should end the practice of allowing churchgoers and others to park in bike lanes on weekends.
Another option advocates have requested to prevent accidents is solid concrete bollards or barriers between the bike and auto lanes, rather than flexible plastic posts or paint stripes on the road, the common practice in Philadelphia.
Solid barriers would have prevented the driver in last week’s Spruce Street crash from accelerating at high speed through the bike lane and slamming violently into Friedes, they say, and could have prevented Fredricks’ death.
In addition, the Bike Coalition and safety advocates have for years been lobbying the state legislature to change a law that has been interpreted as a ban on protected bike lanes on state roads. These are bike lanes separated from the flow of traffic by a row of parked cars.
Philadelphia has about 30 miles of separated bike lanes — whether with paint or flex posts — and is aiming to have 40 miles by the end of next year.
PennDOT reached an agreement in 2018 allowing parking protected lanes on 10 state roads in Philly, but bills changing the state rule have failed to win passage in the state Senate since then, according to the Bike Coalition.
