This Philly resident wants stop signs where his bicyclist friend was killed
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Every time Thaddeus Lutz passes his friend Jason Lohr's ghost bike roadside memorial, he flashes back to the hospital room, where he and his now-wife gripped Lohr's hand as he lay comatose after a driver struck him while he was riding in East Kensington.
- Lutz is pushing city and state officials to install an all-way stop at the Frankford Avenue and Hagert intersection, where his friend was hit in November 2024 and died two weeks later.
Why it matters: Philadelphia has one of the highest per-capita rates of traffic deaths among big cities in America, a glaring statistic that local officials say they are committed to reducing.
Between the lines: The Parker administration is investing $30 million over the next five years in the city's Vision Zero program, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, improve the most dangerous corridors and expand bike lanes.
Driving the news: The city's Streets Department and PennDOT say they are conducting a joint study examining traffic levels, crashes and pedestrian activity in the area to determine whether an all-stop would improve safety at the intersection, a city spokesperson tells Axios.
- City officials offered no timeline on when the traffic study would be completed.
- But PennDOT says it's still waiting for a formal request from the city for the traffic study, spokesperson Krys Johnson tells Axios.
Zoom in: A petition that Lutz started — calling on city lawmakers and community groups to help champion the stop sign cause — has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.
- So far, he's got the backing of the East Kensington Neighbors Association.
Friction point: The group thought the city had conducted the traffic study "many months ago" and was waiting to hear the results, vice president Justin Gibbon tells Axios.
- "We've made it clear that, even if stop signs cannot be installed, some other form of traffic slowing is needed," he said.
Threat level: People walking, biking and riding motorcycles accounted for roughly two-thirds of traffic deaths in 2024 — despite making up less than 10% of crashes, per the latest Vision Zero report.
By the numbers: Between 2020 and 2024, there were more than 200 crashes along the Frankford Avenue corridor, including 48 involving people walking and biking, per city data provided to Axios.
- Over the same period, seven crashes — three involving pedestrians — occurred within a block of the intersection where Lohr was struck, between York and Cumberland streets.
Flashback: The 49-year-old Lohr — an artist, DJ and avid cyclist — was struck steps away from Atlantis: The Lost Bar, where he worked as a bartender.
- Lutz met Lohr in 2010, and the two immediately bonded over their love of music, food and Philadelphia.
- Lohr enjoyed cooking and would use fresh herbs and fruit from his garden in his dishes and cocktails he made for friends.
- Lutz, who was in a band, says he misses peering out at the crowd and seeing his friend proudly supporting him at shows.
"It's hard when you lose a friend, somebody that you really consider to be almost like a brother to you — that really accepted you for who you were at hard times in your life," Lutz says.
The bottom line: Helping get stop signs installed at the intersection is the best way for Lutz to honor his late friend — and to help make the intersection safer.
- "What I'm more worried about is if it doesn't happen," he says. "Not having it there is going to be a little crushing and scary every time that I see a car speed down that road."