For those who may have missed it, PennDOT recently eliminated the Bicycle Occupancy Permit (BOP) and replaced it with a less restrictive permitting process for new bike lanes on state roads. This was a major victory for road safety in Pennsylvania.
Just as folks were beginning to wonder what suburban PA cycling would look like in “Year 1, PBE” (Post BOP Era), PennDOT announced that two new projects are now in the pipeline:
Rt 30 in Caln Township in Chester County: 1.9 miles
PA 320 in Springfield Township in Delaware County: 2.1 miles
As we noted in this blog post from last year, Bicycle Coalition staff and suburban advocates played a central role in identifying these projects. We worked with county planners, PennDOT and the DVRPC to identify and prioritize projects in each of the four suburban counties.
PennDOT chose these two new projects, which are considered pilots that will demonstrate to other municipalities how the new facilities will look and function. As part of the pilot, PennDOT will pay for the construction and maintenance of these two projects.
We hope that local decision-makers from other townships will visit the bike lanes and become inspired to apply for similar improvements in their home municipalities.
PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards was instrumental in facilitating the long awaited transition away from the onerous BOP to a new “request” process and for agreeing to pay for pilot projects out of PennDOT’s budget.
We thank her for her leadership on this issue!