Route 422 demands attention

There aren’t many topics that inspire near-universal agreement among people in our region, but the ongoing headache that is Route 422 definitely falls into that category.

The highway was built in stages from the 1960s to the 1980s. Its arrival led to tremendous housing and business development nearby, and it wasn’t long before traffic greatly exceeded the road’s capacity. Even when there’s not construction going on as there is now, Route 422 poses one of the Philadelphia region’s biggest traffic headaches every day.

The good news is that a fair amount of work is being done to at least improve the situation. Adding new ramps to the typically snarled Trooper interchange and revamping stretches of the highway near Valley Forge and Pottstown should be helpful.

The bad news is that changes in PennDOT spending priorities mean we won’t be able to expect much more in terms of roadwork on Route 422.

Badly needed major improvements to the highway in the Reading area have been put on the back burner because state transportation funds are being focused on interstate highways.

In any case, road construction alone isn’t going to solve the larger problem with the highway.

With this in mind, officials have launched a campaign to encourage people to change their habits in an effort to reduce congestion on the highway between King of Prussia and Reading. They gathered along the road in Oaks to encourage Route 422 commuters to try biking and carpooling rather than driving solo to work.

There’s certainly merit to these ideas. The Schuylkill River Trail is in the same area as Route 422 and already is popular with bicycle commuters. And in today’s highly connected world, it’s easier than ever to organize a carpool or vanpool.

These ideas may very well work for many people, and we encourage readers to consider them. But we must recognize that these are not solutions that will work for everyone. Cycling

to work in King of Prussia is not likely to work for people who live in Berks or western Montgomery County. And carpooling doesn’t always work well in a world where so many have unpredictable schedules.

Another way to help address the problem is for businesses and institutions to provide transportation service for employees or clients. One good example is the shuttle bus that Montgomery County Community College uses to transport students and employees between its Blue Bell and Pottstown campuses. It’s a laudable idea that’s well worth duplicating.

But what’s needed most of all is better public transportation along Route 422. Good transit options are practically nonexistent for all too many people living along the highway corridor.

One of our region’s great tragedies is that the arrival of the Route 422 expressway coincided with the 1981 demise of passenger rail service along the Schuylkill River valley.

Had the trains from Reading to Philadelphia kept running a while longer, demand for ridership would have soared again as suburban development spread to the west.

Of course trying to bring back rail service along this route now is a worthy but distant dream. In the near term, the best we can hope for is improved bus options.

We cannot afford to sit back and wait for a solution to this problem. Each day more than 100,000 vehicles travel on Route 422 in Montgomery County.

There’s a cost to drivers in terms of time, money and stress, and the large number of slow-moving cars is harmful to air quality as well.

With all the great economic success stories that have unfolded in the office parks, shopping centers and housing developments that have sprouted along Route 422 in the past few decades, surely there must be a way to develop a solution to this problem and ensure the continued vitality of the region and a smart approach to growth in the future.

It’s time to act.