Traffic Calming Review in Philly vs. peer cities (New York, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis)
Previous related posts here and here.
About a year ago, the City announced major changes to the way they review requests for traffic calming/speed bumps. I submitted a new RTKL request to find out more. The City produced a memo from an outside consultant, but withheld one of the appendices. I did a second request specifically for the appendix - a review of best practices for traffic calming/safety studies in other US cities - then had to spend a year fighting the city to make them produce it. The Office of Open Records ruled against me, after which I called in a favor with my friend/lawyer Dan and we appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. On April 1, 2025, the Court ordered the City to produce the document, and they finally did.
I don’t know why they fought so hard to not disclose this memo (other than the fact that it recommends doing a bunch of stuff the City appears to have no plans to do...)
It’s an interesting read. Beginning on page 16, they summarize their interviews with representatives from other cities. Across the board, every city cited staff capacity as an issue - there are just way more requests than people to handle it.
Chicago sounds like as much of a shitshow as Philly
The full memo is here:
And here is the Order compelling the City to produce the above memo! Woooo I love to win.