As the Bicycle Coalition has done throughout 2018, members traveled up to Front and Luzerne Streets on Wednesday to bring more attention to Philadelphia’s traffic death epidemic. As noted in the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan, Philadelphia has the highest per-capita traffic death rate amongst its peer cities. Distressingly, pedestrian deaths by number, and percentage of total traffic deaths, has been increasing in recent years.
And last weekend, a pedestrian, whose name has not yet been released by police, was killed along Front Street in North Philadelphia. According to media reports, the pedestrian was killed around 4am on the 3800 block of Front Street. He later died at Temple University.
There was already a memorial set up to the victim, whom friends and family referred to as “Quil.”
The Bicycle Coalition has been documenting all victims of traffic violence since 2016, and, in 2018, began memorializing all pedestrian deaths, no matter where they occur. Too often, the public shrugs at victims of traffic violence, believing it to be inevitable.
We hope, through our advocacy, and through projects like PHLtrafficvictims.org, which tracks all traffic deaths in Philadelphia, we will bring more attention to unnecessary road deaths throughout the city.
Our current tally – based on media reports – noted eight traffic deaths through April 19. However, we recently got the first of our periodic counts from the Philadelphia Police Department, who’ve found 17 deaths through March 17. We will update PHLtrafficvictims.org as soon as possible.