City of Philadelphia - File #: 141049

• File #: 141049
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 12/11/2014
• In control: Joint Committees on Public Safety and Streets & Services
• Title: Authorizing the Joint Committees on Streets and Services and Public Safety to hold hearings on strategies and methods to reduce speeding, such as traffic calming, to make City streets, especially those in neighborhoods, safer for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and investigating how all traffic injuries and fatalities can be significantly reduced leading to the eventual goal of zero deaths, also known as a "Vision Zero" policy.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Quiñones Sánchez, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember O'Brien, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Oh, Councilmember Neilson

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
12/11/2014	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass
12/11/2014	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED & REFERRED

Title
Authorizing the Joint Committees on Streets and Services and Public Safety to hold hearings on strategies and methods to reduce speeding, such as traffic calming, to make City streets, especially those in neighborhoods, safer for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and investigating how all traffic injuries and fatalities can be significantly reduced leading to the eventual goal of zero deaths, also known as a "Vision Zero" policy.

Body
WHEREAS, Data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation over a five year period from 2008-2012, found that in Philadelphia there were 8,690 car crashes involving 9,051 pedestrians. These crashes caused 376 major injuries and 158 deaths; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey in April 2014, described the issue of excessive speeding on Philadelphia's streets an unacceptable culture which "Must change if we are going to save lives and reduce accidents . . . Current traffic enforcement tactics alone simply cannot bring that change"; and

WHEREAS, In 2012, this City Council enacted Bill No. 120532 which established a "Complete Streets Policy" in Chapter 11-900 of the Philadelphia Code. That policy requires that the safety and convenience of all users of our streets, whether they are pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit riders or drivers, be accommodated. The policy also prioritizes the safety of children, the elderly and persons with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, In 2008, the Philadelphia Streets Department embarked on an innovative effort to calm speeding by installing "virtual speed bumps," which are flat pieces of plastic burned into the street, with the configuration of the colored lines conveying the illusion that the driver is about to cross the real thing. These virtual speed bumps, about one-quarter the cost of actual speed bumps, were added to 130 locations in residential neighborhoods where speeding had been a problem; and

WHEREAS, A Vision Zero approach to reduce tr...