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Our WTS Philadelphia Student Chapter held a walking tour of the Market Street and JFK Protected Bike and Bus Lanes project on Wednesday, April 26th.

The walking tour and presentations were led by Kelley Yemen, Director of Complete Streets for the City of Philadelphia, Troy Illig, PE, PTOE, Senior Transportation Engineer and Project Manager at WSP, and Will Cowan, PE, PTOE, Senior Traffic Engineer at WSP. The tour began at the WSP office with a presentation covering the history of Market Street and JFK Avenue, and the factors that led to this re-design. The presentation then discussed some key aspects of the design and testing that went into this project. This is a pilot project for PennDOT, so many aspects of the design had to be checked to ensure they would not negatively affect traffic flow through important corridors of the city. The city representative then touched on the budget side of the project and political factors that helped push this project to completion. She also discussed the successes of the project that the city has tracked and how it has spurred further similar design and construction in other parts of the city. 

Many of the students involved on the tour made meaningful connections, talking to the professionals leading the tour, and were able to ask one-on-one questions about various aspects of the design and decisions made. The students in attendance also said they were interested in the topic areas covered and look forward to future tours held by the WTS Philadelphia Student Chapter. 

The WTS Philadelphia Student Chapter would like to thank WSP for hosting the event and the event volunteers from WSP and the City of Philadelphia. We are very grateful to be able to share an exciting on-going project for the City of Philadelphia with our students. 

Check out photos here!