Blossom at Bartram!
Complete Streets Project
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 also home to a segment of the Route 36 trolley.
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 summer 2022.
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 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.
