Township supervisors continue to push ahead with plans for open space and trails. Monday night was no exception with no less than four items on the agenda having to do with those subjects. The supervisors approved a design contract with the McMann Assoc. engineering firm to undertake the first two phases of a trail plan to connect Kenilworth Park with the extension of the Schuylkill River Trail soon to be extended from Parker Ford to Pottstown. The connection will cross Route 724 and will require studies of wetlands, property ownership and easements. The approved contract for the first two phases of the project is $37,500. Overall, the project is estimated to cost between $150,000 to $200,00

U.S. News & World Report ranked three Southeastern Pennsylvania counties and one South Jersey county among the 500 healthiest communities in the United States. Montgomery County topped all local counties by landing the 140th spot in the third annual rankings, released Tuesday. Chester County came in at No. 168 and Bucks County ranked No. 292. Burlington County – the sole South Jersey representative – earned the 267th spot. U.S. News evaluated nearly 3,000 counties on 84 health-related metrics in 10 categories, including population health, education, infrastructure and environment. Montgomery County earned high marks for population health, education and economy. Its life expectancy, smoking r

Much indoor entertainment won't be safe this winter — which means it's past time to make outdoor transportation and recreation safe. Communities across the northern U.S. are bracing for a cold and early winter — and a predicted new surge in COVID-19 infections. But many aren’t doing much to outfit their transportation networks for the realities of harsh weather amid a public health threat. In an informal review of the 10 largest cities with snowy winters, Streetsblog found that few had put forward comprehensive plans to meet the most commonly anticipated challenges of a coronawinter: low public transit ridership, higher-than-average interest in active transportation, and a high probability t

COVID-19 has brought swift, unrelenting harm. As applied to transportation, the pandemic’s pressure has forced us to rethink how we talk about and allocate space for moving people. This pressure has forced long-needed actions, including: Congress appropriated $25 billion to keep transit systems operating, understanding that people need sustained service to access the essential jobs and life needs that keep society functioning. Municipalities have reconsidered how much public space they give to automobiles and experienced the benefits street space can provide the public when it’s not filled with cars. Employers have realized that telework programs can boost their organizations’ performance wh

Tel Aviv has launched a pilot project using under-road electric infrastructure to charge public buses. Vehicles are charged dynamically as they travel along the route. ​In partnership with electric road systems company ElectReon and Dan Bus Company, the trial will run on 600 metres of electrified road along a two-kilometre route between Tel Aviv University Railway Station and Klatzkin Terminal in Ramat Aviv. The technology uses copper coils embedded under roads and connected to the electricity grid, along with receivers installed under vehicles. Following the completion of tests and integration of the technology – expected to take around two months – a Dan Bus Company electric bus will comme

A new pilot project launches today that could change the way American cities do on-street parking — and finally stop delivery drivers from double-parking in the bike lane to boot. In partnership with curb management company Coord, the city of Omaha will install five smart loading zones in hot areas that drivers can reserve on their cell phones before they pull up to make a quick delivery or drop off a taxi passenger. The price of the meters will adjust dynamically based on demand, and will even hold a space for a driver for a while when she’s located within a mile of her desired spot. Omaha’s pilot will start by offering drivers free parking, simply to gather data about which curbs are in th

The temperature, even at 9.30am, is -13C, and light snow is falling on the already white-blanketed playground. But dozens of primary-age children are out, and doing something you might not expect in such conditions: riding bikes. Teachers say about half of the children at Joensuu normal school in eastern Finland usually arrive by bicycle, even during the icy winters. Even more have done so today, as an external instructor is here to lead them around a snowy bike obstacle course and other fun challenges. The school is hosting the opening event of the Winter Cycling Congress, a small and slightly niche annual gathering held this year in Joensuu, which prides itself that many of its citizens re

A new study suggests Philadelphia residents are not relying on cars as much as they used to, and other forms of transportation are picking up the slack. The study, conducted by Compare Car Insurance, found that Philadelphia is the eighth least car-dependent city in the nation. Pittsburgh came in at No. 7. On average, Philly drivers travel about 9,600 miles annually. Matthew Nichol, co-organizer of Philly E-Riders — a group comprised of commuters who utilize e-scooters, e-bikes and e-skateboards — said he’s seen a growing trend in Philadelphia steering away from cars. “I definitely see Philadelphia being one of those leaders in this movement to renewable forms of transportation, as well as th

Uber has committed to become a “zero-emission platform” by 2040, with all rides taking place in zero-emission vehicles, on public transport or via micromobility. It has also pledged that 100 percent of rides will be in electric vehicles (EVs) in US, Canadian and European cities by 2030, and to reach net-zero emissions from its corporate operations by the same date. This follows rival Lyft’s June committment to rely 100 percent on EVs by 2030. Uber’s announcement includes a raft of measures to meet these goals, based around four key areas: rewarding drivers for switching to EVs and providing support to help them do so; investing in multi-modal transport; being transparent on climate impact as

