Blossom at Bartram!
Complete Streets Project
Explore the Preferred Alternative
Click the map below to explore the preferred roadway redesign alternative for the Blossom at Bartram! Complete Streets Project study corridor.
Our recent outreach showed that most of you preferred Alternative 3, which proposed some of the most significant changes to the area’s streets. The preferred alternative that you can explore below combines Alternative 3 with some design changes that accommodate the technical needs of our stakeholders. The interactive map in the link also allows you to explore the previously proposed Alternatives 1, 2, and 3.
For more details on the results of our outreach that influenced the preferred alternative, please scroll down to the “What we heard” section below.
This corridor has been identified by the City of Philadelphia as part of its High Injury Network, with three people killed and one seriously injured between 2014 and 2018.
This corridor—located along Grays Avenue and Lindbergh Boulevard—is home to a segment of the Route 36 trolley and the site of a future maintenance facility.
This critical corridor connects residential areas and a potential health sciences hub to major nearby employment centers in University City and Center City. However, the roadway safety issues make it difficult for residents to access these opportunities, and ridership at trolley stops along this portion of the Route 36 are low. High-speed vehicle traffic caused by a poorly defined right-of-way and limited speed controls makes safely boarding and exiting the Route 36 trolley difficult, and significant issues with short dumping, abandoned vehicles, tractor trailer storage, and auto-body shop overflow leads to unsafe and blocked pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
Last year, SEPTA was awarded funding from the Federal Transportation Administration’s (FTA) HOPE Grant program to support transportation improvement projects in areas of persistent poverty that enable economic opportunity. SEPTA’s HOPE Grant study period is scheduled to be completed by fall 2022. In addition, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) has contributed over $330,000 to the Blossom at Bartram effort to expand the study area to 61st Street and to tie in with future investment at the PIDC North and South sites, which will become the Lower Schuylkill Biotech Campus. PIDC’s partnership with SEPTA is the latest contribution to over a decade of committed community investment in the Kingsessing neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia.
What we are studying and why?
The study scope includes not only elements of SEPTA’s Trolley Modernization Program, specifically ADA compliant on-street stations for the Route 36, but a holistic look at all modes and users, particularly people walking and biking, on the corridor with a specific focus on roadway safety and access to economic opportunity.
To learn more about this event, click the photo.
What we have heard
SEPTA wants to hear from residents as the Blossom at Bartram! Complete Streets project develops and will provide many opportunitiesfor the public to become involved over the course of the project. Below are details of the event that have already taken place.
Want to attend our next event? See what’s coming up!
In November 2022, SEPTA provided three events for the community to view and give feedback on the preferred alternative for the Blossom at Bartram! Complete Streets Project.
Your feedback on the three roadway design options was used to develop the preferred alternative. The preferred alternative combines Alternative 3 with some design changes that accommodate the technical needs of project stakeholders. In addition to showing the preferred alternative at the events, potential locations and conceptual ideas for six “gateway” parks were also presented. The goal of these parks is to create places that the community can enjoy.
The events engaged over 50 community members. At all three events, there was positive support for the preferred alternative, including the gateway parks. Attendees expressed interest in getting community groups, especially youth, involved with the design of the gateway parks.
- Safety was the biggest topic of concern across all public meetings and events. This included concerns such as vehicles speeding along the project corridor (especially on Lindbergh Boulevard), crime and personal safety, trolley station conditions (including inadequate lighting), trolley movements, and short pedestrian crossing intervals. Many participants were open to all interventions and alternatives as long as they made the area safer and did so as soon as possible.
- At public events, most residents appeared to agree that the project corridor needs “aggressive change.”
- Many public event attendees supported protected bicycle lanes.
- Street designs that could slow vehicles down appeared popular for residents in all of the public meetings.
- The most online survey responses (about 54%) came from the 19143 ZIP Code, which encompasses most of the project area.
- Alternative 3 was the clear favorite among online survey respondents for all street segments on the survey, with an average of about 60% of responses.
- Online survey responses from the 19143 and 19142 ZIP Codes, which encompass the entire project area, favored Alternative 3 even more. About 65% of respondents in this ZIP Code chose Alternative 3 versus about 60% when all ZIP Codes were considered.
- Alternative 3 was also the alternative that attendees preferred at all of the public events, although Alternative 2 was popular at the July community meeting as well.
- When providing open-ended comments in the online survey, the top two categories were support for better and/or protected bike infrastructure and a desire for more street trees and/or vegetation. Many comments also mentioned support for better pedestrian infrastructure and the need for general safety improvements. These comments generally correspond with respondents’ preference for Alternatives 2 and 3.
In April 2022, SEPTA held two public outreach events, one in-person along the study corridor and one virtual meeting. At these meetings, the project team presented what we heard from the community from previous outreach, and various potential complete streets treatments improve safety, connectivity, and attractiveness of the project areas for all users.
Community members asked questions about biking, boarding trolleys with non-powered mobility devices, construction, parking, speedbumps, and cameras. Participants expressed support for parking protected bike lanes, raised crosswalks, green spaces/flowers, and improved security.
In December 2021, SEPTA held one in-person and one virtual meeting to introduce the study to the community and collect feedback, concerns, and potential solutions.
The overall message from attendees was that the corridor is unsafe and unwelcoming. It needs to change to improve community quality of life, safety, and economic opportunity. This includes more parking enforcement, roadway redesign with the aim of reducing speeds and improving walking and biking conditions, better community-serving retail, and accessible and reliable transit.
- Roadway safety is a top issue for residents
- Quality of life issues were very important, including illegal dumping, lack of pedestrian connections and amenities at trolley stops and parking of shipping containers on 51st Street
- Two primary locations suggested for future trolley stations were outside the entrance to Bartram Village and on 49th Street, where the Route 11 and the Route 36 trolleys meet.
- Greenery and access to nearby parks must be improved.
Get Involved
SEPTA wants transit to be more useful to more people. To do that, we’ll need to hear from everyone – people who currently ride transit, people who used to ride, and people who have never ridden as well as operators, staff, and stakeholders. Sign up to be notified when there will be chances for you to hear more about the project and have your say.
