BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Days after a fatal crash at a crosswalk in Bethlehem, the city is asking for input on how to make streets in the city safer.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem held a meeting Thursday night for the Complete Streets Plan.<\/p>\n
It was planned before the deadly e-bike crash on Stefko Boulevard, but the city says accidents like that highlight why safety improvements are needed.<\/p>\n
“This is a glaring problem that needs to be addressed,” said Laura Ahramjian, one of the consultants working with the city of Bethlehem on the plan.<\/p>\n
She says the goal is to make roads and walkways safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them.<\/p>\n
“A complete streets plan really looks at trying to design streets for people and not just cars,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something residents say the city desperately needs.<\/p>\n
The designers used PennDOT crash data to identify corridors of need, areas that need help the most.<\/p>\n
“It’s really trying to strike that balance of what are the most important needs on the corridor, how can we get safe improvements in and how can we accommodate different modes of travel,” Ahramjian said.<\/p>\n
A large part of the project is the draft bicycle network, ensuring access and safety for bikers of all ages all around the city.<\/p>\n
Complete streets will also work with the broad street project, incorporating separated bike lanes, curb extensions, bus stops and medians.<\/p>\n
“So it’s safer to cross the road, safer to get to the bus,” said Ahramjian.<\/p>\n
The plan’s second phase comes just days after the coroner identified victims of a fatal motorcycle and e-bike crash at the intersection of State Route 412 and Stefko Boulevard, one of the roads the plan is focusing on redeveloping.<\/p>\n
“To see an e-biker going the wrong way on a road and, you know, if there’s an altercation, whose fault is it?” said Frank Filiciotto, a Bethlehem resident.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the next phase will be next fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Days after a fatal crash at a crosswalk in Bethlehem, the city is asking for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,1391],"class_list":["post-222845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}