Improving Access To Collingswood's Downtown Goal Of Recently Received Grant

SOUTH JERSEY — Collingswood is one of several Camden County communities that recently received funding from the Board of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to enhance and provide additional, sustainable means of transportation, the county said.

"We are always searching for ways to improve operational sustainability, shrink our carbon footprint and boost the quality of life for our residents. And receiving these funds to enhance travel options [Camden] countywide will help propel this mission forward in a big way," said Camden County Commissioner Louis Cappelli Jr.

Some of the grant recipients, the amount of funding they received and what the funding will go to include:

• Gateway To Downtown Collingswood, which will receive $272,000 from the commission's Safe Routes to School grant program to "create safe and improved access throughout Collingswood including the downtown business district, community assets and PATCO train station," the county said.

• Bellmawr, which will receive $422,000 from the commission's Safe Routes to School grant program to make improvements to the intersection of Peach Road and Victory Drive in Bellmawr, as well as install signage, striping, crosswalks, flashing beacon pedestrian warning signs and ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the county.

• Cross County Connection TMA — a Marlton-based group that advocates for driving less and driving safely when driving is a must — which will receive $98,868 in grant funding from the commission's Travel Options Program to work with NJ Transit to develop marketing materials to wrap around some of the transit company's buses to increase awareness of New Jersey's new safe passing law for practically everyone on the road, the county said.

"Once these [and the other funded] projects are completed, our residents will have a wider

variety of choices when it comes to multi-modal means of travel such as biking, walking and public transit," Cappelli said.

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