In May, Feet First Philly, Clean Air Council, 5th Square, and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia released Recovery Streets – a proposal for the City of Philadelphia to rethink our public street space in order to get through COVID-19 ahead of where we started. There have never been so few cars on the road as when the City was in a stay at home order, and air quality had never been better. Since then, the city has responded to the proposal in modest ways by expanding Play Streets and expanding opportunities for restaurants to use parking spaces for outdoor dining. Unfortunately, traffic has started to return to Philadelphia’s streets, and congestion will only get worse if action is not taken on the other parts of the proposal. There is an opportunity and need to prioritize pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders during this pandemic and eventually when we get to the other side of it. The Recovery Streets proposal has been signed onto by 21 organizations and almost 1000 individuals. If you haven’t already, add your name now and help us get to 1000 so we can better advocate for more open streets, calm streets, protected bike lanes, and bus-only lanes.
Feet First Philly 