By the Numbers: More Park, Less Way

Last night the Department of Parks and Recreation and PennPraxis unveiled a new action plan for making the Benjamin Franklin Parkway a livelier civic space, as PlanPhilly’s JoAnn Greco reports. Rather than focusing on long-term plans or high-cost projects More Park, Less Way: An Action Plan to Increase Urban Vibrancy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway emphasizes a more granular menu of moves that can be executed within the next three years. Among them: Reshaping four underused spaces between Logan Circle and the Art Museum by adding amenities for leisure, active recreation, and play; creating flexible civic spaces for small-scale pop-up events and citywide celebrations; improving connectivity between Parkway spaces (and by extension neighborhoods); creating management structures to fund and program public spaces with activities around the clock and year-round for a diversity of users.

You can browse the report for yourself (plus this in-depth transportation addendum). Here is a look at More Park, Less Way by the numbers:

More Park, Less Way Index::

• Number of residents within a 10-minute walk of the Parkway: 70,000 across 7 neighborhoods
• Percentage of those residents who commute by bicycle, public transit, or walking: 60%
• Number of those residents under age 18, and above age 65: 5,000 and 10,000 respectively.
• Number of visitors to the Parkway annually: 600,000
• Amount of special events in 2011 that included full or partial closure of the Parkway: 24
• Number of cars using the Parkway per weekday: more than 30,000
• Number of public restrooms on or near the Parkway: 5
• Amount of money PennDOT will spend replacing 10 bridges from 18th to 22nd streets in the next 5 years: $110 million
• Funds spent on 2011 streetscape improvements campaign:  $20 million
• Number of residents who participated in four public planning meetings: 300
• Civic values reflected in the plan: 5
• Length of the plan’s focus area, from Logan Square to the Art Museum: .75 miles
• Number of “underutilized” acres along the Parkway: 17
• Amount of distinct new park areas proposed for these underused acres: 4
• Net number of parking spaces lost on Pennsylvania Avenue: 0
• Quantity of  problematic intersections identified between 20th and 26th streets: 14