A local biking advocacy group will host a “Critical Mass Ride” Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Lansdale to support adding bike lanes to the Lansdale portion of South Broad Street.
Organized by Bike North Penn, the ride is the group’s effort to show Lansdale Borough Council members that citizens support adding bike lanes on South Broad Street from Garfield Avenue in Upper Gwynedd to the East Hancock Street intersection, said William Jackson, lead organizer of Bike North Penn.
Since it was announced last fall that South Broad Street was going to be resurfaced in 2023, the group has been pushing for bike lanes to be added as well.
“We're hoping [Lansdale] would be the first of many boroughs that might be able to take this on,” said Jackson.
Participants are asked to arrive at the parking lot of the Grocery Outlet at 6 p.m., with the ride set to start at 6:15 p.m. Bikers will head up as a group from South Broad Street to the Borough Hall for a brief rally prior to the council meeting at 7 p.m.
At the meeting, there will be a petition with local signatures that will be presented to the council members.
Upper Gwynedd Township and Montgomery County, which own parts of the road, appear to be on board with implementing bike lanes on South Broad Street, according to Jackson. Bike North Penn is hoping Wednesday evening’s bike ride will convince Lansdale Borough to follow suit.
“We believe a lot of people would be more comfortable on that road, particularly in certain sections where it's 35 miles an hour and above for cars, if they had a designated area [to ride their bikes],” Jackson said.
There have been concerns in Lansdale that the road cutouts may become too busy, but the bike advocacy group said that people are already riding through it on bikes, and implementing bike lanes will just make it safer for them to do so.
Bike North Penn was founded in August 2022 by community members in the North Penn area who are hoping to promote more bike riding for recreation and transportation in the community. They have monthly meetings at the Lansdale Public Library, where around 25 individuals attend regularly.
Jackson said the growing interest in bike riding is a result of more people wanting to be outdoors post-pandemic, as well as more people caring about environmental and traffic congestion considerations. Bike North Penn is hoping to make roads safer and more accessible to bikers.
The group has organized community rides to get more people comfortable riding their bikes on area trails and quiet streets. They’ve also reached out to local government entities and businesses to push for bike lanes and bike racks, among other bike infrastructure.
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