On Tuesday, April 16, Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability hosted a meeting at Palumbo Recreation in South Philadelphia to discuss remaking eight blocks of 11th Street.
Eleventh Street is due to be repaved this year. And, as part of that repaving project, OTIS plans to install a two-way protected bike lane on the west side of the street, and pave over the unused trolley tracks that haven’t taken care of the 23 Trolley since the early 90s.
As noted in the South Philly Review, residents at the meeting were generally supportive of the plan.
Bicycle Coalition members and staff who were present had a similar reaction, and are glad to see OTIS’ meeting format working well for community residents.
We are supportive of this plan for a 2-way protected bike lane along 11th Street.
While we’d like to see the protected lane go further south, and north, this is a good start for adding protected infrastructure in South Philadelphia.
South Philly has the highest “mode share” of commuters who ride their bicycle to work in the city and, actually, at 8.1 percent, the third-highest of any neighborhood U.S. Census tract in the United States. It’s about time South Philly gets some real infrastructure.
All the boards from that meeting are available to view here.