Numerous plans afoot to make roads safer, add to trails systems
There were 54 traffic deaths in Delaware County last year.
In the future, officials hope to reduce that number to zero.
At last week’s annual trails summit, county officials discussed Vision Zero, a project to reduce trafficrelated fatalities and severe injuries. A survey is available for residents to fill out.
Speaking at the 12th annual Philadelphia Western Suburbs Trails Summit in Haverford, Gina Burritt, director of the Delaware County planning department said the plan is a recognition that all road users are vulnerable and that planners need to design transportation systems to protect everyone.
Burritt said the program acknowledges deaths and serious injuries are preventable and looks at a safe systems approach, not just the driver but also the system.
Burritt said roads should be safe for everybody, no matter how they are getting around, whether on foot or by bicycle or car.
“It’s a pretty lofty goal, right? It’s not an easy thing to do, particularly for a county. We don’t actually own our roads,” Burritt said. “The roads are either owned by PennDOT or the municipalities.”
She said the project would help municipalities and PennDOT get funding from a U.S. Department of Transportation grant program known as Safe Streets and Roads for All which is giving out $5 billion in funds through 2026.
She said they can also use the program as a tool for advocating with PennDOT for changes to roads.
Burritt said the program acknowledges deaths and serious injuries are preventable and looks at a safe systems approach.
“Safety improvements should be proactive … but they don’t have to be expensive,” Burritt said. ”Streets and neighborhoods with the highest need will be prioritized.” The planning department has been working on the project over six months and has created 28 miles of road corridors of concern with the highest crash rates.
Planners have been talking to residents at public events and have created safety ambassadors, a group of residents that go out and talk to the public about specific corridors.
Route 291 effort
One trail project that directly addresses street safety is the Route 291 Road Diet and East Coast Greenway project in Chester and Ridley.
Daniel Paschall from the East Coast Greenway alliance said they are trying to turn Route 291, The Industrial Highway into a gateway. One way they hope to accomplish that is traffic separated bikeways and have traffic calming projects in the works along with the trail along the river in Chester.
“There’s a lot happening
in Chester,” Paschall said. “Can you imagine going from Chester … to the Heinz Wildlife Refuge less than a half-hour bike ride away, imagine a bike offroad safe from traffic.”
Speakers talked about the widening of the highway from two lanes to five lanes without safety features.
Cathy Spahr of the county planning department noted that the county had to communicate with PennDOT the experiences of living on a dangerous road. One home has been hit by vehicles three times and one section of road, less than a mile long, saw 290 crashes between 2017 and 2021, records indicate.
Chester Mayor Stefan Roots said he gasped at that number.
“Give me a show of hands of anywhere else in the county that has occurred,” Roots said. “Our community has been out complaining about this for a long time and it’s really great to see something start to happen to calm the traffic down there.”
As part of the East Coast Greenway, designers are looking at alternatives to the five-lane road including a “road diet” which would shrink the road to three lanes in sections.
They expect to have a final report in the next month.
Projects in Chester
Roots said residents in Chester welcome the trails that have been built in the city as they are one of the few places that people can walk where there isn’t a broken sidewalk or have to step out into traffic.
Lisa Gaffney, executive director of the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County, highlighted some of the projects, including the river walk around Subaru Park.
Two projects under design in Chester are the $1.5 million Highland Avenue and the $1.3 million Norris Street connectors through the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commis
sion.
They also have also received funding to put traffic lights in at the Commodore Barry Bridge off ramps at Jeffrey Street, which they believe will be a major safety improvement, Gaffney said.
PennDOT official Wesley Owens said a shared-use path on Route 291 in Ridley Township is being integrated with a PennDOT road project. It is in the design phase and will include a 10-foot-wide path in the area between Crum Creek and Stewart Avenue.
Farther north designers are looking at three alternatives to complete a section of the East Coast Greenway from Route 420 to go into Heinz possibly using an airport trail.
Officials also highlighted other trail developments in the county.
Around the county
In Upper Darby, officials pointed to the new Gillespie Park bridge and a ¾-mile section of the Naylors Run trail that was completed in the summer of of 2023, as well as a $227,000 state grant for a final design proposal for a section from near Kent Park to Scottsdale Road in Lansdowne to cross wetlands and the creek, with an elevated bridge.
Officials conceded that project would be expensive but was needed to connect to Darby.
Jason Thompson, vice president of the Friends of Smedley Park, said the group now has 10 miles of marked trails in the park and surrounding areas, and while they were originally laid out as nature trails, the vibrant biking community had come together to maintain and expand the system while allowing multi-use.
In Haverford Township, Parks and Recreation Director Brian Barrett said work extending the Pennsy Trail at Manoa Road should be completed by midsummer.
That nearly $3 million project includes putting a 70-foot span over the road, and will open up sections of the township that will reduce car trips, he said
Haverford has also purchased property along Burmont Road that will extend the Darby Creek trail in the future into Upper Darby. They are working in phases, with the first leg at the Jack McDonald Memorial Field.
Barrett noted that at times neighbors question trail projects. but “We do think by adding segments that people then get on board … once they see the momentum that’s generated … the residents get on board.”
In Middletown, the Mint Trail, which is on the former Franklin Mint site, will be part of the Chester Creek trail linking to the Wawa Station.
Jennifer Maull, director of township Parks and Recreation, said Middletown expects to begin construction any day and it will run along a sewer expansion project.
That trail goes less than a mile from Wawa station along the creek and they are still seeking funding, which she estimated a couple of million to go the final ¾ mile to reach the Chester Creek trail.
Delaware County Council member Elaine Paul Schaefer talked about a possible open space bond program that may be on the November ballot, and she thanked those in attendance for being the people who have championed getting trails built in the county and encouraged those in attendance to support a possible bond issue slated for November.
“It’s worth it because once that trail gets opened it becomes the gem of your community,” Schaefer said. “It becomes where people meet, where people recreate, it makes our towns safer … and more valuable and becomes the hub of your community.”