I-95 reconstruction project must respect Philly neighborhoods | Editorial

There’s a big development proposal that will impact the fabric of our city’s neighborhoods. People are concerned they will be pushed out of their homes and sacrifice their quality of life to traffic and congestion. The construction would take years, and some say the project prioritizes the needs of sports fans over residents.

Is it the Sixers arena? No, it’s PennDot’s plans to massively expand Interstate 95 in South Philadelphia and Center City.

PennDot has proposed widening the highway and adding new interchanges for three different regions, one in Center City and two in South Philadelphia. Proponents say the expansion is needed due to development at the Navy Yard, the Bellwether District, and the Stadium District.

Yet despite being planned for densely populated neighborhoods and alongside the most important historic areas in the country, the proposals — which are difficult to sort through on the project website — include new ramps, widened lanes, and potentially a new overpass. These improvements will likely lead to a loss of community, commercial and personal space, and increase high-speed traffic on local streets. What’s more, traffic on I-95 drops by 50% south of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, according to PennDot, further illustrating the lack of need for expansion.

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Rather than facilitating growth, economic data show that neighborhoods near the expansions will see a long-term decline in property values, quality of life, and economic activity as noise and pollution make them less inviting destinations. PennDot seems to prioritize the economic needs of the Sports Complex and new developments over those of existing residents, especially those who live along the highway itself.

While Center City and South Philadelphia have added tens of thousands of residents over the last two decades, the area has remained a thriving place to live and work by leaning on the city’s walkability and public transit options.

The I-95 proposal flies in the face of the modern transportation planning consensus, which holds that more lanes lead to more traffic, not less. Cities like Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta provide living examples of this phenomenon. As Interstate 10 crosses through Houston, it expands to 26 lanes at some points. Yet these ultrawide highways haven’t succeeded in alleviating traffic woes.

And, unlike those regions, Southeastern Pennsylvania has an extensive rail transit network capable of ferrying commuters and taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the road. Instead of looking to widen Philadelphia’s highways, adequately funding SEPTA would provide a much better return on investment.

PennDot’s prioritization of “level of service” — engineering jargon for the quality of traffic flow — over quality of life is a pattern with the agency, which also has routinely refused requests to help slow traffic on neighborhood streets like Henry Avenue in Roxborough and Frankford Avenue in Fishtown.

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As the I-95 project continues, the region’s elected officials — including State Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler and Mary Isaacson, and State Sen. Nikil Saval — should demand that PennDot limit itself to rebuilding the highway, rather than widening it. When Philadelphians came together to block the proposed Crosstown Expressway in the 1960s and ‘70s, it was not a decision local officials came to regret.

Beyond asking PennDot to reconsider this project, lawmakers should examine the agency’s priorities and assumptions to avoid future expansions.

Currently, the state agency does not have a regional office in Philadelphia. Instead, decisions are made by planners and engineers in King of Prussia, where land use and transportation needs are significantly different.

In the 19406 zip code, where PennDot staff works, census data indicate that roughly 7% of households are car-free, and a majority of households own two or more vehicles. That’s a very different landscape as compared with the three zip codes directly adjacent to the expansion project, where it is more common for households to go without a vehicle than it is to own two or more.

Philadelphia’s Harrisburg delegation should demand that the city’s roads and highways be designed by engineers who understand urban needs, rather than those whose only focus seems to be on speeding traffic.

Unless that changes, PennDot will keep driving Philadelphia toward bigger and bigger freeways.