READING AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN TRANSPORTATION PLAN ADOPTED NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Transcription

1 READING AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN TRANSPORTATION PLAN ADOPTED NOVEMBER 18, 2010 READING AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY C/o Beks County Planning Commission 633 Cout St. FL 14 Reading, PA Ph: FAX: planningcountyofbeks.com Web:

2 The pepaation of this epot has been financed in pat though gants fom the U.S. Depatment of Tanspotation and the Pennsylvania Depatment of Tanspotation. The contents of this epot eflect the views of the authos who ae esponsible fo the facts and the accuacy of the data pesented heein. The contents do not necessaily eflect the official policies of eithe the U.S. Depatment of Tanspotation, Fedeal Highway Administation FHWA), Fedeal Tansit Administation FTA) o the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the time of publication. This epot does not constitute a standad, specification o egulation.

3 A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S The Beks County Planning Commission staff would like to thank the following pesons who seved as membes of the Beks County Bicycle and Pedestian Advisoy Committee fo thei insight, knowledge and ongoing paticipation as we pepae this plan. We appeciate you constuctive dialog, active eview of mateials and attendance at meetings. BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN COMMITTEE Michele Baett WalkBikeBeks Sgt. Michael Fizz Reading City Police Depatment Michael Golembiewski Beks County Planning Commission Ginny Hand Alvenia Univesity Bandy Heilman PA Commute Sevices Bob Hospido WalkBikeBeks Judy Houck Sping Township Paks & Receation Walt Hug Beks County Bicycle Club Chalie Jones City of Reading Public Woks Depatment Nancy Kauffman WalkBikeBeks Daphne Sebelist Klah West Reading Boough Bian LaVacca Beks County Office of Aging Loi Lencheski Beks County Planning Commission Chistophe Lessig Beks County Paks & Receation Matthew McGough Beks County Planning Commission Andew Mille City of Reading Planning Commission Steve Pohowsky PennDOT Engineeing Distict 5-0 Sean Saffle PA Commute Sevices Jeemy Slonake WalkBikeBeks Douglas Smith Alvenia Univesity Sgt. Mak Stump Reading City Police Depatment Geoge Tindall West Reading Boough Kevin Tobias Wyomissing Boough Ralph Taine Abilities in Motion Emily Weidne WalkBikeBeks Janet Weiss BARTA Don Zeigle Abilities in Motion

4 G L O S S A R Y BCPC- The Beks County Planning Commission is the lead planning agency within Beks County and seves as the lead staff agency to the Reading Metopolitan Planning Oganization MPO). Long Range Tanspotation Plan LRTP)- Must satisfy thee diffeent govenmental levels- fedeal, state and county. It must be consistent with applicable laws, ules and egulations. It must be consistent with the state s tanspotation plans, pogams and policies and also be consistent with Beks County Compehensive Plan. PennDOT- The Pennsylvania Depatment of Tanspotation. Its diect esponsibilities include the maintenance, estoation and expansion of the state-owned highways and bidges. Reading MPO- The Reading MPO is the fedeally-designated Metopolitan Planning Oganization of state, county and local agencies, along with officials fom the Beks Aea Regional Tanspotation Authoity BARTA) and the Reading Regional Aipot Authoity. The MPO develops tanspotation plans and impovement pogams, and povides ovesight and analysis of the pepaation of plans and studies affecting tanspotation planning in the county. Safe Routes to Schools SRTS)- pogams ae sustained effots by paents, schools, community leades and local, state, and fedeal govenments to impove the health and well-being of childen by enabling and encouaging them to walk and bicycle to school. Shaed-Use Path- Is a facility that is typically used by casual bicyclists and pedestians. These do not peclude the need fo on-oad facilities. Tanspotation Impovement Pogam TIP) - A list of the tanspotation pojects fo which planning has been completed and that equie funding fo implementation. Pojects ae placed on the TIP by the MPO. The TIP seves as the fist fou-yea peiod of the 12- Yea Pogam. Twelve Yea Pogam- State legislation equies that the Commonwealth develops and maintains a 12 Yea Tanspotation Pogam, and that the pogam be eviewed, evised, adjusted and extended evey two yeas. Pojects on the 12 Yea Pogam can include majo capacity adding pojects but moe typically ae filled with pojects elated to the maintenance of the system s existing highways and bidges. Othe types of pojects can include non taditional tanspotation pojects such as those funding though the Tanspotation Enhancement Pogam.

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapte 1: Backgound... 1 Pupose of the Update Vision Accomplishments of Mach 2002 Plan Benefits of Non-Motoized Tanspotation Pedestian & Bicycle Attactos Existing Roadway, Sidewalk, Tails and Geenway Conditions This Plan within the Oveall Planning Scheme Who is ou Intended Audience? Chapte 2: Goals and Objectives Goals Objectives and Implementation Stategies Chapte 3: Pedestian Issues The Safe Routes to School Pogam The 5 E s Defined Pedestian and Designing fo Pedestian Safety Undestanding Pedestian Chaacteistics Tanspotation Designs that Impact Pedestian Safety Steet Design Steet Design Policies that have Affected Pedestians Steet Connectivity Site Design Land Use Access Management Methods to Impove Pedestian Safety Education about Sidewalk Development Chapte 4: Bicycling Issues Pennsylvania Vehicle Code PennDOT Bicycle and Pedestian Plan Types of Bicycles Diving You Bicycle Why do People Bicycle? Safety Maintenance Accessibility and Connectivity

6 Chapte 5: Recommendations Bicycle and Pedestian Recommendations Pedestian Recommendations Bicycle Recommendations Chapte 6: Funding Govenment Funding Pivate Secto Funding Community Patneships and Foundations Maps... 57

7 CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND 1

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9 PURPOSE OF UPDATE Since the adoption of the Beks County Bicycle and Pedestian Tanspotation Plan in Mach 2002, Beks County has continued to gow in population and vehicle congestion. Ove the last seven yeas much has changed with tanspotation. As we begin this update, it is impotant to bing togethe citizens, businesses and govenments collaboating on a joint committee. Woking togethe to ceate, adopt and implement a bicycle and pedestian plan that will be effective and useful is citical. The cuent economic situation plays a majo ole in how people live thei lives. Family vacations ae at a minimum, membeships to local gyms ae down and new ideas need to be established. Walking, biking and public tanspotation not only pomote altenative means of tavel and cub pollution but also encouage healthie lifestyles. This plan update will attempt to futhe pomote pojects pesented in the Mach 2002 plan that wee not completed, as well as discuss new ideas. The plan will be designed so citizens, policymakes and county staff can use it effectively and efficiently. This update will povide a vision, goals and ecommendations fo impovements. Most impotantly it will povide geate emphasis on balancing pedestian and bicycling with sidewalk and shaed-use path development, connectivity, safety and accessibility. This plan will addess updated legislative planning initiatives and funding. 3

10 VISION STATEMENT Beks County values the impotance of altenative tanspotation. Walking, bicycling and othe non-motoized methods of tanspotation, along with access to mass tanspotation, eceation, ai quality, health and wellness ae consideed top pioities fo the county. The objective of this Plan is to incopoate the divegent ideologies of municipalities, developes and citizens into a document that accomplishes ou pioities. ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM THE MARCH 2002 PLAN A numbe of pojects wee poposed in the Mach 2002 Plan. Many of them have been eithe stated o fully implemented; othes have not. Following ae some successes fom the 2002 Plan: Completion of a walking/bicycling connection along the Wyomissing Ceek between the aiload tacks on the east, though the West Reading Boough eceation aea, to Museum Road on the west including a connection to the Thun Tail. Pogess on a missing tail link between the Dana Memoial Pak tail and the Rive Font Pak tail. The addition of bicycle acks on some BARTA buses along with the implementation of a Bike and Ride pogam. Completion of the Blue Mash Connecto tail fom the end of the Union Canal tail to the Blue Mash stilling basin. The mostly completed Muhlenbeg Township tail on fome Reading Raiload Hill Line fom Duke Steet in Laueldale Boough to Hay Road in nothen Muhlenbeg Township. The addition of a pedestian/cyclist bidge on the Thun Tail ove the busy U.S. 422 / Lancaste Avenue / PA 10 intechange, and completion of a tail link between thee and the newly ceated Bentwood Tailhead. The estoation of the Reading Aea Community College RACC) bidge ove the Schuylkill Rive connecting Reading with West Reading and the Thun Tail. The completion of the Batam Tail in Hambug Boough. 4

11 BENEFITS OF NON-MOTORIZED TRANSPORTATION Accoding to Rails-To-Tails Consevancy, the aveage Ameican motoist dives about 15,000 miles a yea and wastes the equivalent of a full wok week stuck in taffic evey yea. Below ae some easons non-motoized tanspotation is bette than motoized tanspotation: Lowe infastuctue costs; Lowe vehicle opeation and maintenance expenses; Less time spent in taffic; Single occupant vehicle tip eduction and esulting congestion management; Ai quality benefits of less pollution; Lowe eliance on dwindling fossil fuel esouces; Pomotion of a healthy lifestyle; Lowe health cae costs; Inceased community connectivity; and Inceased accessibility to destinations. 5

12 PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE ATTRACTORS While medium ange and long ange tavel may be typical fo many Beks County esidents, a numbe of them also tavel locally, i.e., within walking/biking distance, between thei homes and wok, shopping, schools, eceation and othe neighbohoods. Access to these aeas is typically via thei pesonal vehicle. It is impotant that these local tips be accessible without the need fo a motoized vehicle. Howeve, ecent land use tends in Beks County ae pomoting the constuction of, fo example, new shopping centes adjacent to existing neighbohoods without safe and convenient accessibility between the two. School disticts have built lage schools outside of existing neighbohoods that equie busing o next to existing neighbohoods without some fom of connection between them. People ae diving to wok because business disticts ae not located within safe walking/biking distance o thee is no peceived o actual safe accessibility fom home to wok. Thee ae gaps within ou non-motoized tanspotation system that pevent safe, convenient accessibility, whethe by walking o biking, to ou county attactos. The basic question emains: Whee do people go whee walking and biking could be used? Some of the many places include: Elementay and seconday schools, public and pivate; Colleges and univesities; Local playgounds & paks and egional eceation aeas; Libaies; Cone stoes, steet-level stoefonts, stip centes and egional shopping malls; State, county and local govenment offices; Local and egional employment centes; Bus stops; Individual medical offices and lage complexes; and Othe neaby neighbohoods. Examination of aeial photogaphy notes that many of the above aeas ae located within vey shot distances of, if not ight next to, esidential aeas. Yet many people who could walk o bike to them cannot o will not. Fo many, the lack of available, safe and useable walking and biking outes sidewalks, shouldes, paths) between and among esidential and non esidential aeas pevent them fom walking and biking. This plan update hopes to pomote the ceation of walkable communities that ceate inteaction amongst the community, all of its attactions, and esidents fom within the community and suounding aeas. 6

