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Except that in Philly the idea is to fill in the trench from the Ben Franklin Bridge south to Washington Ave (or thereabouts) and replace that ~1 mile stretch of the interstate with a Blvd. People flip out like it's the end of the world "all that traffic! where's it gonna go!?"
If you're part of the general flow of traffic coming down from Northeast Philly, 80% of it exits on to 676 or takes one of the local exits into Center City in the vicinity of the Ben Franklin.
Another 10% take the next exit 3/4 of a mile further down. Another 5% are exiting at the Walt Whitman Bridge (or one of the local exits at that interchange)
In a nutshell 95% of the traffic in between the bridges is coming from or going to some place in between the bridges.
I agree, the Philly plan is reasonable.
Some folks who commute from York County PA to downtown Baltimore told me, "THAT IS GOING TO KILL MY COMMUTE!" I was like, really? You had no problem adding 25 minutes to your commute for some perceived tax advantage but another 3 is going to kill it?
Except that in Philly the idea is to fill in the trench from the Ben Franklin Bridge south to Washington Ave (or thereabouts) and replace that ~1 mile stretch of the interstate with a Blvd. People flip out like it's the end of the world "all that traffic! where's it gonna go!?"
If you're part of the general flow of traffic coming down from Northeast Philly, 80% of it exits on to 676 or takes one of the local exits into Center City in the vicinity of the Ben Franklin.
Another 10% take the next exit 3/4 of a mile further down. Another 5% are exiting at the Walt Whitman Bridge (or one of the local exits at that interchange)
In a nutshell 95% of the traffic in between the bridges is coming from or going to some place in between the bridges.
These numbers seem really high to me
The airport alone might be more than 5%
There are nearly 2.5-3.0 million people that which this stretch would be the most direct N/S stretch would be the easiest
They just seem really high to me. And on 676, I saw a stat where it is less than 55% actually not sure where will see if I can find it
There are nearly 2.5-3.0 million people that which this stretch would be the most direct N/S stretch would be the easiest
Where does this 3 million people number come from? I would be impressed if there are 700,000 people who live within 5 miles of I-95 between Girard Ave. and Scudders Falls.
I could see the argument that "people from Bucks and the Northeast have to get to the airport" but how many people from Wilmington are really commuting to Bucks?
Most people who use 95 south of Girard Ave. are destined for Center City or points west (University City for instance), the waterfront, South Philly or South Jersey. Cross-metro commuting just doesn't happen in big numbers. Most people work in their home county and most people work within 10 miles of where they live.
And probably the most important thing to note is that traffic counts are trending downward on that stretch of highway anyway.
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They just seem really high to me. And on 676, I saw a stat where it is less than 55% actually not sure where will see if I can find it
It depends on what time of day it is. Those traffic counts go way down after rush hour and the counts that exist are really difficult to interpret because they're all at different times of day, different years and different times of year. That has a big impact on traffic counts as, in this case, you need to subtract the number of people exiting between Girard and Oregon as well as the number of people entering at those onramps from your aggregate.
A serious analysis is possible but to my knowledge hasn't been done (and probably won't) because too many important people are afraid of what the answer will be. I was still working in a job close to the traffic counts when some of those more recent counts were done and looking at it and talking to colleagues about it - the through traffic argument doesn't hold up.
Still, I said 80% are exiting onto 676 (which goes east and west)or adjacent exits. When you take that ramp you can exit on to 2nd St/Callowhill, 6th St, or the Vine St. Expressway - a big chunk of that traffic is headed for the Ben Franklin, Callowhill or Old City/Market East area.
Last edited by drive carephilly; 05-09-2013 at 09:49 AM..
Except that I-95 IS a through road. It's I-95, THE major north-south highway on the East Coast. I remember when you had to get off around where the Pratt Bridge is and deal with all the panhandlers doing the window-washing scam. It was not good.
Some folks who commute from York County PA to downtown Baltimore told me, "THAT IS GOING TO KILL MY COMMUTE!" I was like, really? You had no problem adding 25 minutes to your commute for some perceived tax advantage but another 3 is going to kill it?
A York County commute to Baltimore is a straight shot down I-83. I-95 and Philadelphia aren't even involved (and no sensible detour would use I-83 if I-95 in Philly was shut down).
Except that in Philly the idea is to fill in the trench from the Ben Franklin Bridge south to Washington Ave (or thereabouts) and replace that ~1 mile stretch of the interstate with a Blvd. People flip out like it's the end of the world "all that traffic! where's it gonna go!?"
If you're part of the general flow of traffic coming down from Northeast Philly, 80% of it exits on to 676 or takes one of the local exits into Center City in the vicinity of the Ben Franklin.
Another 10% take the next exit 3/4 of a mile further down. Another 5% are exiting at the Walt Whitman Bridge (or one of the local exits at that interchange)
In a nutshell 95% of the traffic in between the bridges is coming from or going to some place in between the bridges.
I still don't see the reason why it should be filled in and turned into a Boulevard, when a bunch of it is already covered, just continue this along the waterfront stretch and you don't have to mix and mingle any thru traffic, a little or a lot, with building up a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly waterfront. Instead you'll have traffic coming from two ends of an Interstate highway traveling at high speeds suddenly have to slow down to half their speed and mingle with pedestrians, bikes, parked cars and traffic lights only to go right back onto a highway portion. Yeah, you can of course set a slower speed limit, but lets be honest because you know that's not going to mean anything. And if you'd like to see an example of this, just go take a walk around the West Side Highway any given night after 9-10pm around midtown and watch the madness ensue. Yeah, really nice "vibrant" place to walk around while you have cars coming off a limited access highway at 59th street racing each other at 55mph+ in a 35 to see how many green lights they can make in the completely off-sync string of lights. Not to mention, any thru traffic already has Columbus Blvd, which has it's own ridiculous light sequence and takes forever to get through lol.
Except that I-95 IS a through road. It's I-95, THE major north-south highway on the East Coast. I remember when you had to get off around where the Pratt Bridge is and deal with all the panhandlers doing the window-washing scam. It was not good.
The real through road for traffic uninterested in Philadelphia is the NJ Turnpike, I-95 is a bit more circuitous.
A York County commute to Baltimore is a straight shot down I-83. I-95 and Philadelphia aren't even involved (and no sensible detour would use I-83 if I-95 in Philly was shut down).
The topic is highway removal ... I can't talk about possibly highway removal projects?
Except that I-95 IS a through road. It's I-95, THE major north-south highway on the East Coast. I remember when you had to get off around where the Pratt Bridge is and deal with all the panhandlers doing the window-washing scam. It was not good.
I-95 isn't even completed. It loops around Trenton and becomes I-295. Who knows when the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority get started on the I-95/I-276 interchange in Bristol. The main through road would be the New Jersey Turnpike. Even I-295 serves a more efficient through route than I-95.
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