Latest in a series of posts on the pedestrian bridge

Bethlehem Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study

Christina Tatu, “Have thoughts on the long-imagined pedestrian bridge in Bethlehem? City officials want to hear from you.” Morning Call, May 13, 2021.

Bethlehem Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study

Latest in a series of posts on Walkability and Bikeability

Gadfly:

I appreciate our candidates’ response to Gadfly’s inquiries into a “walkable, bikeable city.” Their comments acknowledge both the challenges presented by a more populous and traffic-bound city and the solutions for addressing those challenges. That so many of their solutions cited active human-powered modes of transportation was particularly encouraging.

My hope is that we can address the “walkable, bikeable city,” including the prospective pedestrian/biking bridge across the Lehigh River, as a whole system rather than a series of unrelated pedestrian improvements. Just as our inspired Climate Action Plan scans the larger picture of community health and civic responsibility, it would be wonderful if we could develop a pedestrian/biking infrastructure as a comprehensive city-wide enterprise.

The creation of a very safe biking and walking infrastructure would be transformational. May the future city council and our new mayor place it firmly on the entire city map!

Doug Roysdon

Latest in a series of posts on the pedestrian bridge

I have some video of the three bridges across the Lehigh, and there is walking
space and biking space on all three of those bridges that’s hardly ever used at all.
And I just think that spending $140,000$-$150,000 on a study . . . would be a total waste of money.
Councilman Callahan

Bicycles are supposed to ride in the roadway, not on the sidewalks.
Peter Crownfield

ref: Interviews with design firms yield new insights into the utility and value of a pedestrian/biking bridge across the Lehigh
ref: A better use for the pedestrian/bike bridge money?
ref: Add your name to the many organizations endorsing the pedestrian/biking bridge feasibility study
ref: A pedestrian/biking bridge: “The possible is a big deal”

Funding sources: DCNR grant $40,000; Northampton County grant $60,000; City funds $40,000 = $140,000

Gadfly encourages you to back the feasibility study for a pedestrian/biking bridge before Council tomorrow night by emailing Council members now (Clerks@bethlehem-pa.gov) and/or by calling in to the meeting during public comment (instructions will be posted here this afternoon).

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Smart, progressive cities are walk and bike friendly these days. It’s the big thing. It’s the “in” thing.

Gadfly should know.

He spent the summer of 2019 reading walkability guru Jeff Speck (at Tony Hanna’s good urging, as he remembers it) and shared his reading with you (for instance, here).

(Speck did a report for Bethlehem in 2009, and his report can be found on this interesting page of City reports — a page where some reports go to die — especially noteworthy is the 2016 Trail study.)

Gadfly knows walking and busing in this town.

He walked and bused across town to work for almost 50 years.

Which enabled his family of six kids plus gainfully employed Mother Gadfly to exist on one car all those years — foiling the automobile, gas, and insurance industries all at once and leaving small carbon footprint.

We have never had two cars. How many families can say that?

People on New St. set their morning clocks by Gadfly.

When he retired, noting his absence, those people asked his son the neighborhood UPS driver if he died.

Gadfly knows the beauty of South Mountain in spring framed by the blossoming trees adjacent to God’s Acre, a view more valuable than any painting (and worthy of Dana’s sacred camera).

Gadfly knows that the simple act of getting on the Fahy bridge on both ends can be an adventure, an adventure that increases exponentially with age and the thinning of your hair.

Gadfly knows the roller-coaster-like thrill caused by going down the widely spaced steps on the east route around City Hall and sweeping helplessly (god forbid there was a car pulling in to the garage) through the portal at the bottom.

It’s a real wake-up call in the morning.

You roll to a stop just in time for the intersection.

Gadfly knows that the Fahy bridge is 635 of his strides long.

Gadfly knows that it is hard to meditate or plan your work day walking 8 inches from the north bound lane of Fahy bridge roaring at you with speeding cars and hulking fume-y buses.

Gadfly knows that the Fahy bridge walkway was not engineered for the co-existence of bikes and walkers, or the engineer had a dark sense of humor.

Gadfly knows you are wise to check your rear-view mirror for bikes passing you.

Gadfly knows you are wise to scrunch when you see a bike coming toward you.

