PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new city law allows the Philadelphia Streets Department to skip the year-long traffic impact study in school zones to speed up the installation of traffic-calming devices near schools.
“We have a serious crisis here in the City of Philadelphia where reckless drivers habitually threaten the lives of pedestrians, including students,” said City Councilmember Anthony Phillips at a news conference Friday outside of Hill-Freedman World Academy in Mount Airy.
East Mount Pleasant Avenue, located in front of Hill-Freedman, has been more like a speedway than a school zone, said Principal Anthony Majewski.
“We have seen cars literally do 70 miles an hour in this strip on multiple occasions.”
Phillips issued a warning for speeders Friday as Streets Department crews tamped down asphalt to create a speed bump in front of Hill-Freedman.
“If you don’t slow down, we will put down whatever we need to in the street to make you slow down,” Phillips said.
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The staff at Hill-Freedman celebrated when they learned that speed bumps were being installed.
“We were dancing around in the office, we were so happy because we’ve been asking for seven years,” Majewski said.
The city aims to improve crosswalks and build speed bumps around 50 district, charter and private schools by September.