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Council holds 40th/47th Street bike-lane changes after safety concerns from school and neighbors
Summary
Bills to convert 40th/47th Street traffic patterns and add protected bike lanes (bills 250266 and 250267) were the subject of multiple public comments raising school safety, emergency access and parking concerns; council placed the bills on hold.
Philadelphia residents, Saint Francis DeSales School officials and neighborhood advocates urged City Council on April 24 to pause proposed traffic changes on 40th and 47th Streets that would narrow vehicle lanes and add parking-protected bike lanes.
Multiple speakers — including Theresa Feo and Lynn Hogben (residents), Sister Mary McNulty and Sister Beth Bartholomew (Saint Francis DeSales School leaders), and Father Ryan (parish priest) — told council that the plan could create drop-off bottlenecks, impede emergency vehicles, and put elderly and schoolchildren at risk during student arrival and dismissal. “We have restricted emergency access. The EMT responses for strokes, heart attacks, or child injuries will be impeded on 40 Seventh And Springfield during peak times,” Feo said.
Neighbors said 40th Street is the only vehicular access for some residential blocks and that conversions to a single travel lane would push queuing into adjacent narrow streets, endangering children and complicating deliveries and parking. “If this is a 1 lane street, lines of traffic will build up all the way down blocking access to these streets,” Lynn Hogben told council.
Council staff earlier noted on the calendar that bills 250266 and 250267 would be held; during the public-comment period, speakers asked the full council to suspend the plan until additional engineering studies, community engagement and emergency-access evaluations were completed.
Outcome: The transcript records that bills 250266 and 250267 were being held on the calendar (no final vote). No formal amendment or approval occurred during the session.
Why it matters: The bills would change traffic directionality and lane widths in a neighborhood adjacent to a school serving roughly 450 children, according to testimony, and neighbors and school staff said the proposals require further study on queuing, emergency response and electric-bike interactions with children.
Speakers who testified included residents and school leaders from Saint Francis DeSales and community members directly affected by the proposed changes. The council did not adopt the proposed lane changes during the April 24 session and signaled they remained under consideration.
