PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Improvements to road safety for bicyclists and pedestrians are coming soon to North Philadelphia. A $16 million federal grant was announced last week.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says Philadelphia was chosen for the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant because of the city’s comprehensive plan to reduce traffic deaths.
“I’ll tell you, it was a stiff competition for these federal funds,” Buttigieg said.
“We see a vision that’s got everything from better crosswalk design and cross signals to separated bike lanes — all of which are going to lead to greater safety, which is exactly why we set up this program in the first place.”
The money will go to bike lanes and intersection safety along Hunting Park Avenue, from Wissahickon Avenue to Roosevelt Boulevard, and along Old York Road from Erie Avenue to Lindley Avenue.
Kelley Yemen, director of the city’s Office of Complete Streets, says the roads are in the city’s high-injury network, the 12% of streets where 80% of accidents happen.
““The roads where we’ve been able to do improvements, we have seen an improvement in reducing killed and serious injury crashes. The problem is, we haven’t been able to do enough of them, and this funding is going to allow us to do more of them in more places around the city,” Yemen said.
There were two kinds of grants—urban and rural. Hammonton, New Jersey, was another big winner, scoring one of the rural grants: $14 million to improve dangerous intersections on a one-mile stretch of Bellevue Avenue.
“Better design of crosswalks, better infrastructure for bicycles — that’s not just a recreational thing, that’s a life safety issue,” Buttigieg said.
Also in New Jersey, Cherry Hill, Maple Shade, Willingboro, Westfield and Medford got smaller planning grants.