Carlisle offers pedestrian safety update, reviews historic district survey results
It's been more than a year since Carlisle passed its Vision Zero resolution aiming to reduce the number of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries, and in that time the borough has pursued several projects and policies to reach that goal.
Jeff Bergsten, the borough's director of transportation and waste management, provided an update on those efforts during the borough council's Nov. 6 workshop meeting.
Recent projects have included the installation of speed humps along East Louther Street near Porter Avenue and the addition of a crosswalk near North East Street and North Bedford Street.
The borough is also considering additional traffic calming measures along North East Street and Bedford Street that could include parking-protected bike lanes and other features. Bergsten said that project's conceptual design phase just concluded, and he expects a presentation of final design options to the council in the coming weeks.
Also on the horizon could be a series of projects through the use of federal grant money Carlisle secured along with several other municipalities in Cumberland and Dauphin counties. This money could be used to run test pilots for improvements the borough would like to make before final work is completed.
Bergsten said the grant will allow Carlisle to develop a "quick build" guide, purchase the materials needed for the projects and conduct road safety audits of High Street and Walnut Bottom Road.
"The thought process there is that by having those in hand, we would be able to have some more leverage when talking to PennDOT about improvements to their roadways that will facilitate bike and ped[estrian] movements," he said, adding that the quick build projects could begin to be implemented around the end of next year.
On the policy side, Carlisle is pursuing a federal grant to create a Vision Zero plan, which could open doors for additional grants to implement plan elements. Bergsten expects to hear if the borough secured the funding by next month.
Another policy that could be in the pipeline is a traffic calming program to help prioritize requests.
"We know during COVID, there was a lot less traffic on the streets," Bergsten said. "People started driving faster. It seems like people still haven't slowed down, and so we're not quite sure exactly the reasoning for why we're getting so many more requests, but we are."
Carlisle's Vision Zero Subcommittee is working on a draft of prioritization criteria that will go before the council for feedback before traffic calming requests can be scored, he said.
Historic District Survey
This month's workshop meeting also featured results from a survey of the Carlisle's historic district conducted earlier this year.
Charles Richmond, an architecture historian with ASC Group, Inc. , said the organization conducted the survey from April to June, documenting 1,887 Carlisle properties. The survey examined building materials, the approximate year of construction, historic and current functions, architectural style and included an photograph of