Road deaths are decreasing, but Philly streets remain needlessly dangerous | Editorial
Officials must take a harder look at their approach to traffic safety if Philadelphia is to make long-term progress in reducing death and injury.
Philadelphia’s annual report on the status of Vision Zero — the city’s ambitious plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths by 2030 — lays bare the difficulties of making our streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.
Despite the demonstrable effectiveness of several city-led traffic safety interventions, the national trends — and some local intransigence — can make progress seem fleeting. Heavier, taller vehicles, a decline in public transit ridership, and a quantifiable increase in aggressive driving have all made getting around more dangerous.
The annual number of fatalities attributable to traffic collisions remains above pre-pandemic levels, even as other forms of preventable deaths, such as shootings and drug overdoses, have declined.
As of Oct. 31, there were 84 fatal crashes this year, according to the city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. That figure is an improvement from 2023, when 100 deaths occurred within the same time frame on the way to 123 total road deaths for the year.
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Still, Philadelphia’s traffic death rate is three times higher than New York’s. The city also falls short when compared with other large metropolises like Boston, San Francisco, and Washington.
Local officials must take a harder look at how it approaches traffic safety if Philadelphia is to make progress in reducing death and injury on our roads — particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.
That’s not to say recent traffic safety efforts have not shown dividends.
The city’s speed camera program for Roosevelt Boulevard has been so successful that the road, once known as “the corridor of death,” is no longer Philadelphia’s most dangerous. (That dubious honor now belongs to camera-free Broad Street.)
The removal of vehicle lanes — so-called road diets — along with the addition of traffic-slowing infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, has improved safety without unduly burdening drivers or causing additional congestion on smaller, residential streets. Curb extensions at intersections are also designed to help reduce injuries.
Last year, there were 560 incidents resulting in serious injury or death on the city’s streets. That’s a roughly 10% increase from the 495 cases reported in 2019. Deaths, however, rose by more than 45%, from 84 in 2019 to 123 last year.
City officials and national traffic safety experts cite the switch to larger passenger vehicles for this trend. These bigger vehicles are more likely to kill pedestrians, even at lower speeds. The vehicles’ large profiles also reduce visibility and create additional blind spots for drivers.
While Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg displayed awareness of this growing problem, including adding pedestrian impact to vehicle safety ratings, it is unlikely the new administration will take up the cause.
Red tape at Pennsylvania’s transportation department, PennDot, can also be an obstacle to traffic safety improvements. A 2019 analysis of the city’s High Injury Network — the 12% of the city’s roads where 80% of fatal and serious injury crashes occur — found that a majority of those streets are maintained by the state. That limits local officials’ ability to redesign them for safety.
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Still, there are things Philadelphia can do on its own to ensure safer travel for all residents.
Along with increased traffic enforcement by Philadelphia police, and everyday drivers keeping their speed in check, another necessary step is ensuring the city’s Streets Department moves quickly to address requests for traffic calming measures on individual roadways and is transparent in explaining why some requests are refused.
Meanwhile, in Mount Airy recently, residents witnessed what happens when well-connected residents block infrastructure changes reflexively. Despite parents and neighbors spending more than a decade trying to get speed bumps installed in front of Houston Elementary School, the bumps were lowered without public notice or input after a few people who objected to them met privately with Deputy Streets Commissioner Richard Montanez.
If the city is going to reach its admirable target of zero traffic deaths, everyone will have to adjust their biases to favor safety over speed.