13 EXISTING ROADWAY, SIDEWALK, TRAIL & GREENWAY CONDITIONS Identifying the existing bicycle and pedestian infastuctue is an essential pat of any bicycle and pedestian plan. An inventoy of the facilities in Beks County was compiled fo the pevious plan. Moe ecently, the 2007 Beks County Geenway, Pak and Receation Plan eflects the cuent status of the facilities. The mapping pocess is one aid in detemining the gaps and/o conflicts in the County s bicycle/pedestian netwok that need to be mitigated. The maps Appendix A) identify the existing facilities and baies along those outes. The existing facilities shown epesent the pimay netwok of pedestian and oadway facilities that connect popula oigins and destinations. These netwoks ae geneally suitable fo bicycle and pedestian tavel, with exception of aeas that have been identified as a baie. A baie is a pat of the netwok that contibutes to an unsafe o impassible condition and could include tuning conflicts o a lack of space fo the facility. In identifying a bicycle/pedestian netwok fo the County, the 2002 plan noted a numbe of established pedestian-only and multi-use tails and tail connections in Beks County. Those facilities ae eflected hee fo use as pat of the non-motoized tanspotation netwok In conjunction with the existing multi-use tail netwok this plan identifies a netwok of oadway segments that ae consideed adequate fo bicycle commuting and distance iding. Also, this plan examines sidewalks as they elate to safe pedestian ciculation and gaps in the sidewalk netwok that may exist in communities. These gaps seve as baies fo people walking to wok, the stoe o even childen walking to school. Maintenance and the condition of the netwok is a majo concen fo bicycle and pedestian tanspotation uses. Examples of maintenance and accessibility issues include: Shoulde cutting to emove tees and ovegowth fo inceased visibility Shoulde, oad, and cub amp sweeping fo cindes, glass and othe debis Replacing missing signs o installing new signs Keeping paved shoulde edges in good condition Maintaining clea sidewalk and intesection access, paticulaly duing inclement winte weathe Pope sidewalk amp constuction Keeping sidewalk and paved paths in good condition Inconsistent shoulde width and location Centeline and shoulde edge umble stips 7

14 THIS PLAN WITHIN THE OVERALL PLANNING SCHEME The Reading Aea Tanspotation Study RATS) is the fedeally-designated Metopolitan Planning Oganization MPO) fo Beks County. It was ceated in 1964 though a legal ageement between the City of Reading, Beks County and the Pennsylvania Depatment of Highways now the Pennsylvania Depatment of Tanspotation). At pesent, the MPO povides tanspotation planning and pogamming fo all of Beks County s 73 municipalities within an aea of 864 squae miles and an estimated 403,000 pesons. The Reading Aea Tanspotation Study is composed of two sepaate committees the Technical Committee and the Coodinating Committee. The Technical Committee eviews items bought befoe the goup and ecommends actions to the Coodinating Committee. The Coodinating Committee is the policy body that fomally adopts items eviewed by the Technical Committee. The ole of the MPO is to pomote tanspotation plans, pogams, pojects and policies that ae consistent with cuent fedeal tanspotation planning legislation and the Clean Ai Act. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Tanspotation Equity Act: A Legacy fo Uses SAFETEA-LU) is the cuent planning legislation. The eight-membe RATS Technical Committee consists of epesentatives fom PENNDOT Cental Office 1), PENNDOT Distict 5-0 1), the City of Reading 2), the Beks County Planning Commission 2), the Beks Aea Regional Tanspotation Authoity BARTA) 1), and the Reading Regional Aipot Authoity 1). The ten-membe RATS Coodinating Committee consists of one epesentative each fom the PENNDOT Cental Office, PENNDOT Distict 5-0, Beks County Boad of Commissiones, Beks County Planning Commission, City of Reading, Booughs 1), 1 st Class Townships 1), 2 nd Class Townships 1), BARTA 1) and Reading Regional Aipot Authoity RRAA) 1). The tanspotation planning staff of the Beks County Planning Commission seves as the technical staff to RATS. RATS ecognizes the connection between tanspotation and land use issues. The Beks County Planning Commission woks closely with local govenments thoughout Beks County on land use planning issues. Howeve, unde Pennsylvania law, implementation of land use policies is the esponsibility of local govenments. As such, RATS has no authoity ove local land use planning o zoning. The Long Range Tanspotation Plan LRTP) fo Beks County must satisfy planning, policy and financial equiements at thee diffeent govenmental levels fedeal, state and county. At the fedeal level, it must be consistent with applicable laws, ules and egulations. It must be consistent with the state s tanspotation plans, pogams and policies. The LRTP is consistent with the policies and objectives of the Beks County Compehensive Plan and it seves as the Tanspotation component of the County Compehensive Plan. The Bicycle and Pedestian Tanspotation Plan seves as the non-motoized component of the LRTP and, by definition, will be adopted by efeence as a pat of the LRTP. This plan suppots the oveall goals and objectives of the Long Range Plan and stengthens the Long Range Plan s ties between tanspotation policies and land use policies contained in Vision 2020 County Compehensive Plan. By fedeal planning egulation, any pojects poposed to use fedeal money must be identified in 8

15 an appoved LRTP and othe inclusive documents) befoe it can be placed on the 4- yea Tanspotation Impovement Pogam TIP) fo funding. In Decembe 2007, the Beks County Commissiones adopted the Beks County Geenway, Pak and Receation Plan. This stand-alone Plan seves as the County s vision fo fulfilling futue eceation needs, and seves as the Receation component of the County Compehensive Plan. It identifies a netwok of existing and planned, inteconnected geenway coidos and multi-use tails. The Bicycle and Pedestian Tanspotation Plan not only incopoates those facilities into it s netwok of nonmotoized connections, but also pomotes connections to those facilities in ode to maximize tanspotation and eceation oppotunities. 9

16 WHO IS OUR INTENDED AUDIENCE? Befoe the pocess of Plan compilation begins, we have to define ou audience. Though initially we think pedestians and cyclists, we know that such a boad definition needs to be futhe efined and defined by the vaious uses of the non-motoized tanspotation netwoks. School age Childen Accoding to the 2000 Census, thee wee almost 69,000 childen aged 5-17 in Beks County, many of whom live within walking/biking distance to thei school. College Students Local colleges and univesity campuses have a mixtue of on-campus and offcampus esidences and commute students. Student and staff pedestians and cyclists face challenges navigating between off-campus housing and paking and on-campus activities. In addition, campuses like Albight College have collecto steets N. 13 th Steet) cutting diectly though campus poviding a baie to access between aeas of campus. Eldely Accoding to the 2000 Census, thee wee ove 56,000 eldely pesons aged 65+ in Beks County. As the population ages, physical infimities make walking, seeing, heaing and navigating inceasingly difficult fo moe and moe pesons. Handicapped The 2000 Census lists ove 60,600 pesons aged 5+ who classified themselves as having some type of disability. Those disabilities can be descibed as eithe sensoy vision, heaing), physical mobility), mental o self-cae. Many of these pesons have difficulty using the pedestian netwok but may ely heavily on it to obtain access to local shopping, medical appointments, govenment sevices, access to tansit, and eceation. Existing Non-motoized commutes Census 2000 listed only 6, 840 non-motoized commutes bicycle and walking) in Beks County out of a total of 177,831 wokes). Tansit Uses In 2007, BARTA poved sevices to ove 2.7 million total passenges in 31 municipalities with a sevice aea of ove 200,000 pesons. With the exception of those using Pak-N-Ride lots, most passenges had to walk in ode to access thei bus. 10

17 CHAPTER 2: GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 11

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19 GOALS Beks County s tanspotation system seves a wide ange of functions, fom the delivey of goods and sevices necessay fo commece to the movement of people fo wok, eceation, social and othe activities. Tanspotation systems must adapt to keep up with continued gowth in the county. While counties and municipalities ae not mandated to povide tanspotation facilities, they ae empoweed to constuct and maintain them. The following is a list of the goals and objectives/implementation stategies that will be the focus of this plan. GOALS: 1. The plan should ensue the povision of a system of safe, convenient and accessible bicycle and pedestian facilities fo all uses though coodinated effots of govenment agencies and the pivate secto. 2. The plan will encouage municipalities to adopt odinances that pomote the inclusion of bicycle and pedestian facilities in, among and between developments. 3. The plan will pomote the povision of safe and secue bicycle and pedestian facilities fo all uses. 4. The County will pomote tanspotation facilities and pactices that minimize the impacts on both the natual and social envionments and impove the quality of life. 5. Plans, pogams and pojects ecommended by this plan should be consistent with and pomote the pactices outlined in the Safe Routes to Schools Pogam. 6. Govenment and non-pofit agencies should actively pusue all eligible fedeal, state and pivate funds fo bicycle and pedestian planning and development. 7. Pojects and pogams ecommended by this plan must meet the highest achievable design and safety standads of the Ameicans with Disabilities Act. 8. The plan should ensue that the bicycle and pedestian system complements the existing tanspotation netwok in ode to maximize and peseve capacity of the existing system. 9. The Plan will pomote moe choices in tanspotation modes and inteconnections between those modes. 13

20 OBJECTIVES / IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES 1. The MPO needs to develop and implement a pioitized poject/impovement list. 2. The plan needs to povide fo a balance of oadway, public tanspotation, aviation, ail, bicycle and pedestian netwoks and integate them into a coodinated tanspotation system. 3. When designing new o impoved oadways, special attention will be given to mass tanspotation and non-motoized means of tanspotation. 4. This plan must be consistent with othe egional planning effots including but not limited to the Vision 2020 County Compehensive Plan and the Beks County Geenway, Pak and Receation Plan, along with the MPO s Long Range Tanspotation Plan, the Congestion Management Pocess, and the Tanspotation Impovement Pogam. 5. The MPO must establish and maintain a bicycle and pedestian advisoy committee to cay out the goals and objectives of the Plan and to epesent bicycle and pedestian concens in the MPO s planning and pogamming pocesses. 6. MPO staff and the afoementioned advisoy committee must wok with municipal officials to amend thei development pocesses to ensue the inclusion of bicycle and pedestian facilities in new constuction. 7. Bicycle and pedestian facilities should, whee possible, be physically sepaated fom majo taffic outes yet be able to coss them when necessay. 8. Shaed ights-of-way should be consideed in less heavily taveled aeas and wheeve feasible. 14

21 CHAPTER 3: PEDESTRIAN ISSUES 15

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23 PEDESTRIAN ISSUES One of the key aspects in establishing a pedestian ciculation system that is safe and efficient fo uses is evaluating what aleady exists, what is lacking and what needs to be impoved. Establishing what the existing system looks like ultimately enables us to pioitize pojects based on this evaluation. This plan will identify and/o evaluate what is lacking in the pedestian system thoughout the County as well as some of the design attibutes that contibute to impovement of the system. The advisoy committee identified the majo obstacles in the way of establishing a safe and efficient pedestian ciculation system. Within this chapte, pedestian issues will focus and follow the Safe Routes to Schools 5 E s Pogam. The 5 E s ae evaluation, education, engineeing, enfocement and encouagement. The obstacles identified by the committee ae discussed in moe depth thoughout this chapte. Though ou Geogaphic Infomation System we wee able to map and calculate how many miles of sidewalks exist in the County. In 2004 the County had 1,107 miles of sidewalk. Though new development, both commecial and esidential, 56 miles have been added binging the cuent sidewalk mileage to 1,163. Though analysis of County mapping, it was detemined that sidewalks ae located in aeas of dense development such as cities and booughs. EDITORS NOTE: Once mapping is complete, discussion will be included hee). The Safe Routes to School Pogam SRTS) SRTS enable community leades, schools and paents acoss the United States to impove safety and encouage moe childen to safely walk and bicycle to school. In the pocess, pogams ae woking to educe taffic congestion and impove health and the envionment, making communities moe livable fo eveyone. What is the Safe Routes to School Pogam? Though the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Tanspotation Equity Act: A Legacy fo Uses SAFETEA-LU), Congess designated a total of $612 million towad developing the National Safe Routes to School Pogam. The pogam povides funds to the states to substantially impove the ability of pimay and middle school students to walk and bicycle to school safely. Each state administes its own pogam and develops its own pocedues to solicit and select pojects fo funding. The pogam establishes two distinct types of funding oppotunities: infastuctue pojects, such as engineeing impovements; and noninfastuctue elated activities, such as education, enfocement, and encouagement pogams. 17

