City of Philadelphia Managing Director Adam Thiel delivers opening address at Vision Zero PHL 2024 conference. Photo by Chris Young.
PHILADELPHIA– Elected officials, community leaders, city staff, safety advocates, engineers and planners came together for the 10th Vision Zero Conference to discuss the future of Vision Zero in Philadelphia. The conference took place at Temple University on Friday March 22nd. A complete list of speakers can be found on our website.
The all-day conference featured eight panel discussions and a keynote conversation. Panels covered a range of topics from the future of automated traffic enforcement, challenges of community led traffic calming projects, the place of cars in public parks, making North Broad Street the cleanest, greenest, safest street in America, and more.
The first few years of this conference were critical to raising the priority of street safety in the city and led to Mayor Kenney signing an Executive Order to create the VisionZeroPHL program in 2016.
“For Mayor Parker to achieve her goal of making Philadelphia the cleanest, greenest, and safest city in America, eliminating traffic fatalities needs to continue to be a priority of the administration,” said Christopher D. Gale, MPA, Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. “In order to save lives, we all must work together to invest in a future where streets are safe for everyone.”
The VisionZeroPHL program is now at a crossroads. In the last 2 years, the city has earned over $350 million in federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law discretionary grant funding leading to historic investments in improving pedestrian, bicycle, and driver safety. However, in 2023 Philadelphia saw a record number of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities. Mayor Cherelle Parker spoke at the pre-conference reception and reaffirmed the City’s goal of eliminating traffic fatalities by 2030 by signing her fourth executive order.
Mayor Parker kicks off Conference by signing a new Executive Order committing Philadelphia to eliminating traffic fatalities. Photo by Chris Young.
“This executive order signals a recommitment and renewed focus for the City to execute on the values and goals of Vision Zero,” said Michael Carroll, Deputy Managing Director for Transportation and Infrastructure. “We are proud to stand with Mayor Parker as the administration takes a big step toward addressing traffic safety and therefore the general wellbeing of all Philadelphians, regardless of transportation mode. Together, we are making the changes needed to deliver on the Mayor’s vision for a cleaner, greener, and safer city, with economic opportunity for all.”
Thank you to all our speakers, moderators, sponsors, and all the attendees for spending the day with us and making this 10th conference the best attended in our history. We look forward to deepening the conversation on these issues next year.
Photo by Chris Young.
Founded in 1972, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia leads the movement, through advocacy and education, to make every bicycle ride safe, to empower youth and adults to ride, and to foster a ridership that reflects the diversity of the region. Read more about our work at bicyclecoalition.org.