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Can Philly overcome its auto-obsession?
When is a parking spot more than just a parking spot? When it's a mini park, or a sculpture-turned-bicycle-corral, or part of a bike lane or pedestrian plaza. Philly streets have the potential to become destinations, not just pathways, if we have the tolerance to let them
Can Philly overcome its auto-obsession?
(Photo: Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities)
When is a parking spot more than just a parking spot? When it's a mini park, or a sculpture-turned-bicycle-corral, or part of a bike lane or pedestrian plaza. Philly streets have the potential to become destinations, not just pathways, if we have the tolerance to let them.
The Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities is putting the notion that streets can be quality-of-life improvers, and not just glorified car storage corridors, to the test with two pilot programs expanded from popular one-off offerings last year. One is a "parklet" program that follows a similar successful effort outside the Green Line Cafe on Baltimore Avenue, near Clark Park in West Philly; they're even offering to kick in $5,000 for successful applicants to their request for proposals (due May 4). Another is a bicycle corral program, for one of 10 bike racks holding 12 bikes apiece; such an installation went up last year on Sydenham Street in Center City.
Parking spots are a perpetual concern at zoning meetings, and this spring we saw a plan for a pedestrian plaza, that would have taken up a short block of Passyunk Avenue off of South Street, crumble under protests from businesses concerned about traffic flow. But if residents and businesses are willing to cede a few parking spots for these programs, maybe there's hope for weaning Philly off our automobile dependence after all.
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