24 SRTS pogams ae sustained effots by paents, schools, community leades and local, state, and fedeal govenments to impove the health and well-being of childen by enabling and encouaging them to walk and bicycle to school. SRTS pogams examine conditions aound schools and pomote pojects and conduct activities that wok to impove safety and educe taffic and ai pollution in the vicinity of schools. As a esult, these pogams help make bicycling and walking to school safe and moe appealing tanspotation choices thus encouaging a healthy and active lifestyle fom an ealy age. Fo moe infomation on the National Safe Routes to School Pogam, go to the FHWA website: o the National Cente fo Safe Routes to School website: The Five E s defined: Evaluation: Detemine what deficiencies exist and how to addess them. Examine shot and long tem planning and policy making fo the builtenvionment. Find funding to suppot and sustain impovements long-tem. Education: Educate system uses about ules, ights and esponsibilities, as well as benefits of walking and cycling. Engineeing: Design and enginee safe and accessible oadways with pedestian and bike facilities. Use design standads that accommodate pedestian and bike facilities in subdivision and land use odinances and impoving connectivity to aeas of inteest and tansit facilities. Enfocement: Use odinances and laws to enfoce pedestian and moto vehicle codes. Encouagement: Pomote walking and biking thoughout the community using as many methods and venues as possible. Planning and Designing fo Pedestian Safety The automobile has foeve changed the way in which tanspotation systems and the built envionment ae designed and constucted, often at the expense of pedestians. In the majoity of cashes between pedestians and motoists, the pedestian is tying to navigate in an envionment designed pimaily fo automobile use. This section of the plan explains how some common oadway design pactices can have negative impacts on pedestian tavel and safety as well as the policies that have led to these design pactices. It also discusses othe factos that affect pedestian safety such as steet connectivity, site design, land use, and access management. Next, it suggests changes that can lead to impovements in the pedestian envionment. Finally, it discusses the need to institutionalize these changes by eviewing, amending, and adopting policies and design guidelines to bette accommodate pedestian tavel. It is impotant to be 18

25 poactive as well as esponsive to pedestian safety poblems. This chapte eflects the need to develop a Pedestian Safety Action Plan both as to a esponse to cuent design inefficiencies and as an effot to integate pedestians into the design pocess fom the beginning to ensue the quality of futue developments. Undestanding System Uses Accoding to the Fedeal Highway Administation FHA) and the National Highway Taffic Safety Administation NHTSA) good pedestian safety planning must include an undestanding of the chaacteistics of pedestians. With an undestanding of pedestian needs and chaacteistics, those involved in pedestian safety planning can moe effectively undestand how new and existing facilities must opeate, as well as how pedestians will act when faced with cetain conditions. Applying a pactical undestanding of pedestian chaacteistics will povide insights when consideing appopiate safety solutions and will paticulaly help ensue that facilities ae inviting to pedestians. Impotant chaacteistics include undestanding why and whee pedestians walk, what types of design featues ceate a safe pedestian envionment, and what types of behavioal decisions pedestians ae likely to make. In addition, pedestians also consist of specific populations with diffeent chaacteistics, including childen who may be impulsive o unpedictable), pesons with mobility impaiments who may equie specific devices o facility featues), and senio citizens who may equie additional time fo oadway cossings). The Ameican Association of State Highway and Tanspotation Officials AASHTO) Guide fo the Planning, Design, and Opeation of Pedestian Facilities 2004) includes a compehensive discussion of pedestian chaacteistics and needs. Tanspotation Designs that Impact Pedestian Safety Seveal design pactices and policies conceived to impove vehicula mobility ae now ecognized as baies to a safe and efficient pedestian envionment. Thee ae many factos that affect the safety and mobility of the pedestian tanspotation netwok. The majo planning, design, and policy elements that impact pedestian safety include: 1. Steet design 2. Steet connectivity 3. Site design 4. Land use 5. Access management A sidewalk o path to an attaction is functional only if it povides safe and efficient access fo all pesons. Safety includes but is not limited to pavement condition and the location of the access point. Scatteed thoughout the county, paticulaly in olde 19

26 aeas, ae sidewalks in poo condition due to age, poo constuction and/o lack of maintenance. Maintenance becomes impotant because of the inheent safety concens associated with a neglected o impopely maintained sidewalk system. As sidewalks become aised o cacked because of tees upooting the concete o the feeze-thaw cycle they become safety hazads fo uses. Mainly the use goups affected by a neglected sidewalk ae the eldely and people with disabilities who need a wheelchai to get aound. Futhemoe, duing cold weathe wate that pools in cacks can feeze making the sidewalk a falling hazad because of ice build-up. The placement of cub cuts o pedestian amps is anothe impotant aspect of the pedestian system fo all uses. Thee ae numeous examples in Beks County of pedestian amps that ae not connected to the est of the pedestian netwok. Ramps exist that go diectly into a wall o landscaped aea. These ae examples of things that need to be impoved when looking at ou pedestian system and how we evaluate it. It is dependent upon municipalities that sidewalks ae installed in new developments and popety ownes maintain thei sidewalks. This can be done though municipal odinances. Since this section includes impoving pedestian safety though steet edesign and engineeing elated cash countemeasues, it povides a moe detailed focus on the steet design elements and those policies influencing steet design choices. The inteelated subjects of steet connectivity, site design, land use, and access management, majo components of a well-built envionment ae discussed below. Steet Design The taditional steet system is based on a simple hieachy: most tips oiginate on local steets; taveles ae then feied via collecto steets to ateials, which ae intended to cay lage amounts of moto vehicle taffic long distances at highe speeds. This system is based on the assumption that most tips occu by moto vehicle, so most of the facilities ae designed pimaily fo moto vehicle tavel. The system esults in steet designs that do not seve pedestians well fo seveal easons: 1. They lack pedestian facilities: Some collecto and ateial steets ae built with inadequate o no sidewalks o walkways, discouaging o limiting safe pedestian movement along steets. Continuous lighting may not exist to povide adequate night time pedestian conditions. 2. They ae wide o have multiple lanes that ae difficult to coss: Since ateial oads ae designed to facilitate smooth and efficient moto vehicle flow, they often have multiple lanes in each diection to accommodate high volumes of moto vehicle taffic and multiple tun lanes. The numbe of lanes a pedestian must coss has a diect impact on the complexity of the cossing task and the pedestian cash isk. The pedestian must find an adequate gap in the moto vehicle taffic, a task that inceases exponentially with the numbe of lanes. 20

27 3. They have high speeds: Wide steets encouage and allow fo highe vehicle speeds, which elate diectly to moe sevee injuies to motoists and pedestians) when a cash occus; the majoity of pedestian cashes and most fatalities occu on highe speed ateials. 4. They have complex intesections: Typically, wide ateial steets have intesections that ae even wide due to the addition of multiple tun lanes. They also often have lage tuning adii to allow lage vehicles, such as tucks and buses, to make tuns easily and quickly. This equies pedestians to coss longe distances and watch fo moe vehicles in moe lanes, an often challenging and dangeous task. Skewed intesection design and high volumes of vehicle ight- and left-tuns at an intesection can also add complexity to the cossing task. Left tun aows can also be confusing to pedestians. 5. They ceate long delays fo pedestians at intesections: Wide intesections and those with multiple tun lanes ceate a long wait fo pedestians. At times, cossing pohibitions may be designed fo one o moe cosswalks to facilitate tuning movements. If a cosswalk is closed, the pedestian is left with thee choices: coss illegally with no signal potection, walk a long distance aound the intesection, o walk to anothe location to coss. 6. They povide little fiction to potect pedestians: Much of the taffic engineeing philosophy of the last few decades has been aimed at stipping oads of fiction fo example, emoving tees, etc.) in ode to facilitate moto vehicle taffic flow. This ceates a baen, unsafe, and unattactive envionment fo pedestians, often with high vehicle speeds. Many of the designs and solutions poposed fo inceased pedestian safety equie evisiting some of these assumptions. But none of the poposed designs will ceate a less safe envionment fo motoists o othe oads uses. Steet Design Policies that have Affected Pedestians Achieving a Desied Level of Sevice Level of Sevice LOS) fo moto vehicle taffic is usually measued in lette gades A though E. LOS A descibes fee-flowing unimpeded moto vehicle taffic; LOS F is nea gidlock. LOS D is typical of congested uban aeas whee steets ae full and moto vehicle taffic is moving elatively slowly. It is common fo some intesections to opeate at LOS D o wose duing the AM and/o PM peak peiods. The measuements and calculations needed to pedict o detemine LOS ae quantitative. Howeve, the desied LOS is often a political decision o policy), based on how much congestion decision makes assume the public will toleate. Those communities that have sought to have moto vehicle taffic flow smoothly often have chaacteistically wide oads with minimal pedestian accommodations. Consequently, 21

28 they often expeience highe cash ates fo all oadway uses, as both motoists and pedestians suffe fom the less safe conditions ceated to achieve these highe levels of vehicle mobility. Accommodating Special Vehicles Roadway design is usually pedicated on the concept of the design vehicle. The design vehicle is the lagest vehicle that can be expected to use the oad often enough to justify designing the oadway to accommodate that vehicle. Lage design vehicles ae commonly tucks and buses, including tash collection tucks, moving vans, school buses, and fie tucks. A typical design vehicle fo local steets is known as an SU Single Unit delivey tuck), such as those used by package delivey sevices. The most citical application of this concept is at intesections, whee the adius is made lage enough so the design vehicle can make a ight tun without encoaching into the opposing lane. This can have majo negative effect on pedestian safety and comfot, because a lage adius allows passenge vehicles to make ight tuns at highe speeds and equies pedestians to coss a longe distance. Lage adii at intesections can contibute to a highe pedestian cash isk as pedestians ae often hit by tuning vehicles. Steet Connectivity Within the context of the afoementioned steet hieachy, local steets typically do not connect well to each othe, ateial steets, o destinations such as tansit stops o stoes/malls. This leads to lage collecto and ateial steets to convey heavy moto vehicle taffic. This discontinuous patten of local steets limits tavel choices fo pedestians to highe-isk ateial steets that educe both comfot and safety. A lack of steet connectivity leads to intesections that ae few in numbe but often lage in size that ae moe difficult fo pedestians to navigate. Many local steets have cuvilinea o cul-de-sac designs that: 1. Limit the pedestians ability to tavel in the most diect path; 2. May be disoienting; 3. Incease the distances to destinations, theeby discouaging walking; and 4. Incease pedestian exposue time to othe vehicles on the oad. Fewe pedestians using the oadside educe the motoist s expectation of seeing them and, theefoe, incease the incidence of mishaps. These same steet designs have some negative impacts on motoists as well, inceasing diving distance and time, and affecting the esponse time fo emegency vehicles. 22

