One gauge of a city's health is its mobility.
A city that thrives is one where congestion doesn't become gridlock, where commuters, shoppers and beer trucks can coexist. Bustle is good, immobility is bad.
For Philadelphia's next mayor, the big transportation challenges will be to improve mass transit and deal with chronic traffic and parking problems. And the mayor will have to persuade skeptical suburbanites to help because the city's transportation network is the hub of a vast regional web.
"Where does transportation land on your priority list? It has to rate very highly," said Steven Wray, executive director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, citing transportation's importance to the region's economy.
Center City "can't continue to boom without a transportation policy," said Vukan Vuchic, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
As the mayoral campaign heads for the May 15 primary, SEPTA is $130 million in the hole, facing its latest budget crisis. Center City's newfound popularity is producing weekend traffic jams. A transit system designed for early 20th-century Philadelphia has trouble coping with sprawl and "reverse commuting." And ambitious proposals for new transit projects sprout like daffodils in April.
Among the city's most pressing transportation issues facing Philadelphia, local transportation experts cite these:
SEPTA funding. Without enough dedicated funding, SEPTA has to depend on a financial rescue from Harrisburg every year. That makes it hard for the agency to plan for next month, never mind the next decade, as it limps from budget crisis to budget crisis. Gov. Rendell has proposed a permanent tax on oil companies' gross profits to fund mass-transit agencies in Pennsylvania.
Transportation chief. Mayor Street did away with the Office of Transportation, so the responsibilities are spread among the office of strategic planning, the planning commission, and the streets department. A single person to oversee all transportation issues could streamline administration.
SEPTA board seats. Philadelphia has long felt slighted by its small representation on the SEPTA board. By state law, the city has two representatives on the 15-member board, the same as each of the four surrounding suburban counties. Any change requires an act of the state legislature.
