Traffic Talk and An Absent Supervisor/Defendant

Seriously? More traffic coming?

The frustration caused by the traffic -- and potential increase in traffic -- in the Boyertown/Gilbertsville area was front and center once again during Monday's Douglass (Mont.) Township Board of Supervisor's meeting.

But before we get to what was at the meeting, let us take a moment to mention what, or rather who, wasn't.

Monday was the first day of the theft trial by judge of Fred Ziegler, former police chief and current vice chairman of the board of supervisors.

This case having dragged on for more than two years, curiosity required coming to Monday night's meeting to see if he would.

He didn't.

Other than that, the subject that attracted the most interest was the last -- a move for a regional traffic study among the eight municipalities that comprise the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee.

Regular readers of this blog will know the subject was covered pretty extensively in Friday's post, as well as two subsequent Mercury stories which have been posted on the web site, but have set to see any ink.

(Links to those and more are include in the Tweets below).

What Monday's discussion offered was an opportunity to hear what non-professionals think about the current traffic situation.

In short, they hate it.

The often-outspoken Alex Brumwell said "I didn't move here to be stuck in traffic all the time."

Another resident said that Hoffmansville Road has become a speedway during rush hour, and now even Middle Creek Road is suffering the same fate.

Supervisors Chairman Anthony Kuklinski said he hopes that not only will a regional traffic study get a handle on the big picture, but that hopefully it will help convince PnnDOT and even the state legislature that it is time to update how Pennsylvania deals with traffic costs.

And now here, without further ado, are last night's Tweets.

New New Hanover Traffic on Planners' Minds

No. This is NOT the traffic prediction for Swamp Pike. Yet.

No one likes traffic.

But the recent revelation that a sprawling residential, commercial and office project planned in New Hanover could increase traffic on Swamp Pike by 50 percent has put the subject on the front burner.

Wednesday night, the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee took up the subject.

Crystal Gilchrist, Montgomery County's Principal Multimodal Transportation Planner, was on hand to answer questions and she explained that the project is not as far along in the process as developers made it seem last week when they reviewed the project for supervisors in neighboring Douglass (Mont.) Township.

This drawing shows that the proposed New Hanover Center project

stretches along Route 72 from Route 663 to Township Line Road.

As the discussion continued, the planner realized they could provide more information beyond the limited area the developers might be required to study.

For example, although the traffic impacts of Route 73 through Gilbertsville, where homes close to the
street make expanding the road difficult or not impossible, is likely to be extreme, current statutes do not require the traffic study by the developers include an area so far away in another township.

This even though many of those drivers will be trying to get through Gilbertsville to get to Route 100.

"But there's nothing that prevents you from doing one," Montgomery County Planner John Cover pointed out. And so, with the adoption of their budget, they may do just that.

For more, look for our story in The Mercury in the next day or so.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting.