Latest in a series of posts about Lehigh University and the Southside
Somebody has to send Gadfly back to bed.
But planning is aphrodisiac.
So Gadfly started to think, ok, what will Morton St. look like if more traffic is shunted down there when (if) Packer is closed between Vine and Webster.
He was prompted by the comment by the guy at the January 23 Broughal meeting to the effect that closing Packer only shifts the pedestrian safety issue one block down.
And then he remembered the “South New Street Streetscape Enhancement” project final public meeting in March 2019, almost a year ago.
You remember, right? The plan to do a make-over on New St. from the Fahy Bridge up to Lehigh’s Campus Square (Farrington Square).
Pretty exciting. A wild bus stop proposed on New at the Greenway!
Now, like the Lehigh Master Plan, this is a “plan,” and Gadfly doesn’t know if the February 22 concept design proposed at that March 26 public meeting is a done deal.
But here is one rendering of the proposed make-over in that concept design of the “end” of New at Morton at the edge of the Lehigh campus.
The sweeping arrows show the pedestrian flow on and off campus there at the plaza area between the bookstore (where you can feed your mind) and The Cup (where you can feed your belly).
And the new design elements seem to be a long bump-out of some sort on the south side of Morton along the plaza and bump-outs on both corners of New and Morton.
Bump-outs are traffic-calmers, they “narrow” the sense of the road for drivers, and they also shorten the distance pedestrians need to cross.
Now this intersection of New and Morton can be busy. Fairly recently there are large transit buses coming south on New and turning east on Morton and traveling east on Morton from Vine.
The intersection can also be a bit crazy — think end-of-day rush hour when traffic on New backs up to Morton because of the long traffic light on 4th — think Thursday lunch when the Farmer’s Market is there.
Is putting more traffic on Morton because of a Packer closing a good idea?
Just thinking out loud. Isn’t planning fun?
to be continued . . .
(you’ve got to be kidding! Get a life, Gadfly!)
