PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Cherelle Parker will be presenting her budget in a few weeks, and City Council members say they want her to restore funding for Vision Zero, the city’s effort to end traffic fatalities by 2050. That was the focus of a committee hearing last week.
“My son, Nyier Cunningham, was 28 years old when he was struck and killed by a tow truck driver while riding his bike. He was left to die while the driver fled the scene,” said Narita Jones-Pugh, who was among the witnesses directly affected by traffic violence who spoke at the hearing.
Former Mayor Jim Kenney started the program with a $1 million budget and gradually raised it to $2.5 million as reckless driving became a lasting legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. So traffic safety advocates were disappointed last year when Parker cut the budget back to $1 million.
Her spokesman said she “shifted” the money to the Department of Streets, which performs some of the traffic-calming work, like installing speed bumps, but Nicole Brunet of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia was skeptical, testifying it’s not clear the money was used to improve safety.
“I want to know what those improvements look like. I want to know if they will put the safety of vulnerable road users over the speed of vehicles,” Brunet said.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who called the hearing, told the Parker administration’s representative at the hearing that the shifted funding was not getting results.
Thomas made it clear his purpose was to build a case for more funding in this year’s budget.
“What we want to do is put on the record that we are challenging and pushing specifically for Vision Zero.”
In a moment of irony, Council President Kenyatta Johnson grilled the administration on road safety. Johnson single-handedly tanked a plan to make the Washington Avenue corridor safer by refusing to allow traffic-calming measures on the part of the road that goes through his district.
Parker presents her budget on March 13.