Philadelphia Continues Traffic Calming Program

Philadelphia’s Lincoln Drive is set to receive a traffic calming overhaul, reports Aaron Moselle for WHYY, in an effort to make a dangerous stretch of street safer for all road users. Lincoln Drive is the second state road to get a traffic calming treatment thanks to a partnership between the city and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

According to Moselle, “A series of traffic calming measures will be installed along 1.5 miles of the state highway, between West Allens Lane and West Cliveden Street in West Mount Airy.” The upgrades include rumble strips, speed tables, and lane separators. “Lincoln Drive will be just the latest roadway in Philadelphia with some form of vertical deflection, a category of devices designed to slow down drivers that includes speed humps, speed tables, and raised pedestrian crossings.”

The city defines a roadway as having a ‘speeding problem’ if 85 percent of vehicles travel more than 5 miles per hour over the posted speed limit, Moselle explains.

Since 2015, the city has installed similar ‘vertical deflection’ measures on over 350 blocks, often at the request of residents. Once a request is submitted, “The Streets Department then conducts a two-week traffic study on the block, reviews crash data, and talks to neighbors to determine if the location meets its criteria for vertical deflection devices.”