PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Just one more step and the stroller would have been on the curb. The thought haunts Latanya Byrd years after a driver racing down Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia struck and killed her 27-year-old niece, Samara Banks, and three of Banks’ young sons as they crossed the 12-lane road.
Highlights
- Roosevelt Boulevard is an almost 14-mile maze of chaotic traffic patterns that passes through some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods and Census tracts with the highest poverty rates.
- Driving can be dangerous with cars traversing between inner and outer lanes, but biking or walking on the boulevard can be even worse with some pedestrian crossings longer than a football field and taking four light cycles to cross.
- The city is hoping for federal money to begin a long-term redesign of Roosevelt, outlined in a study released in a report released in May 2022.
- The study includes a series of smaller projects to improve safety at high-fatality stretches on the road by 2025, but residents are skeptical.