Lansdale traffic study to be presented Oct. 30

Save the date: the long-awaited traffic study looking at traffic troubles throughout Lansdale will be made public later this month.

“We are going to host a public meeting, to roll out the entire study for the public, and the meeting date for that is the 30th of October,” said police Chief Mike Trail.

“We will present in full the results of the traffic study, and open it up for discussion,” he said.

For several years, council and its public safety committee have heard complaints about traffic throughout town, and about drivers speeding and ignoring stop signs on the town’s side streets, from those bypassing congestion on Main and Broad streets related to the rail crossing at the center of town.

In early February Trail showed a formal route his department had identified with the town’s traffic engineer, consisting of Norway, Sycamore and Lombardy Drives, Laurel Lane, Hancock Street and Delaware, Derstine and Columbia avenues, all of which drivers have been observed using to get as a shortcut to get around backups on Main Street.

Lots of data

On Oct. 2, Trail and traffic engineer Earl Armitage gave a preview of what they’ll discuss in detail.

"Over the last few months, the chief and his staff have collected a lot of data for us. We have traffic volume data, we have speed data, we have accident data," Armitage said.

"Any accidents that occurred in the last five years on any of the study roadways were provided to us, and we've been going through all of that data, looking for any trends we could find in specific areas, looking at the speeds, how do the speeds compare to the posted speed limits, how many vehicles are exceeding the posted speed limit?" he said.

    Map showing several streets in Lansdale, highlighted in green, commonly used to bypass traffic on Main Street and set for study by the borough's traffic engineer. (Map courtesy of Lansdale Police Department)
  

"We compared that to the actual traffic data, to see if we have cut-through issues, and where we have issues, where people are trying to avoid the busier roads of Main and Broad Streets, to try to get to their ultimate destination. It's a lot of data," Armitage said.

"We have found areas that qualify for traffic calming measures, and we have recommendations. We want to present them to the residents and business owners, and get feedback on what people think. And as with anything, there's costs associated with them, so we'll have cost estimates of what some of these measures would take," he said.

Trail added that the first draft of a presentation on the traffic study totaled 90 PowerPoint slides, and said that info will be condensed and presented in detail, before asking residents of those streets to come prepared with questions.

"A lot of people have been here repeatedly over the past year, so I'm happy to say we have a finished product, and we are going to give it to you on the 30th," he said.

Budget impact considered

Borough budget talks for 2025 are now underway and will continue through the rest of the year, so any immediate upgrades, from new signs and stripes on roadways to higher-cost tactics like speed humps, would need to be paid for, and the study will also look at alternate funding sources such as grants that could help.

"Some of the things that we were concerned about: cut-throughs on Norway, Lombardy, issues related to that area of Oakland, Hancock Street, Laurel, there's some validity to the community's concerns," he said.

Armitage added that he and his engineering firm will have questionnaires available that night for residents to share feedback or other suggestions, and committee chairwoman Meg Currie Teoh asked if the meeting could be streamed online and/or recorded and posted afterward; Trail said the town will do so, and post the full report too.

    Spring greenery can be seen on Delaware Avenue at Richardson Avenue, along a route to be studied by Lansdale police for speeding and traffic concerns, on Wednesday April 17 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Neighbors report speeding

Rocco Picciano of Delaware Avenue said that he and his neighbors on the 300 block see speeding there often, calling it "a major throughway for traffic coming down off of Hancock."

"Last night, someone went down the street, had to be 50 miles per hour. There's no stop sign from Susquehanna, all the way up to Cannon Avenue, and the people coming through on motorcycles, and cars speeding on that street, it's absolutely ridiculous," he said.

"There's about 15 or 20 children in that span of blocks that are 12 and under, my kids included, and if a ball goes out into the street, and a kid runs after it, someone's gonna get killed," Picciano said.

Armitage said residents on that stretch of street should come to the Oct. 30 meeting, since that area is one where the traffic engineer took a close look.

"There's an area that runs pretty long, where there is no stop signs for that road, and that's where we put our counters and our speed detectors. We were trying to get where they were traveling the fastest," he said.

Picciano then asked what kind of fixes the study would suggest: "Something as far as just putting up a stop sign or speed bump in, are those the types of things on the table?" Armitage said those are both among the options the study will discuss, and Trail said council will have to balance several considerations.

"For example, emergency vehicles: they're a strong consideration, police and fire. If a firetruck has to go over these speed humps, I can tell you the fire department will be cringing," he said, and Fairmount Fire Company Deputy Chief RJ Snyder joked, "I am, every time you mention it," before the chief continued.

"Let's get the speed study out there, let's digest the feedback from the public, and make a determination when we understand the funding mechanisms, how we get the funding, and then take it back to full council," Trail said.

Mayor Garry Herbert pointed out that even after the presentation and surveys, and budget process, some fixes could take still longer.

"On top of that, if we add elements that aren't allowed by code or ordinance, we have to change those codes or ordinances. This is a journey, but we're making progress. Getting to this moment has been a two-year journey," he said.

Armitage said any and all feedback will be welcome, and councilman Mike Yetter added that he lives not far from that stretch of Delaware, and has heard one suggestion that may come up in the meeting, but may not pass muster with PennDOT.

"I have had the request for a stop sign on every block," he said.

Lansdale's borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct.16, the special meeting on the traffic report is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, and the public safety committee next meets at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, all at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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