SAFETY AND WALKABILITY REVIEW FOR MULTIMODAL IMPROVEMENTS

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA

DESIGN, PLANNING & COMMUNICATIONS , COMMUNITY, MUNICIPAL

THE CHALLENGE

Newtown Borough is the social and economic hub of Newtown Township. The provision of safe multimodal infrastructure is a priority for the Borough as it seeks to accommodate visitors, promote economic development, and enhance the quality of life for its current and future residents, especially children and seniors. While the Borough has the benefit of a relatively dense, historic development pattern of small lots and blocks that is well-suited to multimodal transportation, many of its existing streets require creative solutions to better accommodate travelers who walk, roll, and use public transportation to visit downtown, get to school, or relax along nearby creeks. The Borough received a Transportation and Community Development Initiative (TCDI) grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) to perform a Safety and Walkability Review for potential multimodal improvements.

HOW WE HELPED

For the review, McCormick Taylor is conducting an opportunities and constraints analysis, a gap analysis, and a qualitative multimodal assessment. McCormick Taylor is uniquely suited to complete the review thanks to its thorough knowledge of the area and demonstrated expertise in a wide range of quantitative analyses, communications, public outreach, graphic design, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure planning and design for all ages and abilities. This effort includes two public involvement opportunities as well as a survey. McCormick Taylor has extensive experience in multimodal planning and engineering and is using this knowledge to produce an analysis and cohesive recommendations tailored to the Borough’s needs and goals.

RESULTS

The team will take the next step toward a safer multimodal network for the Borough by identifying a ranked list of priority projects. These efforts are building off past planning efforts and capitalizing on existing conditions to create a thorough quantitative and qualitative review of multimodal opportunities in the Borough to identify the updated list of multimodal infrastructure priorities, as well as potential funding sources to implement them.