Earlier this year, PENNDOT removed the Bicycle Occupancy Permit from its design manual. Instead of agreeing to the permit which local governments will need only provide a letter of request for the proposed bicycle lane that includes the necessary information for PennDOT to appropriately evaluate the request. After a review, a letter of approval will be issued by the department.
This week we learned from the Roy Gothie, the State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, that PennDOT’s demonstration bike lanes on suburban roads projects are moving forward toward construction.
There is no word of an actual start date the projects, but it appears that this project could happen as early as in the fall of this year, although it is more likely to happen in 2018.
For the demonstration, PENNDOT maintenance crews will reconfigure the striping of two roads to include bike lanes – Route 320, primarily in Springfield Township, Delaware County from Wesley Rd to Baltimore Pike; and Business Route 30 in Caln Township, Chester County, connecting the borough of Coatesville with the Thorndale SEPTA Regional Rail station.
These roads were selected by their respective County Planners for the ease of implementation (enough room for bike lanes) and the connectivity from residential to transit or commercial destinations.
The Lincoln Highway bike lanes in Coatesville were restriped by PENNDOT in 2015. The Pilot project will extend them to the Thorndale Train Station
PENNDOT will be monitoring the status of the roadway to calculate cost estimates for bike lane maintenance this includes the life span of the striping, maintenance of signs and the removal of debris.
In 2016, the Pennsylvania Counties set aside $500,000 for striping plans and maintenance on other road projects has been allocated in the Transportation Improvement Program. The Bicycle Coalition is part of Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s (DVRPC) Suburban Bike Lanes Working Group and is working on a methodology for determining future bike lane installation projects.
To that end, DVRPC continues to work on a new tool help maximize the connectivity value of bike infrastructure improvements. In the coming months we’ll talk more about this tool, which is based on Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress (LTS).
DVPRC’s LTS base map is located here.