The NYT published a great piece the other day imagining and visualizing a Manhattan without private cars that prioritizes people - incorporating larger sidewalks, bus-only lanes, bike-only lanes, and many other features. It's a really beautiful piece to look at so I recommend checking it out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/o...an-cities.html
Center City is very far from banning private cars and would never be the first to do it. But we could go a long way towards minimizing private car use without hurting the city as a business and residential space (in fact, it would be a much better city for residents and tourists). Since I spend a lot of my time imagining a futuristic car-lite Center City, here is an incomplete list of things that the city could do in the next few years and in the intermediate future (say the next 5 to 20 years) to transition to a Center City where private cars are the exception rather than the norm for transport. Some of these ideas could and should be extended to other city neighborhoods. These plans should all be coupled with transit improvements like a greatly improved regional rail network, but that is a whole other issue.
Things we could do in the immediate future to chip away at private car usage in Center City:
- Ticket cars stopped in existing bike lanes and protect all existing bike lanes (with a row of parked cars or plastic bollards)
- Place forward facing cameras on all SEPTA buses to catch double parked cars
- Reduce speed limits on all Center City streets to 20 mph with all side streets 10 mph
- Start installing speeding camera and stop sign enforcement cameras in Center City (we already have a few red light cameras)
- Encourage restaurants to move their outdoor dining areas to "parklets" in parking spaces rather than on crowded sidewalks
- Institute new parking requirements on all Center City streets that require each space to be moved at least once per week (for loading zones and other purposes). We need a lot more loading zones anyway, but we need to make car ownership more of a pain. No more long-term car storage on public property in Center City.
Things we could do in the next 5 to 20 years to greatly reduce private car usage
- Build a complete protected bike lane network with multiple East-West (add at least one north of Market to complement Pine/Spruce) and North-South (two east of Broad, two west of Broad) lanes
- Make Chestnut a two-way bus only street with exceptions only for emergency vehicles and commercial deliveries. All existing parking on Chestnut would be reserved for delivery vehicles. Where private car usage is necessary (i.e. for existing parking garages), the cars should only be allowed to travel for one block on Chestnut before turning on to another street
- Close Sansom in certain areas to a pedestrian only street.
- Add a bus-only lane on Market going in both directions (and on JFK if necessary to complete the circuit)
- Add a bus-only lane on all North-South routes that go through center city. If car usage reduces enough for other reasons, this might not be necessary on every single route.
- Move all trash/recycling collection in Center City to on-street built-in bins (there is a visualization of this in the NYT article). This is done in some European cities and would help a lot to create more sidewalk space. The bins would also double as public trash cans. NYC needs this desperately but this would make things easier here and likely would make trash pick-up cheaper in the long run.
- Create a wide network of cameras to catch traffic violations, including cars driving where they aren't supposed to.
- Institute a congestion tax on people driving in Center City through on-street camera monitoring at, say, the area between Vine and South. I think this could be done in a way where you get a few free trips per month to make it a little more fair for people who come in for doctor's appointments and such.
Anyway, these are just a few of my ideas. Feel free to comment or add more.
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