A Plan to Make Philadelphia's Market Street More Like Main Street

Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron takes a look at a changing approach to street design in a changing part of the city—Market Street in Old City. For a little background, automobile traffic Market Street "has plunged by a third, even as the neighborhood's old cast-iron warehouses were filling up with thousands of new residents." That trend inspired an opportunity for the recently released Vision 2026 ("more of a wish list than a master plan," explains Saffron) to propose "a profound shift in thinking among neighborhood leaders." That is, "the Old City District - a business group that is usually all about bringing more traffic into the neighborhood - eagerly embraced the idea of making Market Street less like a highway-style thoroughfare and more like a friendly neighborhood Main Street."

Saffron notes that similar ideas about complete streets are also finding traction in "in many of the recent master plans issued by other neighborhoods that straddle Market Street." Schuylkill Yards, the Science Center, and the Center City District, explains Saffron, "all are looking for ways to tame traffic."

The rest of the article takes a closer look at some of the precedent-setting master plans, the bad recent track record of fatalities along Market Street, and an important suggestion about how to get the most from the planning efforts underway in Old City and along and around Market Street.