Over the last few months, the Lansdale Borough Public Safety Committee has been reviewing an opportunity to test the conversion of Susquehanna Avenue and Courtland Street from their current one-way structure to being bi-directional. The discussion and review of the new traffic pattern test has been on-going since mid-December, with the goal of improving traffic flow around Main Street while also making parking lots more accessible and easier to navigate to and from.
One of the goals of this project would be to increase the use of both the Susquehanna and Vine Street parking lots which, on any typical day, go underutilized by residents and the community. The Vine Street lot is around 400 feet from the center of Main Street. This is only about 20 feet further when compared to the last parking spot just off Madison St. in the public parking section near the apartment complex. However, those parking spots are almost always full whereas the Vine Street Lot is nearly always empty.
This helps us understand that parking is not always a distance problem. There is an element of accessibility and knowledge that we must contend with. Both the Susquehanna and Vine Street lots are visible, but not always easily accessible or easy to find, especially if you are not from our community. By changing Susquehanna and Courtland, we would be able to make both lots easier to find and access so people can utilize parking more readily.
While changing the flow of traffic will help, we are simultaneously working to establish better signage and wayfinding so that people know where to park and how to get there. I like to try and approach this challenge from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know our street intimately. How would they know to turn left onto Wood St, left onto Courtland, and then left onto Susquehanna to reach the lot they passed over a minute ago? Or, put another way, how would you know to take Wood up to Vine to see the parking lot? While the signage is going to help, we need to simplify the process. The easiest way to do that is to encourage easier access to these side streets.
The committee has spent many hours reviewing how a two-way intersection at Susquehanna and Main would work. If implemented, the hope is that drivers will not be able to turn onto Susquehanna by taking a left off Main. You will only be able to access Susquehanna via Main by taking a right. Alongside this shift, we have discussed establishing bollards on Susquehanna to ensure the right-hand turn is not taken too close to the sidewalk. Finally, there would be some parking added at both Susquehanna and Courtland to allow for more on-street parking.
It is my hope that next month the committee will approve the plan to test this new traffic pattern and see if it does positively impact our community. Naturally, if something is not working, we can always reverse it back if needed. However, we know that the current situation keeps people from utilizing parking in and around Courtland, Vine, and Susquehanna. If we can improve the access to these facilities, we can improve our downtown comprehensively by making it easier to navigate and easier to utilize for all who are looking to spend time in Lansdale.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert. The views expressed are his own.)
See also:
Mayoral Musings: Local Scouts Prove to be Assets to Our Community
Mayoral Musings: Revenue Per Acre May Be a Better Metric for Borough Management
Mayoral Musings: Municipal 5G Could Provide Revenue to Repair Lansdale’s Deteriorating Sewer System
Mayoral Musings: Exploring the Elimination of Electric Deposits for Renters
Mayoral Musings: Willow Street Solar Project
