We were at 18th and Market Sts. earlier today and noticed cones everywhere.

Cone city

Some more cones

Even more cones

After an initial moment of confusion, we remembered hearing about the Complete Street program, a joint effort of the Center City District and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities. The creators of this program are proposing changes to the traffic flow on Market St. and JFK Blvd., west of Broad St. They intend to reduce the vehicular traffic lanes from four to three, and create a separated bike lane and a more pleasurable pedestrian experience with greened medians. The ultimate vision of the program looks  something like this image:

Before and after. Image from Philly.com

So what’s with the cones?

For the next couple of weeks, cones and police barriers will replicate the effect that the lane reductions will have on traffic. Presuming that the traffic engineers are satisfied that car traffic won’t be drastically altered by the lane reductions, a significant hurdle will be overcome to make Complete Street a complete reality.

And in case you’re wondering, parking is still permitted on both Market St. and JFK Blvd. during the program trial. Normal parking regulations are in effect, except where otherwise indicated.

Be careful out there