In its ongoing effort to enhance the bicycle experience across the state, the Department of Transportation has completed new bicycle lanes on three suburban state highways in the Philadelphia region, PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said Friday.

The pilot program will help determine long-term maintenance cost data for such bicycle facilities which, along with the Wolf Administration’s PennDOT Connects initiative to reach out to communities and partners earlier in project planning, will help evaluate bicycle accommodations where planning efforts indicate such needs.

“This initiative reflects our new PennDOT Connects program, which we’re using to reach out more to our communities and partners and considering many viewpoints right from the start of planning for transportation projects,” Richards said, joining other officials at an event at the Thorndale commuter rail station. “While maintaining the highway and bridge networks is a crucial part of our mission, it is not the only part. We want to consider and enhance the other modes, be it commuter rail, served by this station here, other forms of public transit and those who chose to bicycle or walk.”

The locations are:

-- In Chester County, two miles along Business. U.S. 30 (Lincoln Highway) between Diamond Street at the City of Coatesville/Caln Township line and Hazelwood Road (at SEPTA’s Thorndale Train Station) in Caln Township. The new bicycle lanes tie into the existing bicycle lanes that have been in place on Business U.S. 30 starting at the Diamond Street intersection and proceeding west to 2nd Avenue in Coatesville. 

-- In Delaware County, about 2.2 miles along Route 320 (Sproul Road/Chester Road) between Route 420 (Woodland Avenue) in Springfield Township and College Avenue in Swarthmore Borough, Delaware County.

-- In Montgomery County, about a third of a mile along Route 663 (King Street) between Route 100 and Manatawny Street in Pottstown. Route 663 was resurfaced by PennDOT this past summer and bicycle lanes were implemented as part of a road diet.

PennDOT replaced traffic lines and painted new bicycle lanes and legends on Business U.S. 30 and Route 320 under a department paving contract this fall. The operation began in October and the bicycle-lane work on both roads was recently completed. The cost estimate for installing bicycle lanes on the three state highways is $127,000.

These three state roads were chosen for the pilot program by the Southeast Pennsylvania Suburban Bike Lanes Working Group, which consists of the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia, PennDOT, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the suburban county planning commissions.

As part of a series of improvements for bicyclists, PennDOT earlier this year issued a policy change removing the Bicycle Occupancy Permit from its design manual. Moving forward, local governments need only provide a letter of request for the proposed bicycle lane that includes the necessary information for PennDOT to appropriately evaluate the request.

After a review, a letter of approval will be issued by the department. This replaces the previous requirement for a formal agreement between PennDOT and the municipality.

For more information, visit PennDOT’s Ride A Bike webpage.

[Posted: Dec. 8, 2017]

12/11/2017