Giant steps: Downtown Scranton connectivity plan proposes sweeping streetscape changes to improve walkability

Jun. 22—The city aims to take several giant steps to improve pedestrian safety downtown and make it more of a vital hub for residents and businesses.

A sweeping "Downtown Scranton Connectivity Plan" unveiled Wednesday calls for converting several one-way streets to two-way, replacing traffic signals with four-way stop signs at 22 intersections, revamping Lackawanna Avenue and Biden Street, incorporating bike lanes on streets, providing proper crosswalk markings and planting trees in some sidewalks, to name a few major changes.

Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti unveiled the 148-page plan during an announcement at Lackawanna College's theater.

"It's a very, very robust, in-depth study of our downtown and how we can have safer streets," Cognetti said. "And it's not just safer streets. It's the type of change that could really transform and kick our future economic growth into gear and take it to the next level."

Urban-design expert Jeff Speck of Massachusetts-based Speck & Associates partnered with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, one of the nation's largest transportation planning companies, to craft the plan.

The city used $239,800 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for the report.

More than five years in the making, the effort that led to the connectivity plan started with former Mayor Wayne Evans bringing in Speck in 2018 to speak at the University of Scranton.

The connectivity plan attempts to answer the following question posed both by the report and the effort that led to it: "What changes can be made, in the least time and for the least cost, that will have the largest measurable impact on the amount of people walking, biking, and taking transit downtown?"

Speck, who is the author of the 2012 book "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time," applied a design strategy centered on "walkability," to show how "careful planning interventions can exert a profound influence on the livability and vitality of downtown Scranton."

The plan's recommendations involve five parts:

The Safe Walk goes step-by-step through best practices in pedestrian safety. Because feelings of pedestrian safety are particularly challenged in Scranton, this category is broken down into nine sections addressing everything from one-way vs. two-way travel to the details of street design. It elaborates on how best practices apply specifically downtown and how street designs should change.

Street Reconfigurations shows recommended changes to every downtown street that result from application of best practices discussed in Part I. Because these configurations are designed to fit between existing curbs, few require reconstruction beyond the application of a new topcoat and striping, keeping costs to a minimum.

A Useful Walk gets into detail on principal factors that determine the usefulness of walking downtown. These include housing supply, the pricing and management of parking, and opportunities for planning improvements in downtown transit service. Specific recommendations are made to optimize each factor.

A Comfortable and Interesting Walk introduces the concept of the Street Frontage Quality Assessment which, along with an Anchors Analysis, determines the "Network of Walkability:" where people can be expected to walk downtown. This network allows for prioritizing recommended improvements.

Next Steps revisits proposed street reconfigurations in light of the Network of Walkability and highlights aspects of recommendations that merit the greatest attention in the months ahead. The city will use the plan to apply for federal funds for street improvements.

Speck took about two hours to explain the plan and fielded questions from some of the 40 people who attended.

After kicking off the plan's study phase a year ago with a presentation at Lackawanna College, Speck likened the plan's completion to a handoff to the city to implement it.

The plan could take about five years to fully implement, with some aspects more readily doable than others, Speck said. For example, the state Department of Transportation has veto power over the removal of traffic signals and would have a say over converting one-way streets to two-way. The city will have to convince PennDOT to go along with such proposals, Speck said.

Evans, who attended, said the plan is impressive and he's glad it's completed.

"It's a long time coming," Evans said. "It's the plan that we not only want, it's the plan that we need. It's transformative and will be changing our downtown for generations to come, if we have the ability to do it."

emailto:Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter.

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