New Traffic Light at Brown and Woodland

Those who use Brown Street regularly will have noticed recently that, when the weather cooperates, crews have been working at the Woodland intersection.  They are completing the installation of a long-awaited traffic light midway between Wyoming and Stewart.  Another traffic light is being installed around the corner at Stewart and Rubicon.

Both lights are part of the last phase of the Fairgrounds Neighborhood Traffic Plan, scheduled for completion April 1.    This project has been in the works for more than four years as part of the neighborhood improvements that were incorporated into the Genesis Project.  The Traffic Plan has brought some much-needed alley improvements to both sides of Brown Street.  In the Fairgrounds Neighborhood itself the Plan provided for installing traffic calming devices to discourage cut-through traffic and reduce vehicular speed. The Plan also included a left-turn arrow at the Brown Stewart intersection, allowing vehicles traveling west on Stewart to make a controlled left turn onto Brown Street.

The new traffic light on Brown will be a boon to pedestrians, who will now have a safe mid-point crossing.  The light on Rubicon will give safer access to Stewart for vehicles leaving the neighborhood and the UD campus.  Both lights will contribute to the walkability of the neighborhood--an issue that has been talked about for a decade.  The light at Woodland, for example, will provide access to a landscaped, distinctively paved pedestrian walkway that the UD Master Plan proposes for the North Student Neighborhood as part of a campus-wide pathway system.  This will provide safe and pleasant access north along Alberta to South Park and south onto Campus East.

The traffic light at Woodland is a key development in the changing character of the Brown Street/Warren Street/Oakwood Avenue corridor.  It has a direct relationship to the traffic calming installations completed last fall on Oakwood Avenue.  The UD Master Plan proposes an extension of those improvements on Brown Street between Caldwell and Stewart, where safe pedestrian movement across Brown will be essential with increased development in the Mid Campus area.  The Master Plan, for example, refers to such features as landscaped medians and "dominant crosswalks."  Such changes will not only increase walkability but also encourage a "leisurely commute," as the Master Plan puts it.

What we are seeing is the beginnings of a serious effort to recover Brown Street for primarily local use rather than as one of several gateway routes to downtown for commuters from the south suburbs.  Kudos to Oakwood for setting the pace.  As Brown Street becomes more and more a "Main Street" for an emerging university district, through traffic will want to find alternative routes.  The dream of a lively, walkable urban village shows signs of taking shape.  The impact for the whole Center City South area could be huge.