Green Ways Of Getting Around In Philadelphia
Public transportation plays a vital role in making the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region more sustainable. In addition to reducing millions of tons of carbon emissions each year, commuters and travelers who opt for public transit help reduce congestion on roadways, improving the ease with which residents and visitors alike can get around. Resort to these options when looking to make your commute throughout the Philadelphia area greener.
SEPTA
Philly’s network of regional commuter trains, the subway, buses and trolleys make it possible for commuters to travel economically and with ease just about anywhere in the metro area. SEPTA’s approach to sustainability, according to its website, is “triple-bottom-line,” encompassing regional opportunities as well as social, economic and environmental organizational needs with a “people-planet-prosperity” approach to decision making.
In August of 2012, the American Public Transportation Association recognized SEPTA for its industry-leading achievements towards its performance targets in sustainability. Citing SEPTA’s wayside energy storage project and aggressive campaign for hybrid bus use, and identifying SEPTA as a “national leader in sustainability,” APTA awarded a GOLD level recognition to SEPTA under its Sustainability Commitment.
Amtrak
Amtrak connects Philadelphia to key cities along the Eastern Corridor and serves the Philadelphia region as a hub for commuters who travel frequently to Washington D.C., New York City and Boston. Compared to traveling by car or plane, rail uses less energy, making it 20 percent more efficient than traveling by air and 30 percent more efficient than traveling by car on a per-passenger-mile basis, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Walkability and Bikeability
In 2013, Philadelphia was ranked as the fifth most walkable city in the country by the Sustainable Cities Collective, trailing behind only New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. According to the Walk Score website, which ranks over 10,000 neighborhoods for walkability, Philadelphia will hold the fourth-place spot for 2014 as the most walkable city, with Center City East, Center City West and Wharton/Hawthorne/Bella Vista neighborhoods noted for walkability, bikeability and access to public transportation.
Philadelphia will also rank number four for 2014 among the most bikeable cities in the U.S., according to Bike Score. Bikeability is measured in 25 American cities with over half-a-million residents by the community’s bike lanes, hills, concentration of bikers in a given area and road connectivity.
Car and Bike Share
Zipcar Philly is the car-sharing solution for those in the City of Brotherly Love who find it too expensive or inefficient to own and operate their own automobile. For those who would like to travel by bike but don’t have a bike available to them in the city, the City of Philadelphia’s up-and-coming Bike Share Program may be the answer. Beginning in 2014, bike share stations with 1,000 to 2,000 bicycles will be available in Philly neighborhoods from the Navy Yard through Center City and North Philly, reaching beyond the main campus of Temple University and stretching from the Delaware River to West Philly. With plans to connect commuters and residents to Philadelphia-area destinations, the program is slated to generate as many as two million trips on an annual basis by students, commuters, residents and visitors alike.
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Christy Ayala covers sports, recreation, the outdoors, and leisure activities in the Philadelphia area. She earned a masters degree in recreation administration from George Williams College and managed programs in the Midwest, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania. Her work can be found on Examiner.com.
