Here’s a little guide to getting around your new city!

  • Walking: Philly is a very walkable city, and many folks I know use walking as a primary mode of transit. I usually find that most of the places I want to go (including Penn) on a day-to-day basis are within walking distance. Of course, your tolerance for long walks will determine what “walking distance” means for you. Since Philly is a large city, you should be sure to take the usual precautions while walking around, especially at night. If it’s getting late and you’d rather not walk somewhere alone, Penn offers a 24/7 on-demand walking escort service.
  • Biking: Philly is also a fairly bike-able city, especially by US standards. I bike pretty much everywhere most days. Philly is slowly modernizing its bike infrastructure, and a small but growing number of streets have protected bike lanes. Many more streets have unprotected bike lanes. These are mostly respected by drivers, but do require additional caution. If you don’t have a bike, you can buy one used on Facebook Marketplace or craigslist, or a new one from a local bike shop. Philly does have a bike share program called Indego, but it’s fairly expensive on a per-ride basis and not great for commuting.
    • The yearly Indego membership averages to about $14 per month.
  • Public Transit: Philly has a public transportation system, known as “SEPTA” (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). SEPTA runs a rapid transit (subway) system, as well as a bus and trolley network. The subway system is less developed than the other cities on the US East Cast, so if you’re used to taking the NYC subway or DC metro everywhere, you might be a bit disappointed. Utilizes the buses and trollies make the system more extensive, but they are less reliable. Concretely, you can pay for all of these with a SEPTA Key, a contactless & refillable card which you can buy at any subway or trolley station, as well as at the Penn bookstore. All of the aforementioned public transit options cost $2.50 ($2 with a SEPTA Key Card) per ride, with free transfers.
  • Penn Transit Options: Penn operates its own private transportation service separate from SEPTA. Best of all, it’s all free! The most important offerings are the two bus lines, Penn Bus East & West, which make loops into Center City and West Philly respectively, and the evening on-demand shuttle service. The evening shuttle service can be requested from a website (and iOS app) called “PennRides”, and operates between midnight - 3am on weekdays, and 6pm - 3am on weekends. It runs within a fairly large “service boundary” which includes much of west philly and western center city. Penn also runs other services, including shuttles to-and-from Pennovation, Drexel, and an accessible transit option. Details about schedules and routes of the above can be found on the Penn transportation website.
    • Exception: PennRides on-demand shuttle service operates from 6 PM to 3 AM every day when going west or to 30th Street Station.