A Map of Ideas...

The numbers on the map coincide with the numbers in the text below.

Philadelphia is known for being a revolutionary city in regards to government, but it is less known that Philadelphia is a city of revolutionary design. William Penn, the founder of the city, envisioned a peaceful farm-based metropolis where spacious gardens and orchards dominated the landscape. Penn is the reason why Philadelphia's streets are a thousand feet wide – space was the revolutionary concept behind Philadelphia.
However, the cities residents eventually lost sight of Penn's original vision. Philadelphia is still spacious, but falls very short of Penn's plans for natural beauty and farming to be incorporated into Center City.
Why Chestnut Street didn't work... In the late 1970's Philadelphia transformed Chestnut Street into a car-free, out-door shopping mall. The city was attempting to draw people back downtown and away from the popular suburban shopping malls. The city insisted on reconstructing the street which brought business to a halt for the up-scale shops that had resided there for many years. Most of the shops chose to relocate. They were replaced by fast-food restaurants, arcades and Dollar Stores. Chestnut Street became a baron wasteland of crime and with cuts in city services trash began to pile up.
Why Walnut Street Could Work... Presently, Walnut Street is similar to what Chestnut Street was in the early 1970's. It's lined with small restaurants, boutiques and other small shops that would benefit from a slower-paced pedestrian traffic and an increased availability of outside seating. No construction is needed to make Walnut Street Car-Free. The city could place removable barricades at the mouth of Walnut Street for each intersection to allow traffic to cross over but not turn onto the street.
Why We Need Car-Free Streets... Center City Philadelphia is tightly packed between two rivers. The city was designed to feel spacious and open. Currently, we have abandoned these intentions to an alarming degree. The incredible number of automobiles within center city greatly diminishes the sense of open-space we're intended to experience here by the city's founders. The intention of this advertisement is to create a dialogue within the city on how to deal with the growing number of automobiles crowding the streets. The city would benefit greatly by directing out-of-towners to multi-level parking garages just off the highway. If the city maintained an affordable parking rate and made it very easy to walk or be transported to attractions and services, less drivers would feel compelled to clog city streets looking for cheap metered parking.
The high-frequency of automobile advertisements make it difficult to believe the incredible volume of cars we're surrounded by is strange at all. Because of the way cars have effected our culture and because of their incredible numbers – It's important that we now make decisions about where automobiles are appropriate and where they are not.
The following alterations to this map of Philadelphia seek to bring back the natural beauty and slower pace of life Penn had originally intended for our great – and still growing city...


Item #1) Walnut Street is ideal to become a car-free street from the Schuylkill to the Delaware for the following reasons: shops on Walnut are already pedestrian friendly and would benefit greatly from a slower-paced pedestrian traffic; Walnut Street connects with Penn University's Locust Walk; Philadelphia's two great squares are located on Walnut; Independence Hall and other historical tourist attractions are located off Walnut; Penn University, Center City and Old City would be accessible through a bike/pedestrian friendly thoroughfare.

Item #2) Walnut Street Bridge would become a pedestrian friendly connector for University City and Center City. The bridge could host fares, festivals and other public events on what's becoming a scenic Schuylkill River.

Item #3) 2nd Street as a major attraction in Philadelphia would be better suited as a car-free street allowing pedestrians to freely move from venue to venue. Shops, restaurants and bars would benefit greatly from the slower-paced pedestrian traffic.

Item #4) If the North-West corner of City Hall and 15th Street (between Walnut and City Hall) were car-free, tourists would be able to appreciate Philadelphia's spectacular City Hall and surrounding parks. The small stretch of 15th Street – like Walnut – is home to some of Philadelphia's hottest bars and restaurants to grab a drink or bite to eat.

Item #5) Currently, the Ben Franklin Parkway is an elaborately landscaped highway with traffic lights – what is the solution to this glaring blight? Speeding-up the parkway makes little sense, so the obvious solution is to slow it down. The Ben Franklin could be slower in two ways: it could be grassed over as an extension of Fairmont Park or it could be reduced in lane-size to create parking space and lined with retail establishments. The Ben Franklin Parkway's diagonal route through Philadelphia's otherwise orderly grid of streets only serves to confuse drivers. The Parkway serves as a dangerous raceway through what should be a pedestrian route.

Item #6) An obvious challenge to making streets car-free is re-routing traffic. Traffic that would normally connect with the Ben Franklin Parkway from Kelly Drive could be diverted to Pennsylvania Avenue and Spring Garden Street. The diversion would force drivers into the city's grid system.

Item #7) Ideally, out-of-towners could be discouraged from driving around the city if multi-level parking garages were strategically placed near highway exits and other in-routes to the city. If the parking authority managed those garages parking prices could be kept low enough to encourage people to use them rather then search for cheaper on-street parking. The goal is to minimize the distance people drive through Center City.

Item #8) Another way to entice people to leave their vehicles and join pedestrian traffic is to make public transit the easiest way to move around the city. A trolley route traveling from South Street, to 5th Street, to Arch Street then 23rd street in a loop would connect most of the city's major attractions. If the trolley were free on weekends, cheap during the week and ran very frequently (every 15 minutes or so) the number of drivers in Center City could be lowered substantially.

Item #9) One major attraction within Philadelphia that isn't easy to get to is The Italian Market. A trolley on South Street would make The Market more accessible. The Market itself could be greatly enhanced if 9th Street, where the market exists, were limited to delivery traffic only. The slower paced pedestrian traffic and additional opportunities for outside seating would greatly benefit the shops within The Italian Market. Residents of South Philadelphia might also consider connecting a car-free Italian Market with a car-free East Passyunk Avenue where business' have experienced a recent boom.

This information is free and may be published anywhere with the authors permission.