SEPTA cuts could cause Center City gridlock and hurt the economy 

When SEPTA further reduces services and sharply hikes fares next week particular commuters are expected to switch to driving creating more traffic snarls on Philadelphia s already busy roads Driving conditions could worsen even further in January when the transit agency plans to shut down five Regional Rail lines and stop all train amenity at p m daily if the state doesn t come through with a funding boost before then That could be very bad news for Center City the region s main economic engine Given how tight traffic already is at peak times increasing the number of cars trying to drive through and park by even a relatively small number could lead to gridlock disclosed Clint Randall vice president of economic advance at the Center City District business organization CCD That in turn would discourage people from coming to visit Center City deciding to live there wanting to work in the district and forming new businesses which would stunt progress and even reverse the area s recovery from the pandemic he stated Nothing degrades the experience of enjoying an urban circumstances faster and more jarringly than a traffic standstill Randall revealed With this as the baseline condition how do we encourage new businesses to locate here and what incentive would existing ones have to grow A moment of total gridlock To illustrate the threat Randall and his squad looked at a map of Greater Center City the area between Vine and Pine streets and calculated that the greater part cars that could physically fit on the traffic lanes of its main arterial roads is about at any given moment Center City also has about parking spaces on streets and in garages and lots A figure for the actual number of cars on the streets at the busiest times was not available but CCD noted that more than people come into downtown over the class of a typical weekday including up to commuters and perhaps a quarter-million others That means if just of all the daily visitors decided to drive in one morning there could be a moment of total gridlock where literally no one could move Randall disclosed He noted that traffic already frequently comes to a standstill on the district s narrow streets due to various small changes in conditions The Center City District calculated that downtown s main roads can fit a maximum of cars at once bumper to bumper Center City District How a multitude of times have you crawled down Chestnut Street and minutes and three blocks later you find that it s one delivery truck that s parked four feet too far into a progress lane Or you try to get around City Hall and it turns out that there s one broken-down bus he explained The effects of parades protests and special events that block roads for longer periods give a hint of the disruptive effect of permanently increasing the number of cars downtown he reported Very little additional pressure on the system swiftly gets you to a highly unsustainable and unpleasant baseline That starts to be a matter not just for you if you re unlucky enough to be stuck in that traffic but it s a predicament rippling through the whole ecosystem Randall declared City transportation executives offered a similar warning last week saying the inescapable consequence of the SEPTA system cuts would be a significantly more fragile transportation arrangement overall The severity and duration of transportation disruptions due to traffic crashes and other unplanned events will be considerably greater than before Signs of recovery now at pitfall CCD staff laid out particular of the subtle tactics that increased traffic could impact quality of life in Center City in a blog post Wednesday Motors run brakes screech and cars honk particularly on roads where people aren t going anywhere fast they wrote Cars generate the largest part exhaust when standing still The urban heat island effect is exacerbated by the heat generated from thousands of running engines Gridlock means frustrated drivers anxious pedestrians canceled appointments delayed meetings ruined dinner dates missed opening acts Those effects would get worse just as Center City has certainly shown signs of recovering in part from the bleak days of the pandemic and of adjusting to the new normal of more people working from home While there s still a glut of unused office space and the Realm East retail corridor remains in an anemic limbo CCD communicated in May that foot traffic has climbed to of pre-pandemic levels overall retail occupancy has reached and the number of jobs in Greater Center City is at record levels SEPTA posted signs on Area Street and around the region alerting riders that their bus routes would be eliminated starting Aug Emma Lee WHYY Randall mentioned downtown Philadelphia risks experiencing a version of the quote attributed to Yogi Berra Nobody goes there anymore It s too crowded The singular destinations and economic opportunities available in Center City would continue to attract workers and visitors but if traffic becomes unbearable over time their numbers would start to erode he disclosed Why would you want to take a job downtown if that was your typical day Randall announced Why would you pick a Center City restaurant if that was what was likely during your trip to dinner Are you still going to get your subscription to that theater or that museum if you think it s such a headache to get there every time Or as CCD wrote in the blog post Past a certain point the inherent virtues of a place are not enough to overcome the downsides of reaching it and the aggravation of spending time in it Sustainable funding for SEPTA protects Center City s character enabling the strolling shopping dining and discovering that has made it a destination for decades they wrote Letting SEPTA fail will clog Center City s arteries and in so doing the downtown of Pennsylvania s largest city will cease to be the region s heart of commerce custom and connection The post SEPTA cuts could cause Center City gridlock and hurt the economic activity appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY