Hi,

I realize that I may be the only nondriver in this entire community, so I can't give you any tips on how to get around in a car. But I can give you ideas on how to get around without one, particularly downtown.

My name is Jim and I live in New Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia (or "Philly"). I grew up within a 20-minute car ride of downtown, so I think I know a little.

The city was settled by William Penn in the mid-1600s. He and his land surveyer laid out a very simple grid pattern. Philadelphia is a port city, separated from New Jersey to the east, and from Delaware to the south and southeast by the Delaware River and Delaware Bay.

All the streets emanate from the river. Numbered streets (2nd, 3rd, 4th,etc.) go north-south; and named streets (Market, Chestnut, Locust, Pine, etc.) go east-west. There is no 1st Street or 14th Street in Philly. First Street is known here as Front Street because it's the first street in front of the river. Fourteenth Street is known as Broad Street because, at three lanes in each direction, it was the widest street in the city, before the city built the north-south Roosevelt Boulevard (six lanes in each direction) in the mid-1960s. Market Street is the dividing line between north and south.


Drivers should be aware, however, that numbered streets in downtown Philly are one-way; on odd-numbered streets they go north, and on even-numbered streets they go south. Chestnut Street, a heavy shopping area, is sometimes closed to vehicular traffic.

This city has a well-developed transit network. Known as SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, www.septa.org/), the transit agency operates over 125 bus routes, several train lines, and five trolley or streetcar lines within and beyond the city. The two main subway lines downtown are the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated (known to locals as the "El") and the Broad Street Subway (the "Subway" to locals). The El runs northeast-west between Bridge Street in northeast Philly (where it connects with buses that serve the northeastern part of the city and some northern suburbs), and 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby (a western suburb of Philly), where it connects with trains and buses serving the western suburbs. The Subway runs between Fern Rock Transportation Center in north Philly (where it connects to buses serving other northern suburbs) and the sports complex on and around Pattison Avenue in south Philly (where you can catch a bus to the Navy Yard).

Jim