Gadfly knows that in the winter there is a bitter wind channel blowing west to east 7/8s of the way across on the south side of the Fahy bridge that, if you are not careful, will render you deaf in the right ear for half a day.

Gadfly knows that it might be days before the Fahy bridge walkway was shoveled after a snow storm, and you’d best bone up on the Act of Contrition before walking in the roadway.

Gadfly knows that the south end of the Fahy bridge debouches (good SAT word) you into one of the worst intersections for pedestrians in town.

He thought often that it would be a shame to walk so far from home only to die at this intersection when he had almost made it to work.

Gadfly, like Walt Whitman, was a friend of bus drivers.

Gadfly remembers the smell of the bus station.

Gadfly called his bus route the United Nations Line.

Gadfly remembers the day when he was the only non-POC passenger, the only passenger whose first language was English.

You can learn a lot about Bethlehem riding a bus, or even waiting for a bus at a busy stop.

(Speck has such wonderfully simple suggestions of how to make people want to take the bus, how to make them enjoy it.)

Gadfly is not as intimate with the Minsi Trail and Hill to Hill bridges as he is with the Fahy.

But it’s obvious that those roadways are not safe for bikes and that the walkways were not designed for their co-existence with pedestrians.

You must have witnessed the adult game of “pedestrian scramble” played many times daily at the treacherous crossing at the south end of the Minsi.

Gadfly guesses he would say respectfully to Councilman Callahan that the reason the bridges have walking and biking space hardly used is that those spaces were not properly designed for them.

The roads/bridges were designed for cars.

Do you remember the south end of the Fahy in its penultimate existence, where the walkway was through a tunnel/landfill in which every so often you would meet rodents of the human and non-human kind?

What the hell, simply, what the hell.

The question for Councilman Callahan, sir, respectfully, is why walkers and bikers don’t use the bridges more for simply utilitarian purposes much less recreational?

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Gadfly encourages you to back the feasibility study for a pedestrian/biking bridge before Council tomorrow night by emailing Council members now (Clerks@bethlehem-pa.gov) and/or by calling in to the meeting during public comment (instructions will be posted here this afternoon).

Latest in a series of posts on Walkability and Bikeability

Doug Roysdon is a member of the Bethlehem Pedestrian-Biking Bridge Committee.

Reprinted from December 11, 2019.

Nice day yesterday, nice day today. As you are out exercising, think of the value of a pedestrian/bike bridge to our community.

A proposal to fund a feasibility study for just such a pedestrian/bridge will be voted on at City Council Tuesday night.

Gadfly encourages you to back the study by emailing Council now (Clerks@bethlehem-pa.gov) and/or by calling in to the meeting during public comment (instructions will be posted here Monday afternoon).

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A Note on the Pedestrian/Biking Bridge

Like Festival Unbound, the pedestrian/biking bridge project is focused on a unified vision of the future city. At its core is the concept of a wholly contemporary “walking city” serving the needs of a pedestrian and biking population. In a series of public meetings on the bridge, a seemingly unending flow of connections associated with the bridge were advanced by Bethlehem citizens.  Among them are:

Reconnection of the city to its river for environmental and recreational purposes

The creation of a pedestrian cultural hub between Sand Island and the Banana Factory

Joining Historic Bethlehem and the Industrial History Museum — an advanced walking tour of Bethlehem History

Expansion of running and walking marathons, charitable events and city promotions

Social and communal links between Lehigh University and Moravian College

Connecting downtown businesses to South Side attractions

Creating a new, more physical  dimension to Bethlehem tourism

Opening new real estate markets for people dedicated to inner city life

Creating a safe,  environmental corridor from Illick’s Mill to the Greenway for walkers and bikers

Providing a superior walking experience in support of senior living in Bethlehem

Linking downtown festivals to both sides of the river

Creating an exciting new platform for night life in Bethlehem

Promoting the integration of Bethlehem’s diverse cultures

Producing a vital link in the rail trail network of Eastern Pennsylvania

Opening of the river banks to cultural and commercial activity

And more…….

Would a pedestrian/biking bridge make all these good things magically happen? No…..

A pedestrian/biking bridge would  make them possible.  The possible is a big deal.

