What Philly can – and can’t – do to reduce the number of people killed in car crashes

Philadelphia recorded 137 traffic deaths in 2024 and 101 in 2025, still an outlier compared with Chicago, Boston, Washington, and New York, where three times fewer residents died in crashes than in Philadelphia in 2024. Fatal crashes cluster in poorer neighborhoods like Hunting Park, Juniata Park, and Upper Kensington, and are more likely than in peer cities to involve speeding, hit-and-runs, and occur at night on major roads.

Automated speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, installed in 2020, are linked to an 11 percent drop in fatal and serious crashes there even as citywide crashes rose 16 percent, while Broad Street's death toll tripled its share of the city's total, with 45 deaths from 2020 to 2024 before its own camera program began in November 2025. Other measures include the Slow Zone Program, expanded speed cushions, and a growing protected bike lane network.

Peer cities have gone further: New York hit a record low of 205 traffic fatalities in 2025, its lowest since 1910, backed by school-zone cameras covering 750 zones running continuously and mandated intelligent speed assistance on city vehicles.

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