PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia officials unveiled a new five-year plan Tuesday for Vision Zero, the program to eliminate traffic deaths in the city over time.
The city said 120 people died in traffic crashes in 2024, the majority of whom were pedestrians and cyclists outside of cars. That was a small improvement from 2023, when 126 people were killed, but far above Vision Zero’s stated goal of eliminating such deaths altogether.
Vision Zero manager Marco Gorini said the majority of those killed are children.
“Four school age children are struck by a vehicle each week,” Gorini said, “and while most of these crashes, fortunately, are not severe, every other week one of the crashes does result in a serious injury or, in some cases, a fatality.”
Gorini said the new five-year plan calls for physically separating bikes and walkers from cars and reducing speeds with bumps, circles and other traffic calming measures.
It also calls for more enforcement with red light and speed cameras, which address what a survey found are Philadelphians’ two biggest traffic safety concerns. Studies, both in Philadelphia and nationally, have shown cameras like those recently installed on Broad Street reduce violations and crashes.
The plan will especially focus on the “high injury network,” the 12% of streets where 80% of serious crashes occur.
Gorini also said they will launch an awareness campaign to instill a “safety culture” across the city.
“Safety culture refers to the norms, values and beliefs that inform travel behavior, the first step to ensure successful implementation of the safe system approach,” he explained.
Along with increased enforcement, that would include expanding education, such as the safe routes program in elementary schools.
The announcement represents the first Vision Zero plan since Mayor Cherelle Parker increased funding to the program after cutting it by 60% in her first year’s budget.