Philadelphia

It's sure to be a boon for SEPTA, the environment, and city employees’ quality of life, but can it be a model for other cities?

The post Philly Gives City Workers Free Transit. Can Other Cities Follow? appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

More capacity generates more travel, more sprawl, more pollution, and ultimately more congestion. It’s time to get off this treadmill.

The post So Much for ‘Carmageddon’ (Philadelphia Edition) appeared first on Streetsblog California.

A new federal "megagrant" program will fund major safety and transit projects that have been at the top of sustainable transportation advocates' wishlists for years ... along with business-as-usual highway expansion projects that could negate those mega-gains.

Of U.S. cities with more than a million residents, the one where people bike the most is Philadelphia. In 2012, the U.S. Census estimated Philadelphia’s bicycle commute rate at 2.3 percent [PDF], higher than Chicago (1.6 percent) and New York (1.0 percent).

For nine months now, Philadelphia's awesome new public space "The Porch" has been flying under the nation's livable streets radar.

In Philadelphia, your water bill used to be based only on your water consumption, as in most cities. Now, under the city’s Green City, Clean Waters initiative, your bill is a more accurate reflection of your water footprint, including the amount it costs the city to manage stormwater runoff from your property. This has been a hard pill to swallow for owners of parking lots and other entities that spread a large swath of asphalt on the city.

As the Senate opened its second round of climate change hearings today, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter delivered the urban case for climate legislation, outlining an array of infrastructure improvements and green reforms that would be made possible by federal action to reduce carbon emissions.