794 S FRONT ST

Philly continues its long streak of not being award anything from FTA's CIG program...because this region is incapable of cobbling together any sort of local match anymore

Transitland's new Pathways Explorer lets anyone visualize subway/train/bus station layouts, inspect wheelchair-accessible routes, and test station navigation using GTFS-Pathways data in public feeds. More on our blog at www.interline.io/blog/explore...

5th Square wants to see full removal of parking minimums near transit, a larger coverage radius, by-right multifamily housing in all districts near transit stops, and a station list that reflects the full breadth of Philadelphia’s transit network.

These bills are a welcome step toward more housing near transit, but their scope doesn't quite address our massive housing shortage. The entire Broad Street Line, Regional Rail, and trolley network aren't covered, and parking mandates near transit remain intact. 1/

New Jersey Transit is not an arm of the State of New Jersey and does not have immunity from out-of-state lawsuits. That's the unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. go.audacy.com/jOvktdojg1b

I am flushed with pride that somebody featured in one of my Philly Phlush stories bought a high-quality print of the story from our website, got a nice frame for it, and hung it in their bathroom. Folks, urine in luck because I will be taking all of your puns about this today. Pees and thank you.

I've realized that laypeople have next to nothing to bring to the table when it comes to preservation. People who've invested $0 of their funds trying to dictate every last decision to a developer trying to do right to a long-neglected building. You should be mad at the City for abandoning it!

War on Cars is coming to Philly! Presale is open to 5th Square Advocacy members today. Become a member today and get your tickets ⬇️ 5thsq.app.neoncrm.com/forms/member...

Not to be beaten by cunning developers, Jay Young has apparently introduced a new bill that would require *all* new developments involving conversion to finish construction in just 6 months! Dude just gives zero fucks anymore phila.legistar.com/LegislationD...

Fair and through evaluation of how far SEPTA has come in just a few years in terms of new user experience. Rolling out more concourse maps and using more obvious transfer signage at 15th/City Hall would go a long way (like the continuous color tape MTA tried)

Coatesville, Pennsylvania Pop: 13,069 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatesville,_Pennsylvania Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14185980 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49735655 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=143285422

There is now a possible world where Kenyatta J. Johnson is more progressive than Zohran Mamdani on basic street safety

A new report by @thedotcity.bsky.social quantifies the economic toll of downtown freeways, and the economic potential of tearing them down. The 66K acres that downtown freeways occupy could yield more than half a trillion dollars of development and over $5b annually in property taxes.

Great example of how the Historical Commission uses its statutory power to cut down units even when they have *zero* visual impact from the sidewalk, here a rear ADU from 5 to 3 units. This death by a thousand cuts is underreported and contributes to the housing crisis www.phila.gov/media/202407...

Monday's Most Read # 1 - RTD has been paying contractor for rail service residents didn’t receive link.theoverheadwire.com/3r89f Denver Post

The author of: Study of comprehensive transportation plan in Kurdistan (1988) Assessment of subway for passengers transportation (A case study of Tehran) (1997) may have passed.

Excited to announce a new report, by the Center for Building in North America and @cmiflin.bsky.social's Center for Zero Waste Design – on the high cost of waste handling in New York City! Article in Vital City below on it, full report here: centerforzerowastedesign.org/all/advocacy...

A little ironic how Railway Age editors complain that "elite privileged groups" like the RPA were given private briefings about Amtrak's proposed organizational breakup but then drop this alternative to the FRA plan out of nowhere from an unnamed source www.railwayage.com/passenger/in...

Excellent ruling that will hopefully raise the criteria bar for all historic districts going forward. Create small thematic districts with one significant historical narrative instead of grouping 1000+ properties with a "period of significance" over a century as backdoor density restrictions

epicenter looks like Bordentown to me, knew they were up to no good

It's underreported how Compass Rail in New England and Virginia's passenger rail (and to a lesser extent Empire Corridor) have been leveraging latent NEC ridership to build meaningful secondary networks. PA has a similar spread of major secondary cities but has done literally zero in that time

Some office districts got Keystone Opportunity Zones waiving almost all state & local taxes. New offices were built there. Center City did not get any KOZ. Residential conversions are a direct response to local policies, giving tax abatements to convert but nothing to stay as office. Not inevitable!

