PennDOT’s car-centric vision for the Bayfront.
The growing resistance to PennDOT's Bayfront Plan isn’t getting much coverage in Erie's newspaper, internet news, television and radio. Here’s the news:
Last night, August 19, Erie City Council boldly voted to support the will of the people by delaying Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT)'s $100million plan to double waterfront traffic and by holding the much-needed Public Hearing that was circumvented in March (when PennDOT successfully, but inappropriately, was granted a NEPA Categorial Exclusion - CE).
Granted by the FHWA, the CE allowed PennDOT to self-report on environmental issues and avoid an on-the-record scrutiny of their controversial proposal for Erie's Bayfront.
Expanding the Bayfront to encourage more drivers to "cut through" the city is environmentally risky, economically illogically and socially unjust. Shockingly, PennDOT's vision for double-lane roundabouts, an underpass and highway-style exits, ramps and signage completely ignores the principles of the city's 2015 comprehensive plan, Charles Buki's "Erie Refocused".
PennDOT's Bayfront Highway will sever an already problematic connection from city neighborhoods to the waterfront. In addition to attracting more drivers to the waterfront, PennDOT reports that their plan will add 10,000 more vehicles a day to the Eastside's RT. 290 Bayfront "Connector." This is a big issue! Because of the demolition of the Viaduct, Eastside residents must walk and bike along Rt 290 to get to work and shopping, etc. Some middle school students must walk along Rt. 290 to get to school . . . why are we considering making their unsafe route to school more polluted, noisy and even more dangerous?
Councilwoman Liz Allen, who regularly uses her decades of experience as a reporter, researcher and writer, reminded her colleagues that "Erie Refocused" was officially adopted by Council. She read from that document's directive of ALWAYS prioritizing the preferences and needs of pedestrians over traffic.
Allen, Brennan, Keys and Schaaf each acknowledged that PennDOT's plan is about traffic, not pedestrians. The indirect, overhead jetway pedestrian bridges proposed by PennDOT are clumsy band-aides to a traffic problem their project will exacerbate - and - as Brennan noted, the bridges aren't funded. Even worse, the bridges may be privately funded meaning they not end up being truly, 24/7 public connections.
City Council is scheduling a Public Hearing in September. Connect Urban Erie is holding a ERIE BAYFRONT TOWN HALL next week - Tuesday, August 25 at 7pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/691818784705287/
MJH Design’s rendering of the CIVITAS proposal for a multi-modal, “complete street” Bayfront Boulevard.
Learn more by reading the 800 word piece “Skip the Highway, Build a Boulevard” by Lisa Austin and Adam Trott in the August 2020 ErieReader.