The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this morning on the ongoing illegal closure project the Bicycle Coalition and Philadelphia Streets Department have been working on since November 2018. Since November, people reading the Bicycle Coalition blog have seen, and reported, illegal closures of sidewalks using the Streets Department’s mapping system — and the City of Philadelphia announced, this morning, that the closures map and complaint system is official policy of the City. This is good news, but it’s important that if you see someone closing a street, sidewalk, or bike lane illegally, you report it. Use the below steps to do so.
Step 1: Take a picture and note the location’s address – the more specific you can be, the better!
Step 2: Look at the City’s webmap of street and footway closure permits to see if the project has a valid permit (or cut and paste https://stsweb.phila.gov/closephl/ into a new browser tab)
Step 3: If there is NOT a permit, fill out this form and attach the image of the project.
Step 4: If there IS a permit, but you see a violation, fill out the same form and attach an image of the problem.