This week Streetsblog chatted with Dani Simons, head of Public Sector Partnerships at Waze. Simons chats with us about Waze’s focus on carpooling, how the company uses data to support its users, and her impressions of other country’s transportation progress. Jeff Wood: You mentioned carpooling that’s something that Waze is really focused on. I’m curious how that came about. I know about the anthropomorphic bubble cars that travel around inside the program when you’re driving, but why carpooling? Dani Simons: So the mission of Waze used to be basically that we would all share information as we’re driving to share reports about what going on on the road in real time. And that — together — we c

Today (Tuesday, September 8, 2020) SEPTA released its COVID-19 recovery plan, which includes a comprehensive look at lessons-learned so far through the pandemic, and a framework for moving ahead in this challenging environment. “SEPTA – Move Better Together” demonstrates how teams at SEPTA are planning scenarios based on projections for the pandemic, the economy and social behaviors. It captures SEPTA’s efforts to partner with experts in the industry to incorporate best practices from peer agencies across the nation, as well as examples from cities worldwide that are further along in the recovery process. “SEPTA has demonstrated throughout the pandemic that transit is essential infrastructur

In effort is underway to build a national network of connected walking and cycle infrastructure — and the organization behind it says a $10 billion federal investment in the project would help the country rebound from the economic ravages of COVID-19 in a way that highway spending never could. Representatives from more than 160 organizations across America signed a letter to Congress urging leaders to pass a Greenway Stimulus, which would be used to build off-street trails, on-street bike lanes, and generous shared-use sidewalks to connect communities in all 50 states. The coalition projects that the effort would create 170,000 jobs in construction and planning, and would generate up to $250

SEPTA is proud to be a bicycle friendly transit system and encourages bicyclists to use our services to complete journeys to work or to explore our great region. SEPTA's vision is to be the region's preferred choice for transportation. To achieve that vision SEPTA must continually adapt to the region's evolving mobility needs, finding new ways to support multimodal transportation in order to grow ridership. To ease travel for customers who also bike as part of their trip, we are temporarily relaxing our policy effective Tuesday, September 8, 2020 to allow bicycles on Regional Rail and Market-Frankford, Broad Street, and Norristown High Speed Line trains during peak hours. Most of our vehicle

Another reason to get a SEPTA Key card! Now that Travel Wallet is available for use on Regional Rail, SEPTA will start to phase out the use of paper tickets. Sales of single trip and 10-trip ticket strips will end on Friday, October 2, 2020. Don't worry if you still have a few - paper tickets will be accepted through the valid date stamped on the back. Paper tickets are good for up to 180 days. Customers are encouraged to switch over to the Key card, which offers a convenient and contactless way to pay fares. By using a SEPTA Key card, you will receive discounted fares - including the lowest one-way fares on Regional Rail. Tap In & Tap Out SEPTA launched Travel Wallet on Regional Rail in Jul

Township and County officials celebrated the completion of two projects Wednesday to make traveling on foot or bicycle in Exton safer and more convenient. They are the Route 100 multi-modal trail extension between Exton station and the Chester Valley Trail and signal upgrades and crossing improvements to the Chester Valley Trail where it crosses Route 100. While approved as two separate projects by the two governments independently, officials implemented them together to save money and prevent traffic inconvenience. “Here is a good example of how inter-agency coordination really panned out,” said Ted Otteni, West Whiteland Director of Public works. “It reduced the overwork, it reduced the co

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a tremendous spike in biking as a mode of transportation. The increase in use tells us that there is great value in investing in biking facilities and our communities' infrastructure. Biking is the best social distancing vehicle. It allows employees to commute safely, maintaining social distancing recommendations, emitting zero C02 emissions, while enhancing physical and mental well being. Biking is also very affordable. All of these things result in reduced congestion for our communities and improved quality of life. ​ GVF wanted to learn more about why people do or do not cycle within our communities. To be able to identify the challenges an

Scooters are driving the recent micromobility revolution — but don't count out the humble bike just yet. The popularity of micromobility absolutely exploded in 2019, a new report reveals — and the surge came almost completely from dockless e-scooter companies rather than bikeshare systems, which grew, but more modestly. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of total microtransit trips on American streets soared from 84 million to 136 million, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, but bikeshare grew a respectable 10 percent, even as the number of bikeshare systems shrank four percent overall. Scooter trips, though, more than doubled over the same period, as a com

With just weeks left in the legislative year, Congress faces two big transportation deadlines on Sept. 30, a transportation to-do list and potentially dire consequences if it does not act. With just weeks left in the legislative year, Congress faces two big transportation deadlines on Sept. 30, a transportation to-do list and potentially dire consequences if it does not act. Without congressional involvement, airlines have signaled they will lay off thousands of workers this fall. State highway departments could grind projects to a halt, and transit agencies could slash services. With the economy already teetering, analysts fear inaction on these crises, all caused or made worse by the COVID