PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Fishtown residents are pushing for a safer roadway along East Girard Avenue.
Speeding, double parking, illegal U-turns and jaywalking — across multiple lanes and trolley tracks — are among the biggest concerns.
There are long stretches of the roadway along East Girard without traffic lights, which means fewer places for pedestrians to cross.
“What a lot of people do — they don’t go from one sidewalk to another,” said resident Gennadiy Ryklin. “What they end up doing is just hopping across the street.”
State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta said that interagency communication is vital for making safety changes to East Girard. Because East Girard is a state road, intersected by city roads with trolley lines running down the center, different parts of the roadway fall under different jurisdictions.
“The trolley lines are run by SEPTA. And then you have other parts that are managed by PennDOT or OTIS because you have the expressway and other things,” Kenyatta said. “When you look down Girard Avenue, there are so many different delineated pieces of responsibility.”
Kenyatta hopes that more communication would expedite better street signage and lane markings.
Residents say that other safety features like curb extensions would also help improve road safety.
Officials say better interagency communication would help speed up safety improvements like better signage and clearer lane markings.
Officials say better interagency communication would help speed up safety improvements like better signage and clearer lane markings.