29 Site Design Many existing developments do not povide diect, clea, and convenient access fo pedestians; some do not povide any pedestian facilities at all. Pedestians wishing to access a site may have to detemine thei own path and navigate though diveways, paking lots, landscaping, and othe buildings in ode to each the destination. This often leads to confusion and conflicts between pedestians and motoists, esulting in moe pedestian cashes. Land Use The pactice and evolution of land use planning is long, complex, and geneally beyond the scope of this document; howeve, an acknowledgement of cetain issues petaining to pedestian safety is in ode. Land use pactices that took shape afte Wold Wa II have typically favoed the segegation of land uses e.g. commecial and employment aeas, schools, and esidences) and the concentation of commecial activities along auto-dominated ateial coidos. This has poduced the following unintended consequences: 1. Tip oigins and destinations ae often fa apat; 2. Longe tavel distances lead to fewe people walking and moe diving; 3. Inceased vehicula use ceates hectic taffic conditions not conducive to safe pedestian envionments. Those who do walk ae exposed to long distances and high levels of isk when they walk along o ty to coss busy high-speed ateials; 4. The pemise that most tips will be made by automobile leads to steet designs intended to accommodate only the automobile, built to handle lage volumes of moto vehicle taffic. When this occus, pedestians ae often minimally accommodated only as an aftethought, if at all; 5. Many of the destinations and commecial activities along a oadway coido ae also designed to seve motoists, fosteing stip development with ample paking to captue passing motoists. As most of these destinations ae located on ateials, they ae had fo pedestians to access. The typical land use patten of concentating activities along auto-dominated coidos ceates geneic looking oads that ae had fo pedestians to coss. Unfotunately, it is these same coidos that tansit uses. Uses of the tansit system, paticulaly the eldely and handicapped, have an exceptionally difficult time tavesing these oadways. Access Management Accoding to AASHTO, access management involves poviding o managing) access to land development while simultaneously peseving the flow of taffic on the suounding oadway system in tems of safety, capacity, and speed AASHTO, 2001). It has widely been used to impove the efficiency and flow of moto vehicle taffic by limiting the numbe of diveways and intesections on ateials and highways. In some cases this has impoved safety fo pedestians and motoists alike, but in othe 23

30 instances it has had the unintended consequence of facilitating the design of lage intesections spaced fa apat. These intesections ae often difficult and unsafe fo pedestians to coss due to thei size and lage numbes of tuning vehicles. Pedestians wishing to coss at an intesection may have to walk long distances out of thei way. Fo communities that do not limit the numbe of diveways and intesections, the issue of intesection size and spacing may not be a poblem, but an excessive numbe of diveways can ceate anothe poblem. Fo pedestians, evey diveway is a potential hazad o conflict point. Vehicles pull in and out of commecial diveways continuously, and when diveways ae designed like steet intesections, tuning speeds can be quite high. Too many diveways along a steet without pope diveway design can also ceate a challenging walking envionment fo people with disabilities. Methods to Impove Pedestian Safety In addition to impoving the compliance of all oadway uses with taffic contols and laws, thee ae seveal measues that can be taken to impove conditions fo pedestians within these tanspotation conventions peviously discussed. Impoved pedestian safety can be achieved in a vaiety of ways, including: Steet Design Impovements To make steets safe fo pedestians; plannes, designes, enginees and officials need to focus on: Slowing vehicle speeds; Reducing steet cossing distances fo pedestians; Impoving the visibility of pedestians and motoists; Inceasing the level of caution taken by pedestians and motoists; Poviding pedestian facilities sidewalks, cossing islands, etc.) whee the needs and potential cash eductions ae the geatest by establishing a outine system to identify gaps in the netwok along steets and highways, paticulaly in uban and sububan aeas. Achieving one o moe of these objectives not only educes the isk of pedestian cashes, but also usually impoves safety fo moto vehicle dives and passenges. Sometimes a design issue may esult in a complication o delay to othe oadway uses, and tanspotation officials will have to make a choice to balance the competing inteests. Officials may peceive these choices to be unpopula o difficult to make, especially fo those whose job has been to move moto vehicle taffic and who may not be awae of values held by the community. Howeve, most often a community will be suppotive of impoved pedestian safety; it is impotant to educate and infom people about how and why cetain choices ae made. To achieve these objectives, some policies may equie ethinking o epioitization. These include: 24

31 Achieving a Desied Level of Sevice Some effective pedestian safety measues may incease moto vehicle tavel time and have a slight negative impact on moto vehicle LOS. A ebalancing of the tanspotation system whee pedestian LOS and safety ae included may sometimes mean a change in expectations about the pioity that moto vehicle LOS is given in design and decision-making. If seious safety measues ae to be achieved, the paticula LOS may be lowe fo moto vehicles than if those measues wee not taken. Impovements in capacity can be achieved in othe ways: by expanding the capacity of othe tanspotation options, e-thinking land use stategies, o detemining whee impotant destinations such as schools ae located. Accommodating Special Vehicles The conflict between vehicle accommodation and pedestian safety is usually consideed a design decision, but it is also a values policy) decision. An intesection can be designed with a smalle adius than is typically used fo a paticula design vehicle, theeby inceasing pedestian safety by educing cossing distance/exposue. The moto vehicle dive can still make the tun, but the tuck will have to maneuve into an inside lane to complete the tun. Communities with steets designed aound the concept of bigge is bette ae communities that often povide poo pedestian sevice and typically have poo pedestian safety ecods. Convesely, communities that place a high pioity on pedestian safety and convenience do moe to balance the needs of lage vehicles with the needs of pedestians in thei steet design. This does not mean tucks, school buses, and fie tucks cannot use the steets they ae accommodated; they just usually need to tavel at a lowe speed and take cae in making tuns. Tanspotation pofessionals ae asked to caefully weigh these factos when making steet design decisions. Steet Connectivity Impovements Inceasing steet connectivity ceates a safe, moe pedestian-fiendly steet system by: Reducing walking distances; Offeing moe oute choices along quiet local steets; Dispesing moto vehicle taffic with moe two-lane, neighbohood commecial steets, which elieve moto vehicle, taffic fom ateials to make steets safe fo pedestians to walk along; Reducing the need fo wide, difficult to coss steets and intesections. Steet connectivity with the tansit netwok is vey impotant. If people ae to use tansit, then thei ole as pedestians on both ends of thei tip is impotant and should be accommodated on well-connected steets. Steet connections ae vital to pedestians, and thee ae many things that can be done to impove the connectivity of existing steet netwoks and plan fo the connectivity of futue developments. Hee ae a few potential solutions: 25

32 Impove existing local steet connectivity and ciculation by adding sidewalks, paths, stais/amps, gates, etc. that link dead-end steets and cul-de-sacs to othe pats of the steet netwok; Maintain a pedestian connection e.g. Povide a path in the ight-of-way o sidewalk easement) when a steet is being seveed it is moe difficult to puchase an easement fo a connection late); Incease the numbe of access points to and fom neighbohoods and othe destinations, so not all tips ae funneled though one o two lage intesections o access points. Moe neighbohood tavel options means less moto vehicle taffic on any given steet; Design futue developments with impoved ciculation pattens within neighbohoods so moe neighbohood automobile tips can be taken on local steets, educing the need to widen ateials. This may conflict with some taffic-calming techniques, but speeds can be contolled though othe measues. Site Design Impovements Both small-scale and lage-scale esidential and commecial developments should be diectly accessible fom the sidewalk though a safe and convenient sidewalk o pathway. Many communities ae achieving bette pedestian safety ecods by equiing businesses and developments to locate close to the steet with paking povided in the back) in moe pedestian-oiented site developments that balance auto access with pedestian needs and facilities. This does not mean that auto access is denied; it is just managed moe appopiately. Additionally, pedestian and bicycle facilities within the development, including maked cosswalks including commecial centes between stoes), bike acks, and dive waning signs must be included. These site design goals ae achieved by enacting local zoning odinances, which must be enfoced. These pinciples contibute geatly to the safety, comfot, and aesthetics of the walking expeience. Linking Land Use and Tanspotation Land use planning has often been consideed a discipline sepaate fom tanspotation planning, steet design, and taffic engineeing, and insufficient emphasis has been placed on the coodination of the two planning pocesses. Howeve, the elationship between land use and tanspotation is evident, and the esponsibility to coodinate between the two is impeative. Some changes to land use pattens that may positively influence pedestian safety include: Encouaging mixed-use development such as allowing small-scale etail in neighbohoods o placing schools in the cente of neighbohoods) to help ceate destinations within walking distance of whee people live and wok; 26

33 Including taffic calming techniques in new and econstuction designs. Such techniques include pedestian efuges, cossing islands, bollads, enhanced lighting and signage; Designing new neighbohoods in a cluste patten with many destinations accessible on foot to esidents; and Woking coopeatively with tansit povides to design esidential and commecial developments that ae tansit-fiendly. Access Management Impovements One of the most impotant access management techniques includes educing conflicts at diveways to impove the walking envionment. Some diveways can be closed inceasing the safety of both pedestians and motoists without impeding access to local businesses. Access management tools should not be used to educe public steet connections, especially pedestian connections to the tanspotation netwok. Othe access management goals can wok in favo of pedestians within the context of othe impotant planning and policy issues, including: Constucting medians to contol tuning movements; Encouaging clusteed development and mixed land uses; Impoving steet and neighbohood connectivity; Conveting auto-oiented stip development into moe accessible land use pattens moe suitable fo pedestians. Education about Sidewalk Development and Maintenance To ensue sidewalks ae installed, it is impotant fo municipalities to povide sidewalk odinances. The odinance could povide such language that govens the cub cuts, types of tees, safety, maintenance and design. Howeve, an odinance needs to be enfoced in ode to be effective. Aside fom sidewalk odinances, thee ae numeous education pogams available to teach municipal officials, planning staff and the public on pedestian issues. Thee is also liteatue and gants available fo municipalities to develop safe and accessible pedestian facilities. Once sidewalks ae installed, they must be maintained. This includes pope patching of damaged concete, sweeping, snow and ice emoval, and cub-cut cleaing. Popety ownes must be made awae that these duties ae thei esponsibility and ae pat of the popety owneship expeience. Futhemoe, they must be held accountable when epais become necessay but ae not made. 27

34 28

35 CHAPTER 4: BICYCLING ISSUES 29

36 30

37 Much like the pevious section on Pedestian Issues, this section will follow the same fomat. Howeve, athe then epeat the Safe Routes to School infomation and steet design infomation, this section will discuss the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, PennDOT Bicycle and Pedestian Plan and the Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual. As with the sidewalk infomation, the County GIS staff calculated the miles of oads in Beks County. Thee is 3, miles of oadway as to date. Since 2004, an additional 45.6 miles of oad has been built in the County. The issues that cyclists face ae simila to those faced by pedestians. Issues such as safety, maintenance and accessibility ae big poblems fo cyclists. Thee ae also many diffeent types of uses of bicycles: Those iding fo commuting puposes, school students, leisue cyclists and othes. This section will pesent the legal aspect of bicycling and also focus on poblems that may affect all type of uses. PENNSYLVANIA VEHICLE CODE BICYCLING ISSUES Accoding to the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, a bicycle is consideed a vehicle and, as such, is govened by a geneal set of ules common to all vehicles) and a specific set of ules designed fo bicycles). Pennsylvania Vehicle Code Chapte 33 Section 3336 and Chapte 35 ae the main aeas that discuss bicycle laws. The following ae highlights fom the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code: Method of giving hand and am signals; As a geneal ule, evey peson iding a pedalcycle upon a oadway shall be ganted all of the ights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the dive of a vehicle by this title, except as to special povisions in this subchapte and except as to those povisions of this title which by thei natue can have no application; Evey peson opeating a pedalcycle upon a highway shall obey the applicable ules of the oad as contained in this title; Evey pedalcycle when in use between sunset and sunise shall be equipped on the font with a lamp which emits a beam of white light intended to illuminate the pedalcycle opeato s path and visible fom a distance of at least 500 feet to the font, a ed eflecto facing to the ea which shall be visible at least 500 feet to the ea and an ambe eflecto on each side. Opeatos of pedalcycle may supplement the equied font lamp with a white flashing lamp, light-emitting diode o simila device to enhance thei visibility to othe taffic and with a lamp emitting a ed flashing lamp, light-emitting diode o simila device visible fom a distance of 500 feet to the ea. A lamp o lamps won by the opeato of a pedalcycle shall comply with the equiements of this subsection if the lamp o lamps can be seen at the distances specified. ; 31

