I wasn't referencing like the city's definitions of what's a high traffic or low traffic.
I was asking whether, in your opinion, it's a it's a it's a heavily trafficked street.
uh i would say it is okay you said it's heavily traffic uh so you would disagree with our traffic
expert who said it's uh it carries very low traffic volumes uh i say that it's heavily
traffic because there are you know um there's through traffic uh and there's pedestrians that
utilize pastoria street uh you know headed to school or or whatever um there's a lot of traffic
uh there's a lot of traffic that's not necessarily you know pulling into you know residences
um there's a lot of i think there's a lot of deliveries you know um compared to some other
streets um but um yeah i'm not sure how else to answer your question uh street have higher
traffic volume or lower traffic volume than west pastoria street i would say more
okay uh and does uh top of hawkins street uh allow for on-street parking
uh it does okay so if you're pulling out of a uh uh pulling out of the property onto top of hawkins
you there would could be cars parked on uh the side of the street where you're pulling out of
there could okay and it's more heavily trafficked than pastori so there would be
more cars driving past you there could okay and on pastorius street uh obviously goes without
saying but there's no on straight uh on street parking allowed correct correct i mean i think
there's a sign right there that says no parking street so if you were pulling out there would be
you shouldn't have any uh sight line limitations and would be able to see any pedestrians or any
other traffic on that street, right? Actually, no, because all of these spots, if allowed to be
used, you're going to have the other vehicles on either side of you, right? You're going to have
like your view is blocked. I can't imagine this, you know, parking area being totally empty. If
it's in use, you're going to have vehicles on either side of you to the left or the right in
the same condition or worse than what you have going out onto onto the Pistorius or onto
Topohokin street. Like we have to, we have to think, we have to envision if this is in use,
you're going to have cars, like these are all going to have cars on, on either side of them,
each spot. Yep. Uh, but that wouldn't prevent you from seeing in front of you, right?
Well, no, but you're not driving, you know, in front, you're going to be making a left or,
or a right on to pastoria street you still have to inch out a little bit to see and then you know
um and then and then make your turn there's a difference between a car being parked
parallel to you and right next to you as opposed to a car being in front of you
um you know parked on the street when you're trying to take a right or left hand turn correct
there's a difference i mean that's um i think if you're pulling out onto the street looking left
or right um uh i don't think there's going to be that much of a difference uh whether or not that
car is right next to you you know parallel to you or perpendicular perpendicular to you uh a little
ahead you still have to move forward to see over over that you still have to move forward
And look both ways, right? Yes. Just like you look both ways before you take a left or right
onto past stories from your property, right? Yep. And I'm sure when you drive on past stories,
you are careful and aware and look for other pedestrians or other
traffic movements on the street, right? Yes. And you expect your neighbors who currently have
parking on pastoria street would do the same thing yep
parking on pastoria street would do the same thing yep okay no further questions
um really briefly uh no just really briefly mr uh rama so uh when you were talking about looking
both ways were you talking about driving forward or backing up oh driving forward okay um when
when those cars are parked um in the new parking spaces on mr bilby's property and they're backing
up is that going to be the same uh situation of of of um of being able to look uh right and left
and see anything not after backing up on the pastoria street when cars come out on top of
hawken from the property are they backing out of of the top of hawken curb cut or are they moving
forward moving forward um i also just wanted to show you the one photo that you were talking about
earlier is this the photo that you were that you were referring to earlier yes okay and this is uh
from a 2021 atlas philadelphia photo from uh from the city's website um what about this photo um
had you concerned so um you know these spots invite this type of of thing happening also
if it's a moving truck blocking half of the street and such um it's just unnecessary hanging
over the um you know hanging over the apron like that um you know you don't have that on the other
curb parking arrangements shown along um shown along pastoria street
um uh this is you know very much unlike what what you see uh on the street um and you know
while this spot may be you know designed appropriately on paper um no one's going
to be pulling up right to the house um you know right to the building um so this is one thing
