Pedestrian and cyclist safety is goal of new plan for Reading’s downtown

Improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists is the goal of a newly developed plan for downtown Reading.

Peter Simone, a founder and planner with Simone Collins Landscape Architecture, unveiled the plan known as the Vision Zero Action Plan, or VZAP, at a recent City Council committee of the whole meeting.

The plan aims to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and injuries and improve safety and connectivity in the city’s downtown through a network of bike lanes, multimodal trails and pedestrian-friendly enhancements, he said.

The plan encourages safer and more accessible alternatives to car travel while connecting neighborhoods to key destinations such as the future passenger rail station, the BARTA bus terminal and the Seventh Street corridor, he said.

“The philosophy behind this aspirational goal is a belief that we can do better as designers and municipal officials and people who have jurisdiction over roads with the design of streets, sidewalks and bike lanes,” Simone said.

Vision Zero, he explained, is a movement that cities and communities across the country are embracing. The collaborative approach involves government, community organizations and residents helping identify and address safety issues through evaluation, engineering, education and enforcement.

A committee, including city sustainability manager Bethany Ayers Fisher and other city staff, sought public input to identify a targeted area downtown where some of the ideas can be implemented relatively inexpensively and quickly.

The goal is to eventually expand the plan throughout the city, Simone noted.

“We went through that public participation process,” he said. “We had a couple of open houses, so we tried to get as much public input as we can. Generally, we found people are in favor of this.”

Simone said the planning commission reviewed the proposal at its May meeting and recommended council adopt the plan, a prerequisite in qualifying the city for about $1.44 million in federal funding.

A required 20% match from the city would bring the total project cost to about $1.8 million, he said.

The amount would go a long way in making safety improvements, he said.

“It’s really a good deal for the money,” he said, “because we’re doing simple improvements. We’re not digging, we’re not moving curb lines.”

The plan’s strength lies in its affordability and adaptability, Simone said, noting most of the proposed work can be completed using paint, signs and bollards, avoiding major street reconstruction.

Simple improvements, such as adding bike lanes and signage and adjusting parking spaces without removing any can make a huge difference in safety, he said.

A key feature of the plan is what Simone called the greening of Penn Street from Seventh to 11th streets, where two lanes of traffic would remain, but new protected bike lanes would be installed on both sides. The lanes would run between the sidewalk and parked cars.

Buffering the lanes from moving traffic with street parking is a newer practice aimed at making them safer, he said.

The plan also includes a new multimodal trail on the north side of the city and a potential green space near the rail station.

City administrators said the plan builds on the city’s Transit Oriented Development and Downtown Plus plans and emphasized that the proposal is part of a larger, coordinated vision for Reading’s future, especially with passenger rail on the horizon.

Council members expressed support but raised questions about the next steps should federal funding fall through.

There’s always a risk with competitive federal grants, city administrators said, but alternate sources exist, including the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund.

Council members generally expressed support for the plan.

“I look forward to this,” Councilwoman Vanessa Campos said, “and I really hope it helps reduce the traffic accidents that we have in the city.”

The plan is important for the city’s future, as residents seek alternative modes of transportation, Councilman O. Christopher Miller said.

“I’ve seen an increase in people who are using bicycles, either the standard bicycle or the new motorized bicycles,” he said.

Without designated bike lanes, he said, the riders can feel they don’t have a place on the road.

“So they’re either in the middle of the street, which isn’t a good option, or they’re on the sidewalk, which is a worse option,” Miller said. “So this makes so much sense. I really look forward to it.”

A public meeting is being planned to gather additional input before council votes on adopting the plan, likely at its June 23 meeting.

Source: Berkshire mont