Traffic at the South Philly stadiums can be a mess. This business group has a plan to improve it.
At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, new board chair Christopher Franklin highlighted the top three priorities the region needs to tackle.
“How many of you have attended a sporting or a concert event at our stadium complex and say to yourself, on the way out, there’s got to be a better way to get out of this parking lot?”
That’s the question Christopher Franklin, the new board chair of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, asked a crowd of business leaders on Friday.
The audience laughed knowingly at the universally frustrating experience.
The Chamber gathered hundreds of people at the Convention Center Friday for its annual meeting, sharing an update on the business group’s priorities.
Franklin, who is also the CEO of Essential Utilities, and succeeds Independence Health Group’s Gregory E. Deavens as board chair, highlighted three areas that need improvement, including the traffic problem in South Philly.
The Chamber is focused on a short-term plan to improve the traffic in the area that includes computerized traffic signals, improved signage, upgraded ramps, and “better training [for] traffic personnel to support the Philadelphia Police Department,” he said.
“This could be big,” said Franklin.
Beyond the stadium area, Franklin noted the Chamber also wants to prioritize improvements to Philadelphia International Airport and find a long-term funding solution for SEPTA.
Funding public transit is not a city issue, he argued, but a regional one, pointing out that some city residents commute to the suburbs for work.
“We cannot continue to run to Harrisburg every few years and ask for short-term fixes,” he said. “We’ve got to work together to find a shared solution, and we recognize that we’re going to need the House and the Senate and the governor all to be engaged,” said Franklin, noting that State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) was in attendance Friday.
At the airport, the Chamber acknowledged recent improvements to the bathrooms, but Franklin emphasized there was still much work to do as PHL continues to rank last in traveler satisfaction in a national survey.
“We need to elevate the Philadelphia International Airport to a regional priority,” he said.
He called SEPTA, the airport, and the stadium complex “three of the most important assets in our region,” and noted that prioritizing the issues they face would “improve the flow of goods and services from our region to all areas around the world.”