Transportation & Utilities

Philadelphia has well over 200 miles of bike lanes. MOTU’s challenge has been to connect the disparate legs of this network and bring it into the heart of Philadelphia. The East-West Protected Bike Lanes on Spruce St and Pine St connect Center City from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River. The North-South Bike Lanes on 10th St and 13th St makes it even easier for bicyclists to come into Center City. In fact, MOTU’s entire bike lane network expansion has made it easier and safer for everybody to access Philadelphia’s many amenities. Check out a map and comprehensive listing of Philadelphia's Bike Routes.

When the South Street Bridge closed in December of 2008, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities worked closely with local stakeholders to make sure that when it was rebuilt, it would serve all users, from pedestrians to bicyclists to, motorists. The bridge re-opened in November 2010, on budget and on schedule, to great public fanfare.

The use of green stormwater infrastructure is rapidly increasing in Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter's six year plan to make Philadelphia the greenest City in America, GreenWorks Philadelphia “recommends that the natural link between land and water be reconnected so that green stormwater infrastructure becomes the City’s preferred stormwater management system.” As such, the City will establish and standardize green stormwater infrastructure into the planning, design, and construction of capital work on the City’s streets and develop a corresponding manual. To do this the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities is working with the City of Philadelphia's Water and Streets Departments toproduce a Design Manual for Green Stormwater Infrastructure for the City of Philadelphia.

Using Federal Department of Energy stimulus funds the Streets Department is replacing the incandescent yellow and green bulbs in traffic signals with LED lighting. The red bulbs are already LEDs, but are nearing the end of their 10-year life, so will also be replaced. This project will reduce energy consumption by half and save the City of Philadelphia $700,000 - $1,000,000.

In the three years the Streets Department has also delivered incredible results for tax payers and the environment by improving the City's recycling rate. The City of Philadelphia has made phenomenal progress with recycling by, more than doubling the diversion rate since the mayor took office, from 7.5% to 18%. In the first three months of this fiscal year we hit a 17.2% city diversion rate. This earned the City more than $1 million in revenue and avoided more than $15 million in landfill costs.