Doug

Latest in a series of posts on the pedestrian bridge

Doug Roysdon is a member of the Bethlehem Pedestrian-Biking Bridge Committee.

ref: Interviews with design firms yield new insights into the utility and value of a pedestrian/biking bridge across the Lehigh

Hi Gadfly:

As a part of our update on the current development of the pedestrian/biking bridge project, we would like to note that an important budgetary vote reconsidering the funding of the feasibility study will be coming at the City Council meeting next Tuesday, November 17.

With this in mind, I am offering here the current list of the many Bethlehem organizations and institutions who have already endorsed the feasibility study in the hopes that your readers will do the same.

You may offer your support of the Bethlehem pedestrian/biking bridge feasibility study to the city council by sending an email to  Clerks@bethlehem-pa.gov as soon as possible but before noon Tuesday November 17th. We need to have endorsements in the hands of the Council members well before the meeting/vote that night.

Thanks for your participation in this very important issue!

Doug Roysdon Sierra Club

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City of Bethlehem Health Department

CACLV

Outdoors and Wellness Committee South Side Vision

CAT (Coalition for Appropriate Transportation)

Moravian College

Northampton Community College

Backyards for Wildlife

MANA (Mount Airy Neighborhood Association)

Sierra Club

Lehigh U. South Side Initiative

Arts Quest

New Bethany Ministries

Community Bike Works

Touchstone Theatre

Arts Quest

Alliance for Sustainable Communities

Bethlehem Partnership for a Healthy Community

Delaware Valley Green Building Council – Lehigh Valley

Pennsylvania Pedalcycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee

RENEW Lehigh Valley

Delaware & Lehigh Canal Heritage Corridor

Discover Lehigh Valley

Appalachian Mountain Club

Social Impact Center

Godfrey Daniels.

Get Your Tail on the Trail

Citizens of Bethlehem Climate Lobby

City of Bethlehem Environmental Advisory Council

IceHouse Tonight

Latest in a series of posts on the pedestrian bridge

Doug Roysdon is a member of the Bethlehem Pedestrian-Biking Bridge Committee.

Dear Gadfly:

A recent series of interviews between the City and four nationally prominent bridge design firms has yielded significant new insights into the potential economic and social impact of the pedestrian/biking bridge across the Lehigh River. New faces and new ideas have greatly boosted our understanding of the bridge as a community asset.

The interviews with their accompanying commentaries have brought wonderful new perspectives into the potential economic and cultural uses of the bridge. First and foremost on the engineering side, it is notable that not one of the design firms found traversing the railroad tracks an overwhelming issue. In fact, throughout the interviews, the idea of a technical or political impossibility of building the bridge was never a concern.

On economic issues the design firms were equally positive. New input brought fresh insights. By connecting Historic Bethlehem with the Greenway, for example, the bridge opens a physically active dimension to tourism in Bethlehem — a reason for longer visits to the city!  A richly lit “night bridge” along the Lehigh River promises a gorgeous fifteen minute evening walk between the downtown and the South Side Arts district and a major new addition to the city’s night life. As a daytime attraction, the bridge has the prospect of creating a vehicle-free pedestrian hub in the exact center of the city: a contemporary locus for commercial and cultural engagement.

Meanwhile, in a second revealing enterprise, our work with the Climate Action Plan proved an equally insightful opportunity for understanding the social and economic benefits of the bridge. As a link between the north and south corridors of the city, the bridge suddenly took on a greater utilitarian scope. That north-south connection immediately makes commuting to work by bike a reasonable alternative for hundreds of Bethlemites. Most importantly, it makes the creation of an intercity biking infrastructure a practical concept. In short, the pedestrian bridge, as it supports the Climate Action Plan by taking vehicles off the roads, would give rise to a committed biking population in Bethlehem and provide the catalyst for what we might call a “biking city.”

And so, with the input of a full cadre of urban planners, the potential benefits of the pedestrian/biking bridge have become ever more profound. Embraced by the city’s Climate Action Plan and recognized by a series of national consulting firms as a potentially powerful means for advancing the city as a tourist destination, a pedestrian/biking bridge across the Lehigh River could not be a finer symbol of the city’s progressive future.

Doug