Recent comments in /f/philadelphia

cjw_5110 t1_jegx29h wrote

Reply to Hot take: bus rapid transit on the boulevard would be better than a subway by avo_cado

For it to be legit BRT, it would be a pretty significant investment. You would need a protected bus lane. That lane would need to be legitimately protected, meaning concrete barriers between it and lanes. It would need to be in the inner drive right lane since the southern portion has housing. There would need to be stations, not little bus stops; those stations would require metro-like fare gates (unless the city decides to go proof of purchase, which I can't imagine happening) so that passengers can enter and exit freely from all doors. To get the stations set up without further restricting traffic flow, and to handle passenger volumes, you'd probably need elevated stations with stairs and elevators on each corner of each stop.

You would need to reconfigure every intersection so that the BRT lane either bypasses the intersection above or below, or so that the buses automatically trigger a barrier, like how trains trigger barriers. You'd further need to create barriers to prevent other vehicles from the possibility of entering the lane.

All of that is probably doable...on the boulevard. Where you run into trouble is at Broad. If you terminate the line at the BSL, you fail to create a one seat ride to center city, which would eliminate a ton of ridership (you can already take a two seat ride as is: virtually every cross street on the boulevard in the neast runs a bus to FTC, so this would only be slightly faster, if at all).

If you want to take it into center city, how do you do it? Running down Broad is one option, but you don't have the space to do the same kind of things you can do on the boulevard, plus you have engineering concerns with the BSL underneath. You might buy some advantage with signal priority, but traffic will slow it down. Can't do lane protection unless you use the innermost lane, do away with parking, and ban loading and unloading, but even then that only works if you express all the way to center city, bypassing Temple.

Aside from Broad, there's no road that even makes it feasible unless you run the bus down the Roosevelt Expressway and the Schuylkill, but that, again, bypasses Temple.

Yes, a boulevard subway is hard, and no, it doesn't solve issues north of Cottman, where everything was built to support car based living, but it could have a to transformative effect to join North Philly with the greater Northeast. A one seat ride, protected from traffic, from the city line all the way to Temple and City Hall? That's massive.

Then, to make it more meaningful, you go further, and it doesn't have to be crazy! Create two shuttles between the boulevard subway and the FTC: one at Oxford Circle, and one at Bustleton Ave/Levick St. The shuttle would be free.

Last, create an express bus on Cottman, with stops at Bustleton, Castor, Algon, Five Points, and ending at Ryers. Keep the same rolling stock on the Fox Chase line, but convert the fare structure to transit vs RR. Now you have linked the entire lower northeast to center city, north Philly, and itself in a way that has never been possible. The far northeast gets the short end, but there really isn't the kind of density you need to support additional rail transit West of the boulevard by the time you hit Pennypack.

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ahrn_pa t1_jegx0yf wrote

Reply to comment by pseudohipster98 in Person shot on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line in West Philadelphia by WestPhillyFilly

If that's true, (and it's not) how come people aren't dropping by the hundreds or thousands every day in places like Florida, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Louisianna, all of PA except for Philly? These are places with more guns than people (by far), but somehow the people aren't killing each other en masse. It's much more complicated than guns. It's easy to point at guns and create a scapegoat. That is easier than dealing with social issues, and inequality. Broken homes and school systems are hard to fix, and expensive to fund. So what's a politician to do? We can always blame guns and then try to ban them so it looks like we are doing something. Got a problem? We got a boogeyman for everything. Kids don't listen? It must be that devil music or violent video games. The economy not working for you any longer, well we better start building a wall to keep migrants out. Let's just keep blaming things on others and not address the root cause of anything, that's sure to be a formula for success!

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archguy20 t1_jegvcva wrote

Reply to comment by gut46 in Doing construction work without a permit by gut46

http://www.tonerarch.com/

Call this architect, I highly recommend them for a project like this. The city is looking for a drawing (however simple) of the work that is being performed. The architect will make that drawing and submit the correct permit app to the city on your behalf, as well as connect you a qualified contractor that has experience performing this work.

It will be worth it knowing that the work is properly documented and permitted. Having the architect's stamped drawings and approved permit gives you protection is issues arise during or after the project is complete.

As others have mentioned, if a contractor performs this work w/o permit and something happens his or your insurance may not protect you.

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