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Originally Posted by Skintreesnail
Very tragic and horrible. Went to the vigil yesterday, lots of people came to pay their respects. Sadly this kind of thing is way more common than it should be. There was also a death around that same time of someone standing on the sidewalk getting hit. There needs to be more enforcement of speed limits, traffic laws and more traffic calming measures. It's crazy that we can't feel safe biking or walking in this city and that cars are put first so often. Walking my daughter to school has resulted in a bunch of near misses as cars run stop signs, traffic lights, speed around turns, or just driving erratic. I bike to work periodically up 22nd, and while the parking protected section feels safe, north of south street does not at all. Our council member fought safety improvements to Washington ave, one of the more dangerous corridors in the city where there have been numerous pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. It seems to take forever for any changes to occur, even simple things like raised crosswalks speed bumps, intersection bulbouts run into ridiculous bureaucratic walls. Something fundamental needs to change in city hall to fix that, which just doesn't seem to be happening.
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We need more bike lanes, yes. But we live in an era where cars are simulataneously more powerful and quieter than they've ever been before. We also live in an era where most 20-30 years olds have grown up watching Fast & Furious and playing Gran Turismo and the average person thinks they're a Formula 1 driver. Add to that all the distractions we have as drivers (phones, etc) and it's a recipe for disaster.
It's one thing to drive 85 on I95. It's an entirely other thing to drive 55 or 60 on Delaware Avenue, or Lehigh Avenue, or Allegheny Avenue or Lincoln Drive, which we all know is too often the case. At this point, I think the answer is just a massive amount of traffic enforcement. Due it through cameras, speed bumps, additional traffic patrols etc. People should know if you're gonna drive over, I dunno, say 35 miles an hour on Spruce Street in Rittenhouse Square or Society, you WILL get a ticket, no if ands or buts about it.