New painted curbing at Perkiomen and South Towamencin avenues Photo by Tony Di Domizio.
Intersections could be painted to increase sightlines, but parking could be reduced
This summer could bring major changes to several intersections throughout Lansdale.
Council voted unanimously on June 18 to tackle several key intersections, repainting no-parking zones and banning certain turns as the first recommendations from a long-discussed town traffic study.
“We’re going to start marking off those intersections, and posting signs that say ‘No parking, here to corner.’ We’re going to do them in phases, because of staffing and cost concerns,” said police Chief Mike Trail.
Residents, council and the towns’ public safety committee have discussed pedestrian safety and traffic in town for years, including complaints about drivers speeding and ignoring stop signs on the town’s side streets by drivers bypassing congestion on Main and Broad streets. Residents continued to raise concerns as several accidents happened along those studied streets last summer, and last October police and the town’s traffic engineer presented early findings of a traffic study examining three study areas and recommending a series of stop signs, speed humps, and changes to curbs and crosswalks.
New painted curbing at Perkiomen and South Towamencin avenuesA second public meeting to discuss those findings was held in mid-May, just weeks after a resident was hit while walking at the intersection of Columbia and South Richardson Avenues and subsequently died from her injuries.
During the public safety committee meeting in early June, Trail proposed a series of next steps for committee and council approval, starting with a recommendation to have public works staff paint 20-foot curb setbacks at all four corners at intersections identified in the study or based on police observations: Columbia Avenue at South Richardson Avenue and South Towamencin Avenue; Derstine Avenue at South Richardson; Perkiomen Avenue at South Towamencin, and East Third Street at North Chestnut Street.
“We felt we needed to immediately act,” said Trail.
Councilman Andrew Carroll said he agreed with those zones, and said he’s also heard recently about sight distance and safety concerns along Cannon Avenue; Trail said that street could be part of the next round of similar painting, based on feedback from the first.
A car and a van approach the intersection of Derstine and Richardson Avenues in Lansdale, one of several intersections where Lansdale Borough could repaint ‘No parking’ zones at all four corners to improve sightlines and pedestrian safety, as seen on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.“There’ll be another batch of them. And I encourage our community to call the police department if there’s an intersection you find particularly alarming. Call us, let us know, we’ll do some due diligence, and get it on the list,” Trail said.
During the committee talks, one resident asked if police and the committee would look at similar painting and no-parking restrictions near alleyways, with one citing the alley between Columbia and York Avenues where no-parking lines have faded and disappeared; Trail said those alley areas could also be studied for future rounds of repainting.
“We’re starting with the major intersections first. If there’s an alleyway, or something else you guys feel is not being addressed, bring it to our attention. More likely than not, we probably know about it, we’re just doing this in batches,” he said.
Another change, this one spelled out in the traffic study, required a vote to advertise an ordinance before it happens: a restriction to right turn traffic from North Wales Road at the intersection of Sycamore Drive and Lombardy Drive during weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., a time when Trail said rush hour drivers often use that road to bypass the intersection of North Wales and Main Street.
“Once the signs are in place, we’ll do a 30-day warning period, and we’ll assign officers to work that detail daily. They’ll have a very robust presence there for 30 days” before warnings end and formal citations begin, Trail said.
Police will also publicize that new restriction on their social media channels and post signs in the area warning drivers, the chief added, and council voted unanimously on June 18 to prepare and advertise an ordinance codifying that change. Committee chair Meg Currie Teoh said she was glad to see that recommendation put forward to be ratified.
“Motions like this, I really appreciate. It’s an easy, low-hanging fruit, that I think will make a big difference in terms of the volume of traffic that goes through that neighborhood,” she said. “It’s an easy attack. Let’s see what happens.”
Another resident asked if similar restrictions could be put on Hancock Street, and/or a prohibition on traffic heading westbound on Hancock across Broad Street where residents have reported drivers cutting through neighborhoods to bypass backups on Main; Trail and Teoh said that area could also be studied in a future phase.
“There are quite a few more things that could happen. These are the things we can tackle right away,” Teoh said.
Trail added that a specific restriction of traffic on Hancock, or converting part of it to one-way travel, “could be an option at some point,” but would require further study and more costly signage and striping than the first phase.
“The philosophy is to use the least intrusive measures first, to see if there’s compliance. If not, then we can move on to something more intrusive. That (conversion to one-way) is something I know would fix the problem, but … baby steps,” he said.
Carroll countered that he had talked about that specific change with residents who live on that stretch of Hancock, who said “they would not agree that is a good idea, because it would be inconvenient to them.”
“I think that’s an elegant and simple solution to the problem, but would be met with a lot of resistance from folks who would be inconvenienced by it. I recommend you talk to your neighbors, and spread the word,” Carroll said, and talks could continue at future meetings.
Another resident asked if police and the committee could consider adding signage along Green Street to clarify where that road is one-way, saying he had seen delivery drivers going the wrong way in that area; Trail said he and his officers would re-evaluate and report back. Another asked about the timeline for when the intersections could see the no-parking setbacks painted, and Trail and Mayor Garry Herbert said the work would likely happen in July based on availability of town public works staff.
From a resident question: has the town considered adding speed humps on local streets, to slow drivers who take them too quickly. Trail answered that the town’s traffic engineer is in early talks with public works staff on how to build those speed humps in-house, so no outside contractors or approvals are needed to do so, and Herbert added that the window to add those speed humps may close quickly.
“Once you cross the border of October into November, paving becomes nearly impossible because of temperatures. If we don’t get something started by, I would say probably in September sometime, it probably will end up being next year,” Herbert said.
Another asked about parking on Montgomery Avenue and whether parking there could be limited to residents only; the chief answered that he and his officer studied that area during a push for parking permits in 2019, and could revisit that area for further study and/or revisions if necessary. In talks at full council, councilman BJ Breish asked how many parking spaces would be lost if and when public works paint the no-parking zones around the intersections, and Trail said that’s difficult to answer.
“It is unlawful for anyone to currently park at those locations. So they are technically not parking spaces. But I understand where you’re going: it is going to be a challenge,” he said. “The exact number of cars that could be displaced, I don’t know, but technically under the state vehicle code you can’t park there anyway.”
At the council meeting, Meghan Kochersperger said she lives on Green Street, attended the May traffic meeting, and still hears “a lot of concerns floating around the public,” particularly after another fatal accident, this one on June 16 at Green and Allentown Road in Upper Gwynedd in which a bicyclist was struck by a vehicle and subsequently died from his injuries.
“Just last Thursday, a bicyclist was killed less than a mile from where Diane was killed six weeks ago — it wasn’t in Lansdale borough, but it was very close, right up the road,” she said.
Kochersperger asked if the updated traffic study would be posted online, and asked to look at the specific speed limit data within, then said she appreciates the new turn restriction, which was “great to see,” and hoped for further fixes throughout town soon and more transparency from police on how they study and make citation or charging decisions on such accidents. Teoh said the striping and setback painting did not require any formal action by council — “It is moving forward, just we don’t need a motion for it” — and borough Public Works director Jason Van Dame said marking of curbs should start before the end of June.
Lansdale’s public safety committee next meets at 6:30 p.m. on August 6 and full council next meets at 7 p.m. on July 16, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com.
