North by Northwest Neighborhood Initiative

In Bethlehem, the City is part of a project called the North by Northwest Neighborhood Initiative called the Elm Street Program by the State of Pennsylvania which provides most of the funding. One of the committees of this project is the Traffic Circulation and Parking committee, which is chaired by CAT assistant Director, Robin Spilner. Robin has decided to devote the majority of his $25,000 budget to making the target area attractive to bicyclists as the most cost effective way to calm traffic, reduce congestion, improve safe pedestrian access and increase property values. What a smart fellow!

The money will be used to install approximately 30 bicycle hitches over the next 3 years, like the one in the picture above, to improve bicycle parking. CAT seeks suggested locations for these hitches in the target area.

Also, shared use markings will be installed on the roads in the target area. We do not know yet how many because we don’t know the cost of installation and associated programming. See a picture of a shared use marking below:

In addition, the North by Northwest Neighborhood Initiative will match monies used by CAT from our PENNDOT grant to provide 2 or 3 years of basic bicycle education to the 250 children and their families at William Penn Elementary School.

Lastly, we hope to reduce the cost of a membership in CAT and the Bethlehem Bicycle Cooperative for families living in the target area.