Where/how could the city add more pedestrian walkway?

[eldondre]

My point is that we've done a great job building up the river as a recreational destination but there is no commerce.

over the summer they shut down walnut st near rittenhouse for a movie. It was a pleasure walking down the middle of walnut st since the sidewalks are often overcrowded. it also allows you to more fully appreciate the city's architecture. obviously you can't simply shut walnut down without a plan for all the buses but it's a glimpse that it's not really outside the realm of possibilities to have streets turned over to pedestrians (the world doesn't end) provided there's some adequate plan to deal with diverted traffic. a secondary option would be to take one of two lanes and give it over to expanded sidewalk space or seating. on a few occasions I've seen 18th st shut down and tables put in the traffic lanes, life goes on. it's much less disruptive than shutting down the parkway and well served by transit.

[Dave]

over the summer they shut down walnut st near rittenhouse for a movie. It was a pleasure walking down the middle of walnut st since the sidewalks are often overcrowded. it also allows you to more fully appreciate the city's architecture. obviously you can't simply shut walnut down without a plan for all the buses but it's a glimpse that it's not really outside the realm of possibilities to have streets turned over to pedestrians (the world doesn't end) provided there's some adequate plan to deal with diverted traffic. a secondary option would be to take one of two lanes and give it over to expanded sidewalk space or seating. on a few occasions I've seen 18th st shut down and tables put in the traffic lanes, life goes on. it's much less disruptive than shutting down the parkway and well served by transit.

Sansom would be a good choice for a pedestrian-only street. Too bad it already seems to have been decided that it's going to be a loading/parking street.

[eldondre]

Sansom would be a good choice for a pedestrian-only street. Too bad it already seems to have been decided that it's going to be a loading/parking street.

think they decided that back in the 60's. as recently as ten years ago they planned to replace minar palace with a garage but recently that surface lot has become a ten story apt building with no parking. the city could designate it as a passenger corridor I suppose and make long term plans to convert it. at the very least they could convert drury.

[lucidinnature]

I've always thought that South St should be closed to cars on the weekend, maybe from 6th to front. Let trucks make deliveries in the morning, and put up barriers later on in the day. The Italian Market is a good idea, too.

I'll entertain this...namely, since it was tried before and proved to be an epic failure.

So, we'll close south street. Now you just closed a 75% of the street parking, which will alienate customers, piss off neighbors who already face limited parking, and cause people to loiter and roam in QV and Society Hill. And then, you've got the issue of South Street being an emergency route due to the fire station being on 6th and south...so, for each block 'blocked', you would need police on station to quickly remove barriers in case fire trucks or EMTs had to respond to an emergency. That happens about once or twice a day. Additionally, this can not be some open concourse of empty meandering since each cross street must remain open to traffic-so, each corner will become a steeple chase of corralling people back onto the sidewalks to cross 5th, 4th, 3rd,and 2nd.

And what would be the gain? For people to walk around? They can already do that. Such a thoughtless act would cause devastating effects to the many businesses that rely on a mixture of traffic, and if people have a hard time getting to where they want to go? They'll go somewhere else.

[Gen 3 Electric]

Reading Viaduct Project

Philadelphia’s Reading Viaduct gets the ‘High Line’ treatment | SmartPlanet

https://www.facebook.com/readingviaductpark

Thank you I was looking for this info.

[kidphilly]

This has been discussed before. The city is still scarred by the Chestnut Street Transitway but I agree that the Italian Market on weekends is a no brainer. I don't know if the merchants would see the wisdom though it would add a ton of foot traffic. My only concern is that Washington at 9th is already a cluster**** with all the traffic and double-parking which could be made worse.

The other opportunity I see is the Rittenhouse Square area Friday and Saturday nights, 18th St between Locust and Sansom, and Walnut between 19th & 17th. Let the restaurants have seating spill out into the street, add street vendors, encourage retail to stay open later. Traffic diversion would be minimal.

18th was set up this way during the Rittenhouse Arts Festival - was actually nice and the cafes all added seating. That said I am not sure if its really required. as the side walks while busy arent maxed out

Walnut is generally more backed up with car traffic - I dont think it really takes away anything personally

These days 13th between Chestnut and Locuts actually seems more pedestrian clogged to me

[Dave]

think they decided that back in the 60's. as recently as ten years ago they planned to replace minar palace with a garage but recently that surface lot has become a ten story apt building with no parking. the city could designate it as a passenger corridor I suppose and make long term plans to convert it. at the very least they could convert drury.

Just wait til council reinstates the off-street parking requirements in the zoning code (see thread link below)

http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/fo...ning-code.html

[eldondre]

Just wait til council reinstates the off-street parking requirements in the zoning code (see thread link below)

http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/fo...ning-code.html

ugh