The U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded North Philadelphia a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant to install six school slow zones.
The North Philadelphia School Zones Traffic Safety Project will build slow zones around six schools. Work will include continental crosswalks in place of standard crosswalks, concrete curb extensions at key community locations and at hazardous crossings, new Americans with Disabilities Act ramps, raised crosswalks at Neighborhood Slow Zone gateways, and redesigned Slow Zone advisory signage for drivers entering Slow Zone limits.
It will also include pedestrian enhancements, upgrading traffic signals and communications, resurfacing streets, and planting street trees.
The project is expected to begin in July 2026 and finish in June 2028.
“The North Philadelphia School Zones Traffic Safety Project is part of the City’s holistic approach to getting people to and from school safely, including Neighborhood Slow Zones and Safe Routes Philly,” said Mike Carroll, Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability deputy managing director. “The City will work with our North Philadelphia community partners to focus traffic calming around six schools that see high rates of traffic crashes and fatalities.”
In the project area, there were 418 crashes resulting in 156 injuries and three fatalities from 2017-2021.