City Council & Mayor’s Office’s Cars
City Council doesn’t adequately contribute to SEPTA, and doesn’t have any sense of urgency about making streets safer for people walking, biking, or otherwise getting around without a car. There’s obviously a lot of factors behind this, but it’s also probably just easy for them to ignore this type of issue when they’re driving through downtown in a taxpayer-funded car (taxpayers cover the car, plus all repairs and gas) and only hopping on SEPTA or a bike once in a while for a photo op. If our representatives regularly used SEPTA, walked, and biked, our streets would look a lot different.
Scroll to the right to see the 2024 Q1 driving stats for this new class of City Council members. Councilmember Curtis Jones is the consistent leader (322 gallons). Councilmember Rue Landau seems to drive the least (33.5 gallons), but in fact it is Mark Squilla, the sole Councilmember who doesn’t take the free car. **EDIT on 5/8 - he actually does have a car as of 2023. The last time I got this chart he didn’t so I wasn’t looking for his name. This blog is just a hobby and that is reflected in my occasional inattention to detail.
This goes for the Mayor’s office, too. They really spent 100k of taxpayer money for two people to drive to work in the location best served by transit in the entire city. Free parking spots too.