that has concern you know that that concerns me um and uh yeah so you know and then like i said
you know this car could be parked on the interior of the property not not along uh pastorius like
that and i guess it may go without saying but all the cars that are parked on your property
none of them are close to the curb like that is that correct no i measured uh the first spot is
22 feet uh from from the the sidewalk okay no further questions phillips are you done
no very brief redirect um just on that same photo um
so this was the photo you were just uh looking at mr ramos
from 2021 yes okay uh looks different to me i'm not yeah it does look a little different
it looks like the car is is on a different angle and those and those fences weren't up before so
that's the exact point those fences were in your photo if you want to pull
i'll stop my share you want to pull your photo back up okay all right but this is uh the same
November 2021 atlas and there's this construction fence that's still up I don't know whose vehicle
this is but you can pull up your your photo uh okay there are some fences there but but the
defenses are blocking the sidewalk that's after the parking space not it doesn't the fences are
not blocking the parking space at all i do see that fence um and uh i absolutely do not believe
that that's what that those vehicles are going to be pulled up farther than that near the house
you know blocking people from walking parallel to the you know taking their groceries or whatever
walking parallel you know along these uh and getting their mail because they have to walk
there to get their mail. There's no way I'm going to believe that
cars are going to be pulled up farther past where that fence is.
We're not hearing you, Mike.
Can you hear me? We're not hearing at all.
Can you hear me? Oh, no.
We hear you. I can hear you, Mike. I was talking about Michael Phillips.
Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. I have to keep disconnecting.
and reconnecting. I apologize. I don't know what's wrong with my internet today, but I do not have
any further questions. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Masters, could you call your next witness, please?
Yes. Next witness is Susan Wright.
they have been promoted to panelists hi good morning
They have been promoted to panelists.
susan you are muted
okay there we go there we go morning hi hi good morning could you state your name please
is spelled for the court scenario certainly susan wright s-u-s-a-n-w-r-i-g-h-t right do you
swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do i proceed mr masters
um thank you um susan can you describe um where you live in relation to darren bilby's property
and the location of the proposed 15 new parking spaces they're um one door away from me
so there's
the back of
another property and then there
his I'm in about the middle
of the block
and what's the address of your
house? 51 West Pastoria
Street
okay I'm going to ask you
some questions about a traffic study
that you
the data that you recorded
but Mr. Chair
members of the board, we're having our expert witnesses who will be testifying at the next
hearing give their conclusions and interpretations, but we wanted to authenticate how this traffic
study was done and that's why we're going to have Susan Wright testify to that. So I'm going to pull
my screen here. Can I say something while you're pulling that up? Mr. Phillips said that was my
son and that is not my property and not my son okay um so this um this page uh page 90 in our
exhibit binder um can you can you talk to uh the board and and um and describe uh what equipment
you used for this traffic count? I used Google cameras. One is put by my hayloft door facing
Wayne Avenue, and one is facing Green Street. Okay, and they were both on your property at
251 West Pastorius? Yes, they are. And what were the dates of the count that you took?
I'm sorry?
What were the dates of the traffic count study?
They're listed here.
April 8th through 16th, April 29th through May 7th.
And you say it was a Google Nest camera.
How did this camera record vehicles or pedestrians or people that were moving through on Pastorea Street?
How did that work?
Well, I should have done a little bit more research because they only record when a person vehicle comes within about 20 feet of the camera.
You can see all the way down Green Street with my camera, but you can't see all the way.
You can't see the street all the way to Wayne Avenue because it dips down.
So I could only capture the cars that went past my home.
And when you say capture, each time a car or a pedestrian would go past your home, what would actually happen?
It was supposed to record all the time, but sometimes it didn't.
So when I would see a trash truck go by and it would not record it, for example, I don't know why it was big enough.
So did you did you reach a conclusion then about whether there was any undercounting of vehicles or pedestrians in your study?
I believe there were because I only included vehicles and people that were captured by the camera.
And that data is only saved in the cloud for 60 days, so it is no longer available.