38 A peson iding a pedalcycle upon a sidewalk o pedalcycle path used by pedestians shall yield the ight-of-way to any pedestian and shall give an audible signal befoe ovetaking and passing a pedestian; A peson shall not ide a pedalcycle upon a sidewalk in a business distict unless pemitted by official taffic-contol devices, no when a usable pedalcycle-only lane has been povided adjacent to the sidewalk. ; A peson unde 12 yeas of age shall not opeate a pedalcycle o ide as a passenge on a pedalcycle unless the peson is weaing a pedalcycle helmet meeting the standads of the Ameican National Standads Institute, the Ameican Society fo Testing and Mateials, the Snell Memoial Foundation s Standads Potective Headgea fo Use in Bicycling o any othe nationally ecognized standad fo pedalcycle helmet appoval. This subsection shall also apply to a peson who ides: Upon a pedalcycle while in a estaining seat attached to a pedalcycle; o In a taile towed by a pedalcycle. PennDOT BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PLAN 2007) The 2007 plan is an update fom the 1996 Bicycle and Pedestian Plan that was initiated in 2003 and This plan is a component of the Pennsylvania Mobility Plan, the state s long ange tanspotation plan. This plan was developed using fou basic pinciples: Funding- It is not a funding plan and does not mandate special, sepaate funding fo bicycle/pedestian activities; Integation- It is a plan to integate o blend the bicycle and pedestian modes into the outine tanspotation planning design pocesses, which is the most efficient way to ensue that they ae accoded pope consideation; Tools- Rathe than extas o amenities to the tanspotation system, bicycle and tanspotation facilities and associated education, enfocement and encouagement activities ae viewed as tools fo solving tanspotation poblems, like congestion, ai quality, ising fuel costs and tanspotation choice. They can also seve seconday puposes like tax base stabilization, impoved land use, impoved citizens health and oveall quality of life; Complementay Components- Like any systematic appoach, the engineeing, education, enfocement and encouagement actions that fom the Plan ae meant to be implemented jointly to fully ealize the potential of each. Patnes in the complementay appoach to implementation include othe state agencies, the 32

39 Fedeal Highway Administation, the Metopolitan Planning Oganization MPO), County Planning Commission, advocacy oganizations and othes. The Pennsylvania Bicycle Pedestian Plan is attempting to institute the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Tanspotation Equity Act- a Legacy fo Uses SAFETEA-LU) by integating all modes of tanspotation, including bicycle and pedestian, with land use. It will be impotant fo Beks County s Bicycle and Pedestian Plan to also follow the guidelines set by SAFETEA-LU in ode fo this plan to achieve integation of land use and tanspotation within the county. TYPES OF BICYCLES Bicycles ae categoized by diffeent things i.e. function, numbe of uses, spot, populsion et cetea. Some bicycles can fall into one specific categoy o can fall into a numbe of categoies. No matte what the bicycle will be used fo i.e. commuting, childen, and a pope fit bicycle is necessay. The following is an abbeviated list of types of bicycles: Utility Bicycles commuting bicycles) Mountain Bicycles Road/Racing Bicycles Deailleu Gea Single-Speed Bicycles and Fixed Gea Bicycles Tandem BMX Hand-Canked Bicycles Hybid Bicycles DRIVING YOUR BICYCLE Keeping in mind the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code Title 75, a bicycle is consideed a vehicle. Aside fom the laws established to keep cyclists safe, thee is pope cycling etiquette. This section will biefly descibe the safest way to ide a bicycle on the oad. Fist and foemost, the Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual states the best way to dive a bicycle is by going with the flow of taffic. This way will get a cyclist to his o he destination faste and with fewe chances to have an accident. The moe the taffic pattens ae followed the moe pedictable a cyclist becomes. Unlike walking, a cyclist 33

40 should not cycle against taffic. Depending on how wide the tavel lane is, is thee a shoulde and if so, is that shoulde coveed in gavel which can cause blowouts and incease accidents, detemines whee in the lane the cyclist should be. Naow tavel lanes, a cyclist should be in the cente of the lane; wide tavel lanes a cyclist should be to the ight of a ca but not all the way to the ight that could cause a potential cash with a ca doo o passing vehicle. Accoding to the Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual, depending if you ae tuning ight o tuning left, a cyclist may need to change lane positions. Tuning ight is easie then tuning left; howeve, if a cyclist follows the methods of hand signals as descibed in Chapte 33 Section 3336 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, a left tun can be safely executed. A cyclist when changing lane positions needs to be just as awae if not moe awae of his/he suoundings. It is impotant to not just ely on heaing when switching lane positions, it is impotant to also look behind you and find the location of the cas and when it is safest to make the lane change. It is most impotant to emembe that diving a bicycle the smat way, most likely esults in a safe commute fo all oadway uses. Remembe, as a cyclist, if you ae not following the laws set by Pennsylvania Vehicle Code Title 75 Chapte 35, you can be cited fo a taffic violation. In Beks County thee ae vaious bicycle taining classes. These classes incopoate the coe issues and techniques as discussed in this section fo cycling on the oadway. WHY DO PEOPLE BICYCLE? Accoding to the League of Ameican Bicyclists, people ae using bicycles fo vaious easons: economics, envionment, you health, fo the joy of it and lastly, fo tanspotation. Economics: With today s economy and the cuent ecession, Ameicans ae looking fo numeous ways to save money. One way a peson can save money is by getting out of thei vehicle and using a bicycle. On aveage, a motoist dives 15,000 miles a yea and wastes an equivalent of a full wok week stuck in taffic SOURCE: The Missing Piece in ou Tanspotation System, Rails-Tails Consevancy). Half of all tips motoists take in thei vehicles ae thee miles o less. People can eliminate using thei vehicles all togethe on tips less than 3 miles. This would help save on wea and tea of a vehicle and also gasoline. Bicycles ae much less to maintain and also puchase and have little wea and tea. Envionment: With the inceased taffic congestion thee is an incease in pollution and emissions. People do not ealize that when a ca is diven on shote tips, it is wose fo the envionment on a pe mile basis. This is because 60 pecent of the pollution fom auto emissions is eleased duing the fist few minutes of opeation of a vehicle. Poviding 34

41 bette ai quality can povide a bette standad of living. People ae healthie and those with beathing poblems ae less likely to have flae-ups. By deceasing pollutants, it deceases the amount of smog and less acid ain on the envionment. Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle: Most people these days ae inteested in healthy living. Accoding to the League of Ameican Bicyclists, thee wee 400,000 deaths in 2000, 16.6 pecent of all deaths wee due to physical inactivity and poo diet. Bicycling can help eliminate obesity amongst adults and childen. Since money is a key facto with all of these sections, it is impotant to emembe that healthcae costs ae on the ise like gasoline, oil and electicity. Accoding to the Cente fo Disease Contol CDC), 61 pecent of adults in the United States ae oveweight o obese; 31 pecent of kids aged 6-11 and 14 pecent of kids ae oveweight. Obesity is second behind tobacco in the nation s health isk factos, contibuting to 300,000 deaths a yea. Many of the nation s diseases ae associated with being oveweight o obese; heat disease and diabetes ae just two of the leading causes of death associated with being oveweight and obese. Being physically fit povides many lifestyle benefits. Those who ae moe physically fit see a decease in anxiety and depession as well as bette cadio-vascula health. Active people ae moe likely to lead healthie, longe lives. A moe active peson tends to be a happie, moe poductive woke who has significantly lowe healthcae costs. A way to incopoate execise into a peson s daily outine is to eliminate the vehicle on shot tips. Invest in a bicycle and when unning simple eands, use a bicycle and in tun, incopoating saving the envionment, saving money on gasoline and staying healthy. Tanspotation: Accoding to the Bueau of Tanspotation Statistics, Octobe 2000 Omnibus Household Suvey, 41.3 million Ameicans 20%) used a bicycle fo tanspotation in the 30 days measued in the suvey. People would cycle moe often to wok if bette facilities/incentives wee povided. If employes offeed financial o othe incentives, employees may be moe inclined to cycle to wok, i.e. thei cost of insuance would decease. Facilities include but ae not limited to bicycle lockes and wide shouldes on the oad. The infastuctue fo bicycles is much cheape then infastuctue fo vehicles. Beks County is not unique to the infomation that has been pesented thus fa. As with pedestian issues, cyclists ae facing simila poblems. Cyclists ae concened fo thei safety; they have accessibility poblems and also the maintenance of the infastuctue povided can be in poo condition. The following sections will attempt to link what is in the pevious sections with Beks County. 35

42 SAFETY Helmets: Befoe a cyclist gets on his o he bicycle, one of the tools he o she should have is a helmet. Accoding to the Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual, weaing a bicycle helmet wheneve iding a bicycle can educe a peson s isk of a seious head injuy by 85 pecent. The United States has ceated standads fo helmets that ae egulated by the Consume Poduct Safety Commission CPCS). Accoding to the Intenational Bicycle Fund, a good bicycle helmet must be able to absob impact enegy just as motocycle helmets do to pevent bain injuy. Most of the best helmets have thee elements: a shell, a line and staps and buckle. Although the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code states that pedalcyclists unde 12 yeas of age shall not opeate a pedalcycle without a helmet, it is a good thing fo all ides to use egadless of age. Lights and Reflective Clothing Helmets ae impotant but also ae lights and eflective clothing fo cycles and cyclists. Should a cyclist be on the oad afte dusk and befoe dawn, it is impeative that lights be on the bicycle. Riding at night is dangeous enough with low visibility that not outfitting a bicycle o the ide will make it even moe dangeous. Reflective clothing would be a good idea to have on as well. If the lights on the cycle ae not stong enough, the eflective clothing can notify vehicle dives to a cyclist on the oad. Roadway Signals As mentioned pevious, a peson dives a bicycle, in tun, using coect hand signals, following coect taffic pattens ae ways to keep safe. The cyclist is not the only peson that needs to be awae of the laws and suoundings. Vehicle dives also need to be awae that a cyclist has just as much ight to use the oadway as does the vehicle. A vehicle dive should be awae of what is aound a bicycle and if attempting to pass a cyclist, use caution and pass with ease. Ciminal Acts Safety issues ae also a concen at night not because of a cyclist getting hit but fo othe easons. At night in some cities a cyclist is moe likely to be obbed and/o attacked then to get into a bicycle cash with a vehicle SOURCE: Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual). Pedestian ovepasses, paks and industial aeas geneally povide a highe isk fo being obbed o fo pesonal attacks. It is essential that cyclists who must ide at night choose outes that ae well lit and busy. A cyclist should conside going out of the way in ode to emain safe fom attacks. Anothe secuity poblem facing cyclists is theft. Theft of bicycles occus eithe though a lack of pope locking o insufficient means of secuing. In West Reading Boough, a pogam was instituted that allows the Boough to povide locks to individuals using municipal paks/pools. The pogam woks with an individual leaving identification with 36

