Roosevelt Boulevard
Route for Change Program

oTIS is responsible for managing the Roosevelt Boulevard “Route for Change” Program, which is a 3-year planning effort funded by a $2.5 million USDOT TIGER planning grant, in addition to another $2.5 million by the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). While many plans have tried to address how to fix the Boulevard, safety is still a significant concern. Over the past 5 years, there have been over 3,000 reportable crashes, which have resulted in over 50 fatalities, 20 of whom were pedestrians.

Roosevelt Boulevard, stretching 14 miles from Broad Street to the Neshaminy Mall in Bucks County, currently gives preference to the 90,000 vehicles that pass through the Boulevard on a daily basis. The current conditions do not provide safe access or connectivity to the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses, and crossing the Boulevard by foot to access transit and destinations is a challenge for all. In addition, bus travel times along the Boulevard is almost twice as long as trips by car.

The challenge over the next three years will be to develop a program with continuous, and increasingly transformative, changes that will create a more inviting corridor; one that will be safer, more accessible, and more reliable for all users including residents, pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, motorists, and visitors. The Route for Change Program will identify early actions and guide more long-term ideas in order to create a 2040 Vision for the Boulevard.