But we did a very careful count with the time and everything on it.
And you're also in the comments, it looks like on the right-hand column, it looks like you have comments that are...
column it um it looks like you have comments that are that are that are recording uh the
the number of people uh who were not included in in the counts but but you but you must have
how did you how did you figure out that there were some people that were 20 plus people walking
that weren't part of your count um i didn't come to that conclusion
i only counted people that were recorded
right so when it says the camera omits persons who do not walk within 18 feet
um so you're saying that the people that you don't count are people who
are either further down pastoria's towards wayne or further up pastoria's towards green
because you're because you only have you only have so many so much width of what you're recording
is that is that what that means yes because if somebody came in from green street and turned
into mr billsby's property my cameras would not capture it the same with wayne avenue
okay there's only about 40 feet in the middle of the block that my cameras captured
Okay, got it. And like I said, members of the board, we're not going into interpretations or conclusions. We just wanted to show you who it was who did this study, and then at the next hearing, we will have some testimony from our experts in terms of interpretation.
um so um susan can you describe um any personal mobility issues that that you have um at this time
uh yes i'm my back is getting very bad and i walking to green street sometimes is impossible
for me i'm how many feet is that between your house and green street oh i i don't know less
than a block okay um when i go to grocery stores i use those electric carts or i leave if they're
not available um and i'm thinking about getting a mobility device and i'm a little concerned about
it because i can't get out of the i'd have to wait for a place to get out of the street
and cars aren't always very careful about avoiding pedestrians.
I've noticed that we have more traffic on the street
since a traffic light was put at Wayne and Talpahawken.
So some people will turn up Pastoria Street in order to avoid the light.
And I've seen tenants, they're not careful
because they don't know what's happening on the street.
And I've seen tenants from the Wallingford
be extremely careless of racing down the street
and just not being careful at all.
That there seems to be more care taken
by the people who live on the street,
who know their neighbors
and what their neighbors are limitations
and things like that are, as opposed to the tenants, certainly from the Wallingford.
But to be clear, Susan, do you use any kind of an assistive device right now to walk with?
I use a K most of the time, yes.
And when you said you were looking for some kind of a different piece of equipment,
was that going to be like a mechanized scooter?
Yes, an electric scooter.
Have you seen any change in traffic along Pastoria Street since Darren Bilby opened up his driveway, allowing the tenants to use the Topolhock and curb cut?
Yes, the traffic has gotten much lighter on Pastoria Street because I can't walk.
I drive and frequently I'm out sometimes six or seven times a day.
And because I'm an old lady, sometimes I leave the house, I get to the corner of Green and Walnut and say, oh, shit, I forgot something.
So I have to go down and around and come back again and then go out.
But there are far fewer people going in and out of Pastoria Street since he opened up because he had that blocked for quite a while, not allowing his tenants.
do you do you remember when that changed when he opened up the the curb cut on top of hawken
for his tenants no i don't okay do you have anything further that you wanted to share with
Okay. Do you have anything further that you wanted to share with the board?
I do. I've lived in this carriage house for two years, but I've owned it since 1983 when we renovated it. And probably around 1987. So this was a long time ago.
my son ran across the street to see me the dog trailed behind him the dog was hit by a car
and my point is that because it seems like there's not much traffic on the street people have
um they get careless they think oh there's no traffic here and
And I have to I don't have to be as careful as what happened when my roofer said, oh, somebody he knew fell off the roof.
And I said, well, was it really steep? He said, no, it was a flat roof.
He said people get careless on flat roofs because they think they're safe on a steep roof.
They're very careful. And that's just my point. And it's a very picturesque street.
A lot of people like walking down in the community because it's pleasant to walk down.
It's flat, and my kitchen sink is right in front of a window that I can see out onto Pastoreas.
And just about everybody who walks down looks up and down the driveways and is looking around at the architecture.
All right, thank you.
I have no further questions.
Mr. Phillips booted off at one point and then came back on.
Can I have a just a two minutes to just pause and reboot so I don't keep having these problems?