Greater, Greater Washington’s Cavan Wilk posted a fantastic piece about the possible end of shopping malls that had me wondering what the changing economics of these staples of suburbia could mean for this region.  Wilk’s points to a recent piece in Slate that is among the first from outside of the traditional “urbanist” movement - [...]

The piece in today’s Inquirer about the Ghost Bike movement brings to mind a lot of items that I’ve been reading on sites like Streetsblog (NY), Greater Greater Washington (DC), Philadelphia Bicycle News (Philly, of course) and elsewhere that attention is called on a regular basis to the difficulties of cyclists and walkers in this [...]

Not too many leftover since I’ve actually had a pretty productive blogging day but here goes:
Philebrity has video of a report by CBS 3 about a roving gang of teen girls that has been jumping young women - college students and young professionals - and robbing them.   The latest occured at 15th and Bainbridge, an [...]

Being an advocate of transit and a frequent rider myself, one of my favorite subjects to write about (and often deride) is our own Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.  So I meant to post this item from SEPTA Watch - the blog I’d love to do if I someone weren’t doing it already - but Philadelphia [...]

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia marked the closing of the South Street Bridge on Monday with one last ride.  Apparently they hadn’t already popped enough tires and bent enough rims in the bridge’s many potholes and jagged metal grates.  As the Coalition’s blog proudly notes, the “last vehicle to cross the South Street Bridge [...]

If I’m here much later, I may just get to share SEPTA Watch’s cool sighting:

A BSL train sat parked on the tracks.  It hadn’t pulled up all the way.  No one was getting on or off.  And as I walked towards it, I noticed that most of the windows were covered.
I had stumbled upon the [...]

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced today that he will hold 8 town hall meetings to explain to the public the criteria he used in cutting city services. In addition the mayor says he wants to explain what led to projected 1 billion dollar budget gap over the next 5 years.
Meetings will be held from 7-8:30/9pm [...]

The entire press release, which includes an interesting history of the bridge, a full summary of changes in design that have been implemented as a result of community opposition to the original plan and details about the detour, is after the jump but let’s go over some of the highlights:
The Department of Streets is seeking [...]

By Joe Casey, General Manager of SEPTA
In the joyous frenzy that preceded the Phillies victory parade the dilemma facing SEPTA was simple arithmetic; how does a transit system that is already operating at full capacity accommodate a tidal wave of people going to the party?
The answer, while extraordinarily difficult to accomplish, is still basic math; [...]

Origially Posted: Friday, Oct 31 @ 9:51pm
I didn’t take the train in this morning but I heard from many co-workers that they spent the morning watching packed trains pass them by. Throughout the day I read reports of crowded platforms at Market East Station. So I’ve decided to give you an open thread to for [...]