See our page for CAT’s 2022-2023 “Yield to Pedestrians-Slow Down and Look Around” Initiative
Walking is the most elegant means of transportation for its simplicity and ability to connect people and places. CAT promotes pedestrian/ADA access and quality of experience across the Lehigh Valley.
Walking reduces reliance on automobiles for short trips. Walking encourages physical fitness and overall health.
CAT works to improve walkability in the Lehigh Valley on six levels:
- Distribution of our handout, “What to know about Crosswalks and Pedestrians“
- Educating drivers and pedestrians that every intersection has crosswalks, whether painted or not. Drivers must yield to pedestrians who have one foot off the curb into a crosswalk and must yield to a visually impaired person with white cane, anytime, anywhere. Pedestrians must used crosswalks (cross at intersections) and where signalized, wait for the WALK signal or cross with the green light. Download pedestrian/crosswalk info docs. Police departments can assist this education with pedestrian sting operations.
- Urging enforcement of speed limits that provide drivers adequate reaction time and reduce severity of injury if a pedestrian is struck (25 mph is the goal for dense/urban locales, 35 mph for suburban areas)
- Encouraging municipalities to install ADA accessible curb ramps and high-visibility crosswalks. Street lighting at intersections is also helpful for drivers to see and yield to pedestrians at night. Shorten pedestrian crossing distances with fewer travel lanes or curb extensions/bulb-outs.
- Encouraging property owners to install and maintain sidewalks for ADA access, including timely snow removal in winter.
- Designing new development to have sidewalks, and inviting people to live near enough (under one mile) to walk to work, school or shopping.
- Engineering using traffic calming methods, such as siting new buildings close to the street and converting very wide streets to human spaces with wider sidewalks and street trees.
Read CAT’s posts on pedestrian laws and safety:
More links for walkability and pedestrian concerns:
- Lehigh Valley Sidewalk Inventory Report (LVPC)
- Get your local neighborhood walk score by clicking here (walkscore.com)
- Technical paper about high-visibility crosswalks