(Please consider Donating, Too!)
Thanks to funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Kaboom! Play Everywhere Philly Challenge grant, and generous individual donors, Hunting Park will be home to Philadelphia’s first traffic park.
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (BCGP) plans to open the Lil’ Philly Safety Village on May 21, 2021, as part of National Bike to Work Day.
About Lil’ Philly Safety Village
The Lil’ Philly Safety Village is a kid-sized bicycle park where children and adults can learn to navigate city streets and infrastructure and get familiar with road safety. The Bicycle Coalition chose to install the park in an area with outdated road infrastructure and dangerous traffic conditions – Hunting Park.
According to BCGP’s deputy director, Stephanie Fenniri, the Coalition wanted to address the following concerns:
- ‘Hunting Park residents, who are mostly Latino and Black, are statistically more likely to struggle with health problems and adults are more likely to live sedentary lifestyles.’
- Due to discriminatory lending and planning, lower-income Philadelphians have a hard time finding places to learn street safety.
- Hunting Park is home to many of Philadelphia’s most dangerous streets (identified in the city’s Vision Zero Injury Network as the 12% of Philadelphia streets responsible for 50% of all traffic deaths and serious injuries).
- The pandemic has created a ‘huge bike boom,’ and now is the perfect time to pass the gift of cycling on to future generations.
Why Your Donation Still Matters
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia envisions a city where “anyone can enjoy a safe and fun bike ride on a network of connected Circuit Trails, bike lanes, and low-stress streets.” Its mission is to make bicycling a safe and fun way to get around for anyone in Greater Philadelphia.
On Giving Tuesday, we donated to help this important project become a reality. After receiving the $60,000 grant from funders, the Bicycle Coalition still needed to raise funds. Fortunately, gifts were matched from generous donor, Mimi Sheller, which helped the organization raise $9,820.
The Coalition will continue to raise funds throughout the springtime until ribbon cutting takes place on May 21, 2021. Your donation not only helps with Lil’ Philly Safety Village but also makes the region a better, safer place for all bicyclists and pedestrians. For $35, you can become a member of BCGP, or you can donate to the ongoing Lil’ Philly Safety Village campaign here (gifts of $35 or more come with a 1-year membership to the Bicycle Coalition).
Our team at Piscitello Law is proud to support this innovative project and BCGP, and we hope you consider contributing.
For information on the other 15 unique play spaces which are slated for 2021, check out this article which includes an excellent, interactive map: https://bit.ly/3gDJ4MV
Let’s hope that the New Year brings a new level of joy and healthy living for all children in our community.
As always, we are available 24/7 to provide free legal consults after bike crashes, and you can contact us at (215) 372-8768 or online.