Easily the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen a transit agency do.

New meta-analysis of 26 published studies concludes that AVs will lead people to use cars a lot more — which would thicken congestion and worsen pollution (even if AVs are electric). "AV deployment is anticipated to lead to an overall increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled." doi.org/10.1016/j.tb...

After hearing yesterday that Philly's chief housing officer's vision this year is legalizing 3-story with retail in rowhouse corner lots...they need to do a lot more work in studying building code reform

Via @inquirer.com

PennDOT recently held its first town hall webinar to answer public feedback and questions on the long discussed passenger service between Scranton and NYC. The ongoing service development plan process should be wrapped up by 2028.

Just got off the phone with my accountant and the City of Philadelphia HATES small businesses. They somehow managed to make us pay even more taxes than we already were

en.protothema.gr/2026/02/25/r... Railway.gov.gr seems to be working, and it’s very interesting. It supports only Athens - Thessaloniki trains for now, the accuracy is actually good enough to check on which track the train is on. There’s also a live feed of the front of the train, that’s crazy! 🤓

My research article “Quantitative Method for Assessing the Quality of Intermodal/Interagency Connections and Service Integration at Suburban Rail Stations” has been published in the @trb.org Transportation Research Record. This is based on my MASc @uoft.me on coordination between transit services.

I wrote about my white whale, the Neighborhood Commercial Overlay in Fishtown and Northern Liberties, which doubles the amount of time it takes to open a restaurant. The ZBA approves 97% of these cases, making it more like a toll booth than a gate

The people have spoken, that was always the easy part. Now it is on Amtrak and Brandywine to do the right thing and allow the colocation of intercity buses at 30th Street, as is the case in the District Plan

Philly's old Greyhound bus station will reopen under city management in May. But long-term? Weigh in with your thoughts on the city's 3 official options at town halls, the first of which is TONIGHT from 6-8 p.m. at Independence Visitor Center. billypenn.com/2026/02/18/i...

Who knows what a primary in two years against unknown competition would look like but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't win his own state.

On further digging, the building on the right is also visible in these two shots, which show the block at different stages of demolition - fascinating how much archaeology about the disappearance of this neighborhood is contained in these photos!

Philadelphia Parks and Recreation is set to roll out the city’s first dedicated trail-maintenance crew, a pilot program funded by a $600,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation.

This is pretty rich coming from Chester County when plenty of roadway projects get funded into final design without confirmed construction funding. The difference is there's always willpower to spend funds that could be flexed on pedestrian improvements onto highways instead

Spare me your "Fine Wine and Good Spirits" rebranding Give me this straightforward look (Johnstown, PA 1977)

Yes, that works. It seems like a good-faith attempt to estimate bird-building collisions, and it suggests that bird strikes involving high-rise buildings account for just 0.8% of the annual total!?!

One day we will have the after too

This would be great and could help defray high per-vehicle costs associated with a small order, but: Amtrak will be relieving at least some of its ACS-64 locomotives with new dual-mode Airos in the near future, and MARC could easily use those as a cheap transition into EMUs

Spatial patterns of access-density mismatch reveal infrastructure gaps and strategic opportunities for new housing

Journalist Ben Max's assessment of the significance of this:

PA State and local officials doing their part to NIMBY proposed ICE detention centers. The Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act are now load-bearing regulations against mass detention s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Looks like Philadelphia has the largest percentage of deadly paint-only bike lanes in the Northeast at 38%. No surprise when there was a big push in the early 2000's to stripe in 5-ft lanes everywhere they could, but no further effort to improve on it

if you’re ordering delivery in this weather you should be banned from public life

Grade separating with a mostly disposable new bridge