On March 1, attorney Joe Piscitello attended the 2017 Vision Zero Philadelphia Conference with other like-minded bicycle and road safety supporters. The conference presented the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s Hub & Spoke campaign, which proposes a new infrastructure for bike lanes and trails to better implement road safety.
What is Vision Zero?
Vision Zero is a collaborative campaign aimed at eliminating preventable traffic accidents and injuries. It started in Sweden and has since become multinational, with an established network reaching major cities such as San Francisco, Boulder, and Atlanta. Vision Zero works with the necessary stakeholders to address roadway design, inappropriate speeds, traffic enforcement, and other various factors that contribute to bicycle and road safety.
At the 2017 Vision Zero Philadelphia Conference, doctors, planners, politicians, engineers, crossing guards, advocates, and experts gathered to actively work toward improving road safety.
What Will Hub & Spoke do?
The Hub & Spoke campaign seeks to inform the public about a new infrastructure to be implemented on a series of roads and corridors over the next 5-7 years, designed to improve safety. These new structures are supposed to entice more people to ride their bicycles, and to significantly lessen traffic in areas prone to crashes. The campaign hopes to see the number of people riding their bikes to work to triple citywide, reaching 6% by 2020.
Image Reprinted with permission by GPBC
In order to reach these goals, the plan is to structure a bicycle network around the central business hub of Philadelphia, Greater Center City, and to make sure that each bike lane meets specific standards. In each street with a bike lane there should be a physical barrier or parking lane, or the bike lane should be an off-road trail. The goal is not only to improve road safety, but also to make bicyclists feel more comfortable on the streets.
The Plan Sees Progress
The Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) confirmed the planned and funded construction of one of the “spokes,” a left-hand parking-protected bike lane between 45th and 34th Streets. The lane will eventually be extended eastward towards 22nd Street.
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