📣 Comment at SEPTA Board Meeting / 🚲 Bike Usage Is Up / 🚌 SEPTA Is Getting Safer

📣 COMMENT AT SEPTA BOARD MEETING

There's a SEPTA board meeting coming up this Thursday at 3pm. We'll be there--will you join us?

We'll be speaking about the status of the New Bus Network, real-time arrival signs, and a dedicated trolley diversion route.

To speak at the meeting, you must  register with SEPTA here, and please also sign up via Transit Forward Philly to help us coordinate. 

SEPTA board meetings are key chances for riders to push SEPTA leadership for promised system improvements and policies that expand transit access and improve reliability. Public testimony helps to hold SEPTA leadership accountable, and even brief comments can make a difference to how the system functions.

🚲 BIKE USAGE IS UP

The Bicycle Coalition’s bike count data is out and the numbers look great!

Bike trips in 2025 increased 10% from last year. And if you include e-scooters, total micromobility trips increased 12.2%.

👋 THANKS FOR COMING TO OUR MEETUP

We had a great time this past Thursday at our Urbanist PowerPoint Party Meetup. More than 100 of you showed up to hear presentations from experts on a range of interesting topics. Thanks for coming!

And a huge thanks to our wonderful presenters!

🚌 SEPTA IS GETTING SAFER

👋 BECOME A MEMBER

Thank you so much to those of you who have already joined 5th Square Advocacy as a member!

Our members support our grassroots work for a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable Philadelphia. Will you join us?

🚨  ACTION ITEMS

🚫🏘️ No Hahnemann Home Ban

Philadelphia City Council is considering a bill to ban all homes on the site of the vacant Hahnemann Hospital ( Bill # 251101 ). Sign here to ask Councilmember Young to withdraw this bill and support mixed-use development for this site.

☁️ Clean Air for Grays Ferry

CHOP is currently constructing a 7-story, 1,000 space parking garage in Grays Ferry which would bring considerable additional pollution to the neighborhood.  CHOP has applied for a "Complex Source" air pollution permit from the City of Philadelphia's Air Management Services (AMS)--y ou can ask AMS to hold a public hearing about the proposal.

🚉 Support the Transit Access Fund

Transit Forward Philly is fighting for a Transit Access Fund to reduce financial barriers for low-income SEPTA riders. In addition to increasing ridership, the Transit Access Fund would help stabilize SEPTA's finances and protect riders from service cuts. Sign their petition here and share your story in support of it here.

EVENTS

January Day of Action: Transit Leadership Training
January 22, 5:30pm - 7:30pm | Transit Forward Philly/BCGP Office, 1500 Walnut St, Ste 1107
Join Transit Forward Philadelphia for a transit leadership training. You'll learn how you can rally your community to make transit more affordable, safer, accessible, and fully funded.

Tiny WPA 10th Anniversary Celebration
Feb 12 from 6pm to 9pm | 3145 West Jefferson Street
Join Tiny WPA for a benefit celebrating their 10th anniversary featuring music, an open bar, delicious bites, and a live auction. Come support their work make Philadelphia's public spaces better.

Wharton-Weitzman Future of Cities Conference
Fri, Feb 20, at 8:30 AM | The Study at University City, 20 S 33rd St
The Future of Cities Conference is a student-led, faculty-advised conference that aims to bring together urban innovators and experts from the public and private sectors to challenge and deepen the discourse around the trends, technologies, and policies transforming the future of our cities

WHAT WE'RE READING

🏙️ HOUSING & LAND USE

• Inquirer.com / Zillow says the Philly region will be one of the 10 hottest housing markets of 2026
• The Hill /  Don’t let this housing crisis go to waste

🌳 PUBLIC SPACE

• Inquirer.com / The Avenue of the Arts to break ground on an ambitious $150 million streetscape to make Broad Street greener
• Inquirer.com / Keeping seniors fit in Philly takes a citywide effort | Expert Opinion

🚌 TRANSIT

• Billy Penn at WHYY / Crime on SEPTA fell again last year — to historic lows
• WHYY / ‘Going to make my life much better’: SEPTA trolley riders react to tunnel reopening
• worksinprogress.co / The United States needs fewer bus stops
• usa.streetsblog.org / Passenger Rail Is Headed for a Reckoning — and the First 90 Days of 2026 Will Decide It

🚲 MOBILITY

• Grid Magazine / Philly’s expanded bike lanes are a work in progress

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Pew’s Philadelphia Program /  Project Director, Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative

City of Philadelphia

• Community Organizer
• Airport Enterprise Asset Manager
• OTIS Communications Manager
• Director of Tax Policy and Planning
• Change Manager

Office of State Senator Nikil Saval /  Summer Interns

Center for Public Enterprise /  Housing Program Manager

Bicycle Coalition

• Educator
• Board Members

East Falls Development Corporation /  Executive Director

Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority / Research and Policy Analyst

Vision Zero Philadelphia / Ambassador

Progress and Poverty Institute / Progress of Ideas Scholarship