Philly police to crack down on aggressive driving on two busy corridors

Philadelphia police will soon begin a crackdown on aggressive driving in two busy corridors in the latest in a series of recent initiatives designed to make Philly’s roads safer.

Starting Monday, police will increase patrols on stretches of Island Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia and Aramingo Avenue in North Philadelphia, officials said Thursday. The newly announced traffic enforcement initiatives will last through Aug. 30.

On Island Avenue, police will step up enforcement between Bartram and Woodland Avenues, covering roughly 1.6 miles. Aramingo Avenue will see an increased police presence across a similar distance from Somerset Street to Frankford Creek. Both areas were targeted because they are known to be “high-incident areas” with a large number of vehicle crashes and high traffic volume, officials said.

“You’re going to see a tremendous amount of uniformed vehicles out there on these thoroughfares,” Deputy Commissioner James J. Kelly III said at a news conference. Kelly added that police plan to increase enforcement on illegal parking, speeding, reckless driving lane changes, and running red lights, among other dangerous driver behaviors.

“We’re enforcing it from soup to nuts,” he said. It was not immediately clear why the initiative was scheduled to last only a month.

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The new enforcement efforts in North and Southwest Philadelphia are similar to previously conducted initiatives on North Broad Street, and on several roads in the Northeast and Northwest areas of the city earlier this year.

Those efforts, Deputy Commissioner Mike Cram said, have had an impact on traffic incidents. Since launching those enforcement initiatives, he said, police have issued almost 9,000 more citations this year compared to last year, and launched nearly 20,000 more vehicle investigations.

To date in 2024, there have been about 26,000 car crashes in the city, compared to 48,000 for all of 2023. The city is “on pace for a slight reduction” in car crashes by the end of the year, Cram said.

So far this year, officials said, 61 people have died in crash-related incidents in the city. In 2023, 124 people were killed in accidents involving vehicles in Philadelphia.

Fatal car crashes, Cram added, are also slightly down, with 61 people having died in crash-related incidents so far this year. At this point last year, he said, 71 people had been killed. That change, he said, marks a “slight decrease, but not enough.”

The stretch of Island Avenue police are targeting, Cram said, saw 235 car crashes last year, one of which was fatal. Aramingo Avenue, meanwhile, had 202 crashes in 2023, three of which were fatal.

Roadway safety has become an increasingly discussed subject, most recently with city officials announcing an enforcement effort that includes the installation of speed cameras along the length of Broad Street to cut down on crashes. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed a bill moving that effort forward in June, expanding on a law that allowed speed cameras to permanently remain on Roosevelt Boulevard.

Last month, four pedestrians and cyclists were killed in as many days around Philadelphia, igniting a wave of concern among safe street advocates who called for additional bike lane protections and traffic calming measures — as well as for Parker to reinvest in Vision Zero, which focuses on reducing and ending traffic-related fatalities and injuries.

Parker last month declined to comment on specific traffic safety projects in an interview with WHYY, but voiced general support for the issue.

“There are multiple traffic calming measures needed across the city,” she said.