43 a municipal official and is handed a lock. Upon the etun of the lock, the individual eceives thei identification. Measues simila to this should be consideed in ode to help maintain people using municipal paks and using thei bicycles to tavel to and fom these aeas. MAINTENANCE This section will addess the maintenance of the oadways and shaed-use paths. Municipalities set aside money in the budget fo tanspotation and fo maintenance of oadways. Howeve, not evey poject slated fo constuction is completed due to vaying outside influences i.e., excessive snow and lowe then nomal funding. The Pennsylvania Depatment of Tanspotation PennDOT) also has budgets to follow and maintenance equests to be completed. Accommodations fo bicycle infastuctue ae consideed at the beginning of the poject stages and if fedeal and state funding is povided. Many govenment agencies implement eithe a Peventative Maintenance schedule o a Coective Maintenance schedule SOURCE: Municipal Road Maintenance Guide- Ameican Council of Engineeing Companies). Coming up with a Peventative Maintenance schedule at the onset of a poject poves to be a bette judgment then waiting fo the infastuctue to deteioate beyond financial capacity. Maintenance to oadways includes but is not limited to, epaving, pothole epai, shoulde epai, pavement makings and steet sweeping. Pavement makings ae as essential as making epais to the asphalt. Pavement makings aid the dive of the vehicle and the cyclist in coectly navigating the oadway. Beks County has aeas with insufficient oadways that equie epai eithe immediately o in the futue. Cyclists in the county need to be woied about potholes in diving lanes as these can esult in eithe majo damage to the bicycle o an outight cash. Some of the county s diving lanes ae not conducive to shaed use between vehicles and bicycles at the same time. Impoved maintenance and signage would help in making naow lanes moe conducive to shaed use. Until such time those accommodations can be made, signage indicating altenate bike outes would be beneficial. ACCESSIBILITY/CONNECTIVITY A steet and/o shaed-use path to an attaction is functional only if it povides safe and efficient access fo all pesons. Many of the oads in Beks County ae deteioating o have vey limited accessibility/connectivity fo cyclists. Steet connectivity becomes a poblem with cyclists on divided oadways such as Route 422 when shouldes ae naow. The issue of connectivity aises when discussing shaed-use paths. Accessibility in this section will discuss a cyclists ability to have access on a two-lane oad. 37

44 Shaed-Use Paths Shaed-use paths ae convenient fo cyclists if thee is no safe oad access o no oad exists, to bypass obstuctions i.e. constuction aeas, fo safe tavel and also a tail can povide a scenic setting fo iding SOURCE: Lancaste Bicycle Club). These paths ae geat fo school childen, if the path povides a connection between the neighbohood and the school. It can povide a safe way fo childen to bicycle to school and get the ecommended 30-minute cadiovascula execise a day. The paths ae a good way fo beginne cyclists to lean how to use and opeate a bicycle befoe heading out onto the oadway SOURCE: Lancaste Bicycle Club). The disadvantage to shaed-use paths is if no connection is made between a community and a destination such as a etail shopping aea. Shaed-use paths ae not meant to eplace using the oadway, they ae meant to make safe moe convenient connections when none is povided. In Beks County, some of ou tail systems can be used as shaed-use paths. This allows the cyclist to avoid heavy taffic congestion while still being able to cycle fom one aea to anothe. Howeve, shaed-use paths can povide a whole othe obstacle. A cyclist should not use a shaed-use path at night as safety and secuity issues can become moe ponounced. Bike Lanes Bike lanes ae a contovesial issue. In some aeas of the nation bike lanes have been installed and ae functioning well, while in othe aeas bike lanes have been installed but may not be functioning as hoped. Bike lanes should be planned, designed and installed afte a caeful evaluation of all potential impacts of such facilities. They equie ideal situations and should be engineeed with attention to details. Accoding to PennDOT Distict 5-0 Bicycle and Pedestian Coodinato, Pennsylvania equies a minimum of 5 feet fo a dedicated bicycle lane; AASHTO pefes 6 feet. The coodinato states that bikes lanes ae nomally used whee thee is competition fo space and a stong need to identify space so cyclists and moto vehicles can stay clea of one anothe, i.e. downtown Philadelphia and State College. If bicycle lanes ae installed on state outes, PennDOT would be equied to maintain the makings and sweep the shoulde. Bike lanes collect significant amount of debis fom passing motoists which could cause an accident SOURCE: Lancaste Bicycle Club). On the contay, bike lanes ae not always a negative. Alan Wachtel, autho of About Bikes says that, a bike lane stipe seves the same engineeing pupose as any othe lane stipe, and should be employed unde simila cicumstances- to delineate tavel paths that could othewise be ambiguous, poviding fo moe pedictable movement. Bike lanes can povide bette potection fom using additional oadway space fo vehicle tavel lanes, simply by estiping it. As mentioned pevious, pedictability is an impotant component between vehicles and cyclists and bike lanes can emind vehicles that bicycles have a ight to the oad and should be expected on the oad. 38

45 Bike Routes and othe Wayfinding Techniques Bike outes ae becoming moe commonplace. In this case, a fomally stiped lane is not povided. Howeve, by using mapping and diectional signage a ecognized oute is povided that aims to give cyclists a common, safe oute between attactions. These outes may be eithe on- o off-oad. In ode to futhe enhance the notion of bike outes, Shaed Lane Makings othewise known as Shaows can be added to existing tavel lanes. Recently added to the Manual of Unifom Taffic Contol Devices MUTCD), the nationwide guide to oadway signage and making, Shaows designate a tavel lane as one to be shaed by both vehicles and bicycles. This making infoms motoists that thee may be cyclists in thei lane, and it infoms cyclists that they will be shaing the lane with motoists. If a oadway o lane becomes heavily used by cyclists, fomally maked and maintained bicycle lanes should be consideed. Roadway Shouldes On many oads, bicyclists ide on the oadway shoulde. While this is appopiate in many instances, thee ae concens that should be addessed by the oadway ownes PennDOT o municipalities): Shoulde Consistency: Does the physical shoulde width incease/decease ove distance, thus pushing cyclists into the catway, o do obstacles such as guideails, dainage facilities, bush and utilities change the shoulde size? Maintenance: Is thee litte, gavel, glass, weeds, accident debis that needs to be emoved? Ae shouldes utted, loosely paved, o geneally in poo condition? Rumble Stips: A low-cost motoist safety impovement being added to many oadways is the shoulde-edge umble stip. These consist of lage gooves cut into the oadway suface along the painted edge of the oad. They alet motoists though sound and vibation that they e staying fom the oad into the shoulde. Unfotunately, they make cycling in the shoulde difficult if the cyclists has to coss them. PennDOT has adopted guidance that specifies cyclist-fiendly application of these umble stips. Essentially, they have non-gooved sections spaced at even distances that allow cyclists to coss them safely. By having consistent, clean and safe oad shouldes cyclists can bette use a oad while adding a safety magin fo himself/heself as well as the motoist. AMENITIES A measue to think about when witing a plan like this, is to think of the cyclists not just getting fom one place to anothe but what will the cyclist do once he/she eaches the destination. Many aeas ae not built fo bicycle commuting in the oad capacity but also many aeas ae not built fo leisue cyclists, people going out fo a nice bicycle ide and then stop fo food. Something to emembe is that cyclists need a place to put leave the bicycle, pefeably a safe place. If amenities such as bicycle acks o lockes wee available, it would attact moe people to use a bicycle. An employe poviding showes at wok fo a bicycle commuting employee could attact moe cyclists. 39

46 Though bike acks and/o lockes would be assets in most aeas, thei location needs to be appopiate. Paked bicycles should not block sidewalks and stoefonts in commecial aeas, but should also not be elegated to out of the way aeas such as loading docks o othe inconvenient/undesiable spaces. Cyclists ae moe apt to use them if they ae in aeas whee visibility helps pevent theft and/o damage. Additionally, bicycle amenities should be placed so that the amenities o paked bikes do not hinde handicapped accessibility in any way. Inceased oute signage would encouage the use of bicycles. Fo instance, having baseball paks with bette infastuctue, amenities and signage would be ideal because families ae attending these types of events. Cycling as a family to a ballpak on a designated path is geat execise and inceases the family time. Having amenities at ballpaks can also lessen taffic and theefoe lessen the amount of pollution being emitted. EDUCATION As with pedestians, educating cyclists and motoists is a vey impotant component. Education can be in diffeent foms. Fo cyclists, it is impotant that they lean the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code which povides what is acceptable and not acceptable fo cycling. Motoists should be taught the pope etiquette fo dealing with cyclists on the oadways. It is impotant fo motoists to ealize that cyclists ae diving thei bicycles and have the same ights to the oadway as a vehicle. Teaching childen fom a young age is impeative. Pogams exist that allow local police depatments to give school assemblies on what to do and not do when cycling. These pogams will teach safety and secuity, allowing childen to see the impotance of weaing a bicycle helmet and eflective clothing and locking the bicycle up so it is not stolen. High school age childen that ae leaning to dive could be leaning about cycling and cyclists in a Dive s Education class. Local shopping centes and bike deales could povide pamphlets/bochues on bicycling. These pamphlets could list locations and times of classes fo leaning to ide a bicycle the coect way. It could povide points on vehicle esponsibility. 40

47 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS 41

48 42

49 BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN RECOMMENDATIONS In the pevious chaptes, effots wee made to analyze existing conditions and identify issues and oppotunities and this leads to one of the key components of any Bicycle and Pedestian plan establishing a set of ecommendations to guide the plan and its uses into the futue. The ecommendations within this plan ae genealized expessions of ways to diect uses of this plan to thoughtfully look at the pedestian and bicycle facilities within thei communities and develop ways to ceate bette and safe envionments fo uses of this multi-modal system. Based on input fom the Beks County Bicycle Plan Committee, data collected thoughout the planning pocess and the Five E s of the Safe Routes to School Pogam the following ecommendations wee established: Municipal odinances should be amended to equie developes to povide bicycle/pedestian accommodations within new developments and also povide links to esidences and othe attactions. The planning pocess stats with municipalities. Evey municipality within Beks County has thei own odinances that goven land use though both the Subdivision and Land Development Odinance SALDO) o zoning pocess. Developes should be engaged duing the initial planning of new developments to include facilities fo walking, biking and whee appopiate tansit access. Many times a new development is constucted and it is isolated fom the est of the community. Two diffeent subdivisions could abut each othe but thee is no inteconnection between them. As schools need to develop new campuses fo thei gowing populations, they ae inceasingly moving futhe away fom aeas of dense development. A municipality can enhance its community layout by poviding a divese tanspotation system. Thee ae local community centes, colleges/univesities that povide classes and wokshops that teach plannes and othe municipal officials sound planning techniques. PennDOT povides pedestian safety wokshops that give examples of steet layouts and tools municipalities can implement. Municipalities need to make sue that thei odinances contain adequate clauses to ensue that developes install pope pedestian facilities when building new subdivisions and commecial aeas. Municipalities need to be poactive when it comes to development. Many of ou new local bidges povide sidewalks; howeve, thee is no sidewalk povided outside the bidge aea thus making connectivity a poblem. Roadways should include pedestian signal heads that give adequate time to coss the steet. 43

