In our fifth community listening session of the season, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, AARP PA, PECO and the Vision Zero Alliance heard from neighbors in Hunting Park about traffic and safety issues in their neighborhood.

The listening session, hosted at Esperanza, was facilitated by De’Wayne Drummond of the Mantua Civic Association and asked residents to speak amongst each other about the problems they face on a daily basis while navigating their neighborhood.

Residents noted some of the worst areas for double-parking, speeding, abandoned vehicles, and the ignoring of traffic signals throughout Hunting Park. They included 9th and Roosevelt Boulevard, Wyoming Avenue, 9th and Bristol, basically the entirety of Cayuga Street, 6th and Allegheny, Lawrence Street and Luzerne Street.

Our organizations have been hosting these community listening sessions, in part, to better understand where communities want to see changes and traffic calming measures, and to give the city a better picture of what residents throughout the worst parts of the high-injury network want their streets to look like. North and West Philadelphia are, by far, the most dangerous sections of the city.

If Philadelphia wants its Vision Zero program to make a real impact, every community needs to be part of the conversation.

So, we are listening to the people directly affected by the most unsafe conditions in the city, to better serve them.

So far, we have heard from neighbors in University City, Cobbs Creek, Kensington, and Hunting Park, and most agree: Traffic violence is a serious problem in Philadelphia, neighbors want solutions, and even have a few of their own.

Some of the most common fixes residents at our listening sessions have mentioned have been speed cushions, more crossing guards, corner clearances, more stop signs, and, in many cases, more red light and speed cameras in place.

Our organizations are hosting one last listening session as part of our current data collecting period. That session will be for the neighbors in the Fairhill and West Kensington sections of North Philadelphia. Through their local community organizations, people in those neighborhoods will receive details about the dates and times of the listening sessions.

For those interested in the formatting, organizing, and implementation of our listening sessions, we will be discussing it at one of the 2019 Vision Zero Conference’s Breakout Sessions, on March 16. More information is available at VisionZero2019.org