Subrban Sprawl transcript

Bill Fantini looks at transportation issues in discussion with commuters, Septa, PenDOT, and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. [Listen via RealAudio]

efx: trucks & traffic

* Rush hour in the Delaware Valley.

voxpop: There's no rush to it. Ah...the people... driving. They drive like idiots

* And for many commuters, getting back and forth to their little piece of heaven requires some doing.

voxpop: I got a 55 mile ride. I try to avoid anything I can, so...o Ever think about moving closer?oo Nope! Never. I'm from New Jersey, out in the stix. I got about 18 acres out there. So, I kind of like it that way

* He may like it that way, but MOST people would like to make their travel easier...especially as traffic gets WORSE. While Philadelphia does NOT rank in the top-10 nationally for longest average commutes, the region DOES have roads with some of the worst congestion in the country.

efx: shadow traffic report / X-fade to Hendrix "Crosstown Traffic"

* The scene today is a far cry from 1818, when a stage coach ran from 6th & Chestnut to points in Merion, Valley Forge and French Creek...a full day's trip each way. But PenDOT district administrator Andy Warren says some current problems in road design can be linked to the history of the region.

Warren: Actually, you do need to go back to the indians because so many of the highways that are today highways began as Indian trails. In time they were just worn, paved, and became roads.

* Warren adds that more recent history - roads built when hiway traffic was tamer and lighter - also contributes to congestion and sometimes-hazardous conditions.

Warren: For example, anyone who has ever tried to get on the Turnpike while coming south on 309, knows there is an entrance of people coming on to 309 within 100 yards of where someone wanting to exit 309. And that cross pattern is very difficult. People look at that and wonder 'why in the name of goodness did anyone create anything like this with all the traffic we've got here?' Those highways and exits and entrances were designed some 35 to 45 years ago. 309 may have had less than 40,00 vehicles a day going 45 miles an hour. Where today, there are in excess of 80,000 vehicles a day going in excess of 55 miles an hour.

Some relief is expected from projects such as the additional lane being carved out of the grassy stretch that is already part of route 202 or the direct connection in the works from route 422 to the Schuylkill Expressway. But, for the most part says Warren, we can't just BUILD our way out of congestion.

Warren: We have got to use better the highways that already exist. Ramp meters going into effect on the Blue Route. Traffic signals that can communicate with each other so that when there are backups building on one road, the light sequecing will change automatically on the cooresponding road. We have cameras on the major highways now; Vine Street, 95, so that we can see when there is an incident, and hope to get it cleared quicker. Those are the type things that need to be done now.

Music: Rusted Root: "Drum Trip"

Cohen: Today, people are starting in multiple locations and they are ending in multiple locations, and trying to form patterns and densities that make public transportation a viable way of moving people around is much, much more difficult than it used to be.

* That's Bernard Cohen, assistant general manager for SEPTA... which faces the challenge of molding a public transportation system built at the last turn of the century into a viable force for the next century. Sprawl is a big part of that challenge. In the last 30 years Philadelphia lost 500-thousand residents while the population of the surrounding suburbs increased by about 300,000. The city also has gone from providing 59% of the jobs in the region to only about 32% today. Cohen says one way SEPTA is trying to address the situation is to form transportation hubs at key locations in the suburbs to help people transfer from one line to another.

Cohen: We have created transportation centers at 69th street, Norristown, in Chester, for example, where our customers can transfer from one suburban route to another route. We've also created transportation centers in a variety of shopping malls. So, for example at places like King of Prussia and Grannite Run, Oxford Valley, Willow Grove Park. Those shopping malls have become transportation hubs where people can transfer from one bus to another. And then finally we have identified a number of railroad stations to serve the same purpose. So, it's really trying to create networks within the suburbs.

* Cohen says SEPTA already has started a couple of new services in the suburban market. For example, a service in the Hershom district that started out at 150 riders a day and now has about 1000 riders a day...and a new custom bus service connected to the Paoli and Stratford stations.

Cohen: We are telling people that if they call us the day before, even if they don't live directly on the route, if they live in the vicinity of the route, we will come pick them up. It's called flex route service. We're seeing big ridership growth on bus routes that leave Center City and go out to King of Prussia. 1800 riders in 1989 to over 4,000 today. So, we're working pretty hard to see how we can reconfigure routes as we did within Norristown recently, or creating new routes as we're looking at in Bucks county to see how we can help people with their mobility problems.

efx: bus / Grateful Dead "Terrapin Transit"

* Despite the momentum of development and suburban sprawl... many experts say we gradually built ourselves into a traffic jam, now we'll have to back out of it by the same route. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, formed thru a compact between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, recently issued a report titled "New Regionalism". It advises rebuilding and reclaiming existing communities in stead of building on new sites. Patty Elkis is Senior Regional Planner with the DVRPC. Elkis says concentrating growth would make it easier to use public transit or even walk, rather than drive...thus reducing congestion and travel times...and increasing quality of life.

Elkis: Americans have a love affair with their car. And they love the freedom that they think it gives them. However what happens is, everyone uses their car and we all get stuck in traffic. The other point is, when you're driving your car, other people on the road sometime seem to be your enemy, like who's going to get there first. But when you're walking or biking, you say hello to people if you're biking you wave to the other person biking by. Other modes of transportation seem to be friendlier, not only to the environment but just in terms of friendlier between people.

* Yes, friendlier, says Elkis...as she points out there is NO SUCH THING as pedestrian rage. Still, the lure of open space and quiet surroundings is more than many people can resist. The paradox for planners is that with continuing suburban growth, there is the risk of creating the same kind of density people hoped to escape in the first place. I'm Bill Fantini, 91-FM News.

Return...