50 MPO staff and a bicycle and pedestian advisoy committee put togethe by the MPO must wok togethe with municipal officials to amend thei development pocesses to ensue the inclusion of bicycle and pedestian facilities in new constuction. Links should be povided between established neighbohoods and new esidential and commecial aeas. The Beks County Geenway and Paks and Receation Plan have listed ecommendations fo nonmotoized linkages that many municipalities could use as a stating point fo connecting developments commecial and esidential). Anothe impotant piece of infomation to emembe is that in ode fo these ecommendations to be implemented, would be fo the municipality to not waive sidewalk/pathway equiements fo new development s). This is becoming an eve inceasing pactice and yet it is making the aea vehicle oiented instead of poviding multimodal tanspotation options. Many municipalities have a fee in-lieu of fo open space in new developments; a ecommendation could be to equie a fee in-lieu of fo sidewalks and othe non-motoized linkages. Ensue that the pedestian system complements the existing tanspotation netwok to maximize and peseve the existing system and take advantage of public ights-of-way and coidos such as utility lines, futue ail lines, linea wateways, etc., fo bicycle and pedestian facilities in ode to minimize public costs. Duing the compehensive planning and joint planning pocess, identify utility lines, ail lines, and linea wateways on the futue land use map as possible outes fo bicycling and walking. Municipalities should efeence the Beks County Geenway Pak and Receation Plan, the Beks Vision 2020 Compehensive Plan, along with the MPO s Long Range Tanspotation Plan, the Congestion Management Pocess and the Tanspotation Impovement Pogam when developing new tails and pedestian facilities. Municipalities should also be woking with goups such as the Beks Bicycle Club and WalkBikeBeks to wok on aeas that ae appopiate fo bicycle and pedestian facilities. Municipalities need to be poactive when consideing new oadway infastuctue o etofitting established infastuctue. When fedeal and state funding is povided, municipalities must conside accommodations fo cyclists and pedestians. Consideing these accommodations at the onset of communication between a community and a develope is impeative. Municipalities need to allocate an amount of monies be spent on updating oadways that includes but is not limited to, upon installation of new utility lines, installing new cubing and epaving oadways. Municipalities need to make it a pioity that when impoving oadway infastuctue safe facilities ae etofitted into the new design. The monies could be used fo the installation of bicycle lanes and/o wide shouldes fo bicycles. Signage could be installed designating a bicycle oute o diectional signage showing whee bicycle outes ae located. 44

51 Though a combined effot between all entities involved and the use of the afoementioned documents and esouces thee is moe than enough efeence mateial to adequately povide a safe and efficient multi-modal system of tanspotation thoughout the County. Educate elected officials, tanspotation officials and decision makes. Educating the pedestian alone is not enough. An effective pogam to impove pedestian safety and mobility should also addess those esponsible fo appoving, planning, designing, and developing a safe pedestian netwok. Elected officials, tanspotation officials, and othe decision makes must have buy in on the impotance of walking and the need fo safe walking conditions. Othewise, they may not povide the esouces to addess the poblems. Thei suppot fo pedestian education pogams, stepped-up enfocement activities, and infastuctue impovement is cucial. It is impotant fo elected officials and tanspotation decision-makes to undestand and believe that walking is an integal and citical pat of the tanspotation system. Educational messages and pogams vay acoss the boad. What is appopiate fo a municipal official o decision make will vay fom what is appopiate fo oad uses and school age childen. Educational messages fo oad uses commonly focus on impoving pesonal safety and obedience to taffic laws. Campaigns aimed at commutes o employees often focus on messages to encouage dives to use capools o tansit, o to conside non-motoized tanspotation modes. Education and taining pogams aimed at tanspotation officials and decision makes usually focus on encouaging stonge suppot fo policies, pogams, and facilities that pomote safe walking. Some stategies fo educating elected officials and tanspotation officials and othe decision-makes include: 1) Show the facts impove data to bette descibe the natue of the pedestian poblem in the community and to justify attention to pedestian concens. 2) Conduct intenal campaigns within the oganization to build staff suppot fo the pedestian safety pogam. 3) Develop elationships and patne with othe agencies that have an inteest in pedestian issues. 4) Plan events and activities that encouage officials to walk with an escot that can point out challenges and potential solutions. 5) Patne with safety goups, community goups, homeownes associations, and othes to lobby the politicians and decision-makes at the local and state level. Indentify and evaluate poblem aeas i.e. aeas with high occuences of bicycle and pedestian elated accidents) and plan ways to ceate a safe bicycle and pedestian envionment. In ode to achieve the safest outes fo all modes of tanspotation, municipalities, the Reading MPO and PennDOT need to wok togethe. Each entity can povide infomation that would allow the coection of poblem aeas. PennDOT taffic cash data can be used as a tool to identify aeas whee thee 45

52 have been abnomally high numbes of pedestian elated taffic accidents. Municipalities should eview police logs fo aeas of high cash ates o high ticket volumes. Afte identifying the poblem aeas they can then be evaluated to detemine what the cause of these instances ae. Detemining what the easons fo specific cashes involving pedestians ae a good tool fo identifying poblems aeas and coming up with ways to fix them. With the help of PennDOT and its esouces, sounde planning and poject pogamming could be implemented with safety as a pioity. Review potential impovements to the tanspotation system to ensue minimal negative impacts to all uses. Many impovements to the system, though well-intentioned, can have unplanned negative impacts on othe uses. Examples include shoulde-edge umble stips incease motoist safety but add difficulty fo cyclists) and pedestian bulb-outs at intesections incease pedestian safety but foce cyclists futhe out into taffic). While this Plan is not advocating against impovements like these, it is advocating fo complete investigations of all uses and the impacts to them. Wok with the Safe Routes to School pogam to make walking and biking to school safe. School disticts need to conside the impotance of neighbohood schools and ecognize that if amenities/infastuctue wee povided many childen would walk o bike to school. With the ise in childhood obesity, having schools povide pope amenities could pomote healthy lifestyles and encouage childen and teens to execise by walking o biking to school. School disticts can and should be encouaged to institute the Safe Routes to School Pogam. School disticts can get gants though PennDOT and the safe outes to school pogam to substantially impove the ability of pimay and middle school students to walk and bike to school safely. Though the pogam a safety audit can be pefomed to identify obstacles and safety issues facing student when they walk o bike to school. An action plan can then be put togethe that identifies these poblem aeas and come up with ways to ectify them. Paents need to advocate fo safe walking and biking conditions to and fom schools. Paents should lobby school disticts to ensue they povide bicycle amenities at the schools. Recommend that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania become moe involved in pioitizing bicycle and pedestian issues. Tanspotation agencies often develop a anking system fo making impovements such as suface pesevation, modenization, o safety. Pedestian safety countemeasues ae no diffeent. The idea is to assign scoing to the vaious citeia, weighting each one accoding to the values of the community, available funding, political climate etc. Othe scoing factos can be 46

53 added, and each one needs to be weighted as it epesents an ageed upon value. Although PennDOT has bicycle and pedestian coodinatos at both the statewide and distict levels, those pesons ae used in many othe capacities with bicycle and pedestian issues being only pat of thei oveall esponsibilities. If the Commonwealth would ensue that bicycle and pedestian issues wee pioitized and viewed with highe egad, municipalities would potentially be moe inclined to include povisions fo cyclists and pedestians. The Commonwealth needs to pioitize its bicycling and pedestian suppot infastuctue. Without a combined effot fom all entities that have a stake in the multimodal tanspotation system of a community, ceating a valuable and efficient pedestian and bicycle system will neve come to fuition. Enfoce the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code Chapte 35. Pennsylvania has a vehicle code to ensue the safety of all its esidents and visitos. Howeve, the vehicle code is only useful if it is enfoced. Thee ae specific laws that goven pedestian and cyclists; these laws need to be enfoced fo the safety of eveyone. Motoists need to emembe the ules that apply to them with egads to pedestians and cyclists. Pedestians have the ight-of-way in Pennsylvania and theefoe not yielding to a pedestian, a vehicle dive can be cited. The only way to get esponsible thinking and usage out of the tanspotation system is to enfoce the laws of the Commonwealth. Encouage employes to wok with commute agencies. As oadway congestion has gown, agencies that pomote altenative commuting methods have been ceated. Beks County employes have begun woking with Commute Sevices of Pennsylvania, an oganization that woks diectly with employes to pomote altenative commuting to thei employees. Though thei outeach effots, Commute Sevices has taken 10 million miles of single occupancy vehicles off the oad and conveted those tips into vanpools, tansit and bicycling. BICYCLE RECOMMENDATIONS Municipalities should establish bicycle outes. A municipality in its zoning odinance o subdivision and land development odinance can egulate the placement, size and shape of signs. Povisions can also be added egulating the bicycle oute. A municipality can eect signage diecting cyclists to local commuting tails and bicycle commuting outes. 47

54 Signage can also be an indication that the oad is a designated bicycle oute which would alet vehicle dives to the possibility of cyclists shaing the oad. Municipalities and PennDOT should conside making bicycle lanes. Whee heavily-used on oad facilities ceate multiple conflicts with motoists, and whee othe altenatives may not exist, municipalities and/o PennDOT, afte appopiate consideation and study, should conside the ceation of maked bicycle lanes and thei continued maintenance. Employes should encouage and accommodate employee commuting to wok via bicycle. Thee ae cyclists who wish to commute to wok evey day on thei bicycles, howeve, thee is no safe place fo the stoage of a bike. Many employes do not povide bicycle acks o bicycle lockes and some businesses do not allow bicycles to be bought into the building. Fo equipment that is vey expensive, leaving a bicycle outside is just not an option. Also, fea of theft o damage to equipment keep people fom commuting to wok by bicycle. Othe Incentives should be given to those employees who commute to wok by bicycle. Poviding lowe cost healthcae is a good incentive fo employes to have. Obesity is ising at a high ate and healthcae costs ae also ising fo employes and the employees. A eimbusement plan could be established which would allow employees to get money back that is not spent on using health insuance o paking. Since many people may not cycle to wok because of not having a place to feshen up aftewads, employes should investigate the povision of locke aeas and showe facilities. Employes should be encouaged to wok with commute agencies. As oadway congestion has gown, agencies that pomote altenative commuting methods have been ceated. Beks County employes have begun woking with Commute Sevices of Pennsylvania, an oganization that woks diectly with employes to pomote altenative commuting to thei employees. Though thei outeach effots, Commute Sevices has taken 10 million miles of single occupancy vehicles off the oad and conveted those tips into vanpools, tansit and bicycling. Encouage educating childen and teens about bicycle etiquette. This can be achieved though the coopeative patneships of schools, paents, local police depatments and outside oganizations like the Noth Cental Highway Safety Netwok, AAA and the Safe Routes to School Cleainghouse. Police depatments will come to schools and speak of the impotance of iding a bicycle and diving a ca esponsibly. School disticts need to utilize thei esouces when encouaging altenative methods to school othe then ca o bus. Once a child gows up and becomes a teenage and is 48

55 diving, schools need to povide this education in Dive s Education classes. Paents ae not exempt fom educating thei own childen on safety. Childen lean by example and childen need to see the pope technique of iding on a sidewalk o oadway. At home, it is impotant that paents einfoce what is taught at schools on bicycle and diving ules. BARTA should continue its pogam of installing bike acks on busses. The Beks Aea Regional Tanspotation Authoity BARTA) ecently began installing bike acks on thei fixed-oute busses. BARTA is encouaged to expand this pogam to all fixed-oute busses as funding pemits and to moe aggessively advetise thei pesence to the public. Encouage inceased safety among all cyclists. Safety is impotant with childen and all cyclists. Being safe includes being visible, using lights at night, weaing eflective clothing and also weaing helmets. It is most impotant to be a visible cyclist and wea pope clothing. When iding at night time having a light on the bicycle along with eflectos is cucial. Using a helmet is of the utmost impotance. Accoding to the Pennsylvania Bicycle Dive s Manual, weaing a bicycle helmet wheneve iding a bicycle can educe a peson s isk of a seious head injuy by 85 pecent. What most kids do not know is that Section 3510 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code govens the use of helmets by childen unde 12. Helmets ae vey impotant items that ae necessay when iding a bicycle at any age. A pogam should be devised that gives back to the childen who wea helmets even ove the age of 12. School disticts need to be involved in pomoting safe bicycle usage. Schools could povide pogams simila to the Book-It pogam that give out ewads fo those kids who wea helmets when biking to and fom school. If thee is a local bicycle shop that could sponso a helmet give-away o povide discounts on mechandise to childen who wea helmets, it might encouage moe childen/teens to use helmets all the time. Paents need to elay the impotance of using bicycle helmets to childen. PEDESTRIAN RECOMMENDATIONS Requie that pojects when implemented meet Ameican s with Disabilities Act ADA) equiements. Municipalities, county planning and local disabilities advocates need to coopeate togethe to make this ecommendation a eality. Thee is no eason that when infastuctue is added o eplaced that ADA compliancy cannot be met. Sidewalks need to be etofitted with the coect slope of amps and umble bumps need to be povided fo the blind and visually 49

56 impaied. At the on-set of planning, the coect slope can be figued into the engineeing costs as well as othe equiements fo ADA compliancy. Sound and safe design standads can be instituted fom the beginning by woking togethe. Pioitize pedestian impovements to enable a consevative appoach to ectifying pedestian safety issues not all pojects need to be high cost. Not evey pedestian safety impovement needs to be high cost. A poject that inceases pedestian safety can be done at a elatively low cost but can have a high value in safety. An example would be installing pavement makings o signs whee appopiate instead of building new, moe elaboate infastuctue. A low cost appoach can have a geate impact on the safety of pedestians without the need fo municipalities to oveextend them monetaily. Develop stategies on how pojects would be funded and identify funding steams that can be used to build pojects. Most pojects have some type of cost attached to them. With municipal budgets becoming tighte evey yea, many ae hesitant to include funding fo bicycle pojects. Poject sponsos must educate themselves on funding steams available though fedeal, state, county, municipal, non-pofit and othe local souces. These funding steams all have vaious ules attached that need to be followed in ode to obtain and use the funds. Educate pedestians on the pope use of the pedestian system. Local police depatments, Ameican Automobile Association AAA), cossing guads, non-pofits, educatos and paents all must wok togethe to teach each othe how to walk safely. Without basic education at an ealy age, bad habits can tun into potentially dangeous habits. 50

57 CHAPTER 6: FUNDING 51

58 52

59 FUNDING Thoughout this document, ideas fo bicycle and pedestian planning have been laid out. Recommendations have been povided in ode to ensue that bicycle and pedestian planning can be accomplished. Thee is anothe facto that detemines if bicycle and pedestian facilities can be implemented, that is funding. Funding can come fom a vaiety of places, govenment- fedeal, state and local, pivate secto souces, community fundaising and ceative patneships and lastly fom foundations SOURCE: Bicyclinginfo.og). Govenment funding can not only be boken down amongst the diffeent levels but also tanspotation elated vesus non-tanspotation elated. Vaious entities will offe monies but not fo evey poject and only fo cetain pats of the pojects, i.e. feasibility studies and constuction. It is impotant fo the gant wite to ensue that the monies that ae being asked fo can be used fo a paticula poject. It would be wasteful to spend time completing applications fo which the community does not qualify. Moto vehicle fuel tax is one way that many states use to fund highway and tanspotation infastuctue. Since states have thei own constitutions and govenments, how to spend the fuel tax is a state issue. Not all states will allocate fuel tax monies to bicycle and pedestian facilities, while some will make bicycle and pedestian pojects eligible fo fuel tax monies. Non-tanspotation evenue steams can be used fo bicycle and pedestian facilities, i.e. state lotteies and eal-estate tansfe tax. Local communities can do its own shae of funding pojects and should not be excluded fom this chapte. Thee ae thee common appoaches to local funding: special bond issues, dedications of a potion of local sales taxes o a vote-appoved sales tax incease and use of the annual capital impovement budgets of Public Woks and/o Paks agencies. SOURCE: Bicyclinginfo.og) With most cases, funding does not come at 100 pecent. Many communities must match funds o povide matching sevices. Section 217 of Title 23 of the U.S. Code USC) calls fo the integation of bicycling and walking into the tanspotation mainsteam and enhances the abilities of communities to invest in pojects to impove the safety and pacticality of biking and walking eveyday. Many bicycle pojects must be fo tanspotation puposes athe then eceation. Listed below ae Fedeal-aid Highway Pogam funding types fom the Fedeal Highway Administation FHWA): National Highway System 23 USC Section 217 {b}) Used fo constuction of bicycle tanspotation facilities and pedestian walkways on land adjacent to any highway on the National Highway system and Intestate Highways. 53

60 Suface Tanspotation Pogam STP) 23 USC Section 217 {a}) Used fo constuction of bicycle and pedestian facilities o nonconstuction pojects elated to safe bicycle use and walking. Modification of sidewalks to meet ADA equiements. 10 pecent of monies ae set aside fo Tanspotation Enhancement Activities TEA). 10 pecent is set aside fo Hazad Elimination and Railway- Highway Cossing pogams. Hometown Steets/Safe Routes to Schools administeed though TEA monies. This is not gant money but a eimbusement though PennDOT. Congestion Mitigation and Ai Quality Impovement Pogam Like STP funds, this money can be used fo constuction and nonconstuction pojects. 23 USC Section 217 {a}) Receational Tails Pogam 23 USC Section 206) Used fo tail pojects. 30 pecent must be used fo motoized tail use. 30 pecent must be used fo nonmotoized tail use. 40 pecent fo divese tail use. National Scenic Byways Pogam 23 USC Section 162 {c} {4}) Funds can be used fo constuction along a scenic byway of a facility fo bicyclists and pedestians. Job Access and Revese Commute Gants TEA-21 Section 3037) Gant that suppots pojects, including bicycle-elated sevices, designed to tanspot welfae ecipients and eligible low-income individuals to and fom employment. High Pioity Pojects and Designated Tanspotation Enhancement Activities Section 1602 of TEA-21 identifies pojects that include bicycle, pedestian, tail and taffic calming pojects in communities thoughout the county. 54

61 Fedeal Tansit Pogam: Title 49 USC, which was amended by TEA-21 allows fo Ubanized Aea Fomula Gants, Capital Investment Gants and Loans, and Fomula Pogam fo Othe than Ubanized Aea tansit funds that can be used to impove bicycle and pedestian access to tansit facilities SOURCE: FHWA). Activities that ae eligible fo these funds ae investments in pedestian and bicycle access to a mass tanspotation facility that eithe enhances coodination between vaious tanspotation types o establishes the coodination. 49 USC Section 5307) The Tansit Enhancement Activity pogam that was ceated by TEA-21 sets aside one pecent of Ubanized Aea Fomula Gant funds fo pedestian access and walkways and bicycle access that includes bicycle stoage facilities and installing equipment on mass tanspotation fo bicycles. Highway Safety Pogams: State and Community Highway Safety gants bing the focus of safety back to pedestian and cyclists. These gants equie a Pefomance plan and Highway Safety plan in ode to be eligible. The Pefomance plan needs to establish goals and measues fo impoving highway safety. The Highway Safety plan would descibe activities that would be used to achieve the goals. 23 USC Section 402) Fedeal govenment pogams typically fund 80 pecent of pojects, howeve, thee ae exceptions: SOURCE: FHWA) Fedeal Lands Highway pojects and Section 402 Highway Safety funds ae 100 pecent fedeally funded. Bicycle elated Tansit Enhancement Activities ae 95 pecent fedeally funded. Hazad elimination pojects ae 90 pecent fedeally funded. Bicycle elated tansit pojects, not Tansit Enhancement Activities, may be up to 90 pecent fedeally funded. Individual Tanspotation Enhancement Activity pojects unde the STP can have a match highe o lowe than 80 pecent. Oveall, fedeal shae of each state s Tanspotation Enhancement Pogam must be 80 pecent. States with highe pecentages of fedeal lands have highe fedeal shaes calculated in popotion to thei pecentage of fedeal lands. Funds to match may be in-kind contibutions i.e. donations. Funds fom othe fedeal pogams can be used as a match fo Tanspotation Enhancement, Scenic Byways and Receational Tails pogam funds. A fedeal agency poject sponso may povide matching funds to Receational Tails funds povided the fedeal shae does not exceed 95 pecent. 55

62 Signed into law on August 10, 2005, SAFETEA-LU Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Tanspotation Equity Act: A Legacy fo Uses) is a six yea funding bill that authoizes $244.1 billion in fedeal gas-tax evenue and othe fedeal funds fo all modes of suface tanspotation. None of these funds is dedicated solely to bicycle and pedestian facilities o pogams. Thee ae funds that ae non-tanspotation elated that can be used fo bicycle and pedestian facilities. Below is a list of these funds: SOURCE: Bicyclinginfo.og) National Foest Sevice, National Pak Sevice o Bueau of Land Management Pimaily used fo tails and must be on fedeal lands. Community Development Block Gants, Depatment of Housing and Uban Developments Funds fo community based pojects o Commecial distict steetscape impovements o Sidewalk impovements o Safe Routes to School o Neighbohood based bicycling and walking facilities that impove local tanspotation o help evitalize neighbohoods. Govenment funding is not the only type of funding that is available fo bicycle and pedestian issues. As mentioned ealie in this section, pivate secto souces ae available. Local oganizations and land tusts have become lage donos especially fo shaed-use tails. Thei donations typically ae used fo puchasing land, planning pojects and constucting the pojects. Community patneships and foundations ae othe aeas goups can look to fo funding pojects. Communities can sponso yad sales o puchase an engaved bick to aise funds fo bicycle and pedestian pojects. Thee ae national, egional and local foundations that can help suppot bicycle and pedestian pojects. The Ameican Automobile Association AAA) can be a place to find funding. AAA has a Foundation fo Taffic Safety that is a not-fo-pofit and dedicated to saving lives and educing injuies SOURCE: AAA Foundation fo Taffic Safety). Since 1947, the Foundation has funded ove 200 pojects designed to discove the causes of taffic cashes, pevent them, and minimize injuies when they do occu. We have used this eseach to develop dozens of focused, high-impact educational mateials fo dives, pedestians, bicyclists and othe oad uses SOURCE: AAA Foundation fo Taffic Safety). Funding is available; howeve, it takes a community to locate and fight fo the funding. Most pojects need to be shovel eady so it is impotant that the goup is oganized fo when monies become available. 56

63 Existing Pedestian Facilities Novembe / Legend Existing Tails Sidewalks Bata Routes Majo Roads Schools Municipal Boundaies Souce: Beks County Planning Commission, Beks County GIS, Beks County Depatment of Emegency Sevices, Beks County Mapping Ceated by: Beks County Planning Commission BAB 11/ Miles

64 Existing Bicycle Facilities Novembe 2010 / Legend Bicycle PA Route L Bicycle PA Route S Bata Routes 222 Local Roads Municipal Boundaies Schools Souce: Beks County Planning Commission, Beks County GIS, Beks County Depatment of Emegency Sevices, Beks County Mapping Ceated by: Beks County Planning Commission BAB 11/10 Majo Roads Existing Bicycle Facilities Existing Tails Miles

65 Futue Pedestian and Bicycle Netwok Novembe 2010 / Legend Existing Bicycle Facilities Futue Bicycle Facilities Bicycle PA Route L Bicycle PA Route S Regional Commecial / Employment Centes Regional Receation Facilities Schools Municipal Boundaies Souce: Beks County Planning Commission, Beks County GIS, Beks County Depatment of Emegency Sevices, Beks County Mapping Ceated by: Beks County Planning Commission BAB 11/ Majo Roads Futue Tails Sidewalks Bata Routes Existing Tails Miles