Intersection of West Main Street and Susquehanna Avenue.
Over the last several weeks, the Public Safety Committee and the Lansdale Police Department have been looking at ways to improve traffic flow on Main Street and in our core business district by making changes to the direction of two side streets: Courtland St. and Susquehanna Ave.
Currently, as many of you are aware, Susquehanna is a one way onto Main Street with no traffic allowed to turn onto Susquehanna at all from Main Street. Courtland is currently a one-way from Wood St. to Green St. with an intersection at Susquehanna. To make improve traffic flow and access to parking, there is possibility that we shift Courtland to a two-way road entirely and make Susquehanna either a two-way road or a one way going the opposite direction away from Main Street.
One of the driving forces behind this shift is the desire to create easier access to the Susquehanna parking lot that people can use to visit Main Street. Currently, accessing this lot is not easy if you do not know that you must loop around on Courtland and come down Susquehanna. Making Susquehanna accessible, via a right turn off Main Street, will ensure people will have easier access to that lot without having to drive around looking for the access point. If we were to make this change, there still would not be an option to turn left onto Susquehanna from Main Street. Main Street is already congested, especially when the train comes through, and allowing a left onto Susquehanna would only create more of a problem.
For Courtland, the changes are more about the changes taking place around the roadway. Round Guys Brewing has paved their lot with access onto Courtland. It makes sense for people to be able to come out of that lot and turn left onto Wood St. rather than driving all the way down Courtland to either Susquehanna or Green St. Additionally, changing this section to a two-way street will help ease congestion on Main Street while also making our downtown more navigable and easier to travel through.
While these changes are not going to “solve” either the parking concerns or the traffic concerns in the borough, they should help alleviate some of the congestion in the community. On a bigger scale, Lansdale Borough is undergoing a traffic study to help understand how to improve all facets of our traffic flow and to make the community easier to navigate in general. This study considers the impact of making multiple changes to roadways to help ease congestion while encouraging access to parking/shopping and helping address speeding issues where they might be prevalent.
There is still some discussion and work that needs to be done before the plan to change Courtland and Susquehanna is approved. This will continue to be a topic of discussion in the coming months at our Public Safety committee meetings and ultimately will be discussed by council should the committee approve the measure. Again, while this shift is not going to be the solution to all our downtown problems it will help improve our community by making it more accessible less congested ultimately making Lansdale a better place to live, work, and play.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert.)
See also:
Mayoral Musings: The Budget and Borough Investment
Mayoral Musings: Lansdale Road Projects for 2022
Mayoral Musings: Showing Gratitude for Volunteers This Thanksgiving
Mayoral Musings: Mardi Gras Parade This Saturday
Mayoral Musings: Forward Together
