City Planning at Its Worst ...

This month was the grand opening of Philadelphia's newest skyscraper, the Cira Centre. Located on the western banks of the Schuylkill River, atop the trainyard feeding into 30th Street Station, it is the tallest building in Philadelphia outside of Center City. It is a modern glass sculpture rising up from Amtrack trains passing through the yard below street level. A structure this city has never seen, it takes on a completely different look from every angle, seeming to almost disappear into the sky when the sun reflects off its glass. At night, a brilliant display of changing lights on every floor light up the facade like a carnival ride. It's a building so out of the ordinary from the typical skyscrapers built in this city that it stands out as a tribute of the future into which Philadelphia is embarking.

However...

Architectural planning has already been comprimised with the poor design of traffic flow around the area with the addition of this highrise. Situated alongside the circle of traffic that encompasses 30th Street Station, the Cirra Centre is also attached to a new parking garage that accomodates both workers in the building and Amtrack and Septa passengers, not to mention its location is about 50 or so yards away from the off-ramp of the Schuylkill Expressway.

In a nutshell, traffic around the train station complex has all but completely grinded to a halt, especially during evening rush hour. It's always been less than an ideal situation, with cars exiting the expressway and being forced to turn right at the top of the ramp, going around 30th Street Station (now past the Cirra Centre) and continuing on to Market Street, the city's main East/West artery.

To make matters worse, just a 1/2 mile west of the off-ramp on the Schuylkill Expressway, The Vine Street Expressway merges with the Schulkill, bringing with it traffic from Center City and I-95 from the East. So technically, you have 3 major highways that wind up using one off-ramp to exit at 30th Street Station. Top this with the endless parade of taxi cabs circling the train station and now the added traffic from the new parking garage next to the Cirra Centre, and what do you get?

Gridlock!...

Yesterday, I was on the bus coming home from work. Snow had already been falling, already doubling the 45 minute commute from King of Prussia into Center City. The bus was hot and crowded and I really needed to go to the bathroom. When I saw the skyline quickly approaching, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I was a few short minutes from home (and the bathroom). And then the gridlock. What normally takes about 30 seconds or so to get from the top of the off-ramp, around 30th Street and continuing down Market Street into Center City had slowly grown to an agonizing, bladder inflating 15 minutes! Cars exiting the expressway merged with 2 lanes of traffic circling the station which merged with 2 lanes of traffic exiting the new parking garage which merged with 2 lanes of taxi-traffic. Six lanes which then merged back down into 3 as it rounded the western side of 3oth Street, making it's way towards Market.

Granted, a parking garage was definately needed, but better traffic planning is also needed. Instead of spending God knows how many 10's of thousands of dollars used to computerize the lighting scheme for the outside of the new building, a bridge should've been built from the parking garage, over the railroad tracks behind the Cirra Centre and connecting to JFK Boulevard on the west side of 30th Street Station. This could've taken traffic from the garage away from merging traffic from the expressway and right out to Market Street 2 blocks west.

But noooooo...

No one ever thinks of traffic before the fact, only when horns are honking and complaints start rolling in from drivers.

The Cirra Centre is rumored to be the beginning of a new growth of buildings that would stretch into adjoining University City. I certainly hope someone's light goes off before the next shovel of dirt is removed from the earth.

The Cirra Centre officially opened it's doors in early December. The traffic nightmare around one of the country's largest train stations has just begun...