Pedestrian islands are coming to Chestnut Street in West Philly

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Last month, Philadelphia’s Department of Streets began building what it calls “pedestrian refuge islands” at more than a dozen intersections along Chestnut Street in West Philly, between Cobbs Creek Parkway and South 43rd Street.

At around two car lengths long and nearly the width of a parking space, the islands of pavement will act as mini-sidewalks or bump-outs that will sit between the street’s protected bike lane and its two driving lanes, replacing existing paint and plastic flex posts.

According to Christopher Young, communications manager for the Streets Department, the intention is to improve visibility for both drivers and pedestrians. He added that the community has pushed to make traffic safety improvements along Chestnut Street, especially for pedestrians.

City Councilmember Jaime Gauthier, whose district includes the stretch of Chestnut Street, supports the project because most of her constituents walk, bike, or take public transit to work.

“I think we should be making our streets as safe as possible for everyone who’s traveling on them, particularly the most vulnerable people on the streets — bikers and pedestrians,” she said. “I’ve been trying to use my district as a model for what I think we should be doing all across the city.”

The pedestrian infrastructure project follows Chestnut Street’s repaving and redesign that began in 2022, which built a stretch of parking-separated bike lanes and shrunk the number of driving lanes from three to two. Both the 2022 project and the current construction of pedestrian islands are attempts to address what the city sees as a dangerous road.

Sections of Chestnut Street are part of a group of Philadelphia roads that account for the vast majority of severe traffic crashes, known as the “High Injury Network”. Eight in ten of the city’s traffic deaths and serious injuries happen on just 12% of its streets, according to the Vision Zero Philadelphia 2024 Annual Report.

That report found that since 2020, a majority of Philadelphians dying in traffic collisions were pedestrians or cyclists. Also, traffic accidents don’t affect all residents equally, according to the report. Crashes that kill or send people to the hospital disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic Philadelphians.

Pedestrian islands can improve safety by bringing pedestrians out from the sidewalk so drivers can see them better and by reducing the crossing distance, said Xiaoxia Summer Dong, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, who researches transportation and city planning.

“It reduces the exposure to traffic, whether it’s bike traffic or vehicle traffic. And both factors help to reduce collisions.”

Chestnut Street is also quite busy. According to Dong, some sections carry up to around 23,000 vehicles daily, which is relatively high for this sort of one-directional street with two travel lanes and parking on either side. Studies show that one-way streets are more dangerous and more prone to collisions because drivers tend to pay less attention to pedestrians, he said.

Heavy traffic has made walking along Chestnut increasingly difficult, said Raina Kulkarni, a healthcare worker and West Philly resident. It’s something she hopes the project will improve.

“I think any infrastructure that prioritizes pedestrians in this city, especially West Philadelphia, is really good,” she said. “I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Not everyone supports the plan. West Philadelphia resident Carl Morris worried the project could bring more traffic congestion to a major thoroughfare. He was against the shrinking of three lanes to two and said he rarely sees anyone use the bike lane, though he acknowledged his bias as a driver.

“There’s more congestion than ever before,” he said.

The construction will lead to partial lane closures in the short term as the builds continue in phases. On Wednesday, drivers had to merge a few car lengths back to a single lane from the corners of Chestnut and 45th and Chestnut and 43rd to avoid construction at those intersections.

In the long term, people concerned about losing parking spots or extra traffic congestion shouldn’t worry, said Professor Dong of UPenn, given the placement of the concrete islands.

The $1 million project, funded by federal grants and awarded to construction company Road-Con, Inc., will be completed by the fall, according to the Streets Department. The project will have a $1.6 million second phase, currently under design, that aims to build more concrete islands at intersections along Chestnut Street, according to Young of the Streets Department.