Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News

Watching PennDOT and the Checklist

I doubt that any road in our region has suffered a greater deterioration of bicycle service quality than Germantown Pike in the 476/Plymouth Meeting Mall Area. All that expansion and no consideration for bicycles and pedestrians. PennDOT plans to further widen this segment of road.

Oxford Valley Road is another place that gives cyclists fits, there is no alternate to this 4 lane highway and although the road has shoulders it also has high speed right turn lanes and no sidewalks.

These project are two of several this year that we will be looking at to monitor implementation of the PennDOT bicycle and pedestrian checklist.

The neat thing about the checklist is that takes the project manager through the entire process, planning, right of way acquisition (very important!) and final design.

You can see how the road looks today on PennDOT's videolog website, the broadband version is much more detailed.

Select the connection speed then select
Municipality,
Montgomery County,
Plymouth1TWP,

You will see a map of Plymouth TWP the red roads are state roads with video logs. Click anywhere on route 3053 (The state owned portion of Germantown Pike) which will take you to a video of the road. Sections 140 and 141 are undergoing the "improvements".

For Oxford Valley Road select Bucks, Falls Township, Route 2029, sections 140 and 141 again.

Both roads have no sidewalks, right turn lanes and are not bicycle or pedestrian friendly. Both segments are critical links for regional bicycle travel. We will check back in the fall to see the final product.

John