New Plans Aim to Slow Rushed Commuters on Penn Road

If it's early in the morning and you're running late to catch the train at Wynnewood Station, when you finally get out of the traffic on Montgomery Avenue and turn onto Penn Road, the 25-mph residential street can look like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, according to the people who watch rush-hour commuters from their homes every day.

Speeding concerns along the road have had residents trying everything from putting up signs, parking their cars on the street or posting life size pictures of children along the road to get cars to slow down – the latter of which were stolen.

On Tuesday night, Oct. 5, a group of about 15 residents of Penn Road met with two Lower Merion Police officers and Commissioner Cheryl Gelber in a parlor meeting to discuss solutions to the speeding problem.

"It went very, very well," Gelber said. "The neighbors did their homework and created an agenda with their concerns. The discussion was straightforward and cooperative. We went point-by-point, and I think if we all work together we can succeed in calming the traffic along this road."

New Crosswalk Proposed

The immediate impact of the meeting is the agreement that the police will put in a work order for a crosswalk at Sabine Avenue and Penn Road for pedestrian use. Residents were concerned about the busyness of the Montgomery Avenue intersection crosswalk, and with increased foot traffic to Lower Merion High School from the far side of Penn Road due to redistricting, parents were concerned about the safety of their kids.

A side effect of the crosswalk, residents hope, is that cars will see it and slow down to look for potential pedestrians.

"Everyone agreed it would be the safest place to cross with the appropriate signs and crosswalk," Gelber said.

Can Roadside Trees Slow Down Cars?

Penn Road will also get a green facelift from the township with the planting of at least six new shade trees along the road to give it a more residential feel. Gelber, Shade Tree Commission Chair Harriet Fox Ruffin and some residents along the road met on Monday night to walk the area and suggest places for potential trees. The town will look for places to plant smaller trees in areas where interference with wires would be a concern, but only after a police review of traffic safety concerns created by limiting site lines.

The trees, expected to be planted beginning in November, could also potentially slow traffic by making the road look narrower and less like a highway, Gelber said.

Increased Patrolling

The residents also suggested a number of other potential fixes, including increased police patrolling of the area, having police officers park their cars along the road when they are doing paperwork – to give the impression of patrolling for speeders – and setting up a speed trailer that tells drivers the speed of their car.

"Hopefully we'll see more of a police presence," said David Ryan, a Penn Road resident. "Just having a police officer parked in someone's driveway writing a report is going to slow people down."

The Problem With Speed Traps

One little known problem reported by Lower Merion Police at the meeting is that Pennsylvania is one of two states in the U.S. where local police are not allowed to use radar guns to track speeding. State troopers can use the equipment, but Lower Merion Police officers have to set up two white lines at a predetermined distance on the road and calculate speeds with a stopwatch.

Because of accuracy concerns, police only pull cars over if they are traveling in excess of 11 mph over the limit. Radar guns would be more accurate, according to the police. The process also tends to be tedious and takes more time and manpower to operate.

Other Proposals

One of the more controversial proposals has been to add a sign hanging underneath the bridge at the Wynnewood Station underpass at the intersection of Wynnewood Road and Penn Road. Some members of the Wynnewood Civic Association oppose versions of the idea because of concerns about protecting the historic design and structure of the train station. Gelber said she thought that the two parties could come to an agreement on what the sign should say and how it would look.

The residents also discussed ways that the road be might reengineered to be less of a straight shot from Montgomery Avenue to the train station. Ideas were floated to put in bumpers, bicycle lanes or replace the double yellow line down the center with lines that look less like a highway. No plans have been made to implement any of the suggestions involving physical changes to the road other than the crosswalk.

None of the proposals was presented as the final solution to the problem, but residents said that they hoped any small step would help. 

"It was a really healthy conversation," Ryan said. "It's something the residents here are very united about, and hopefully we'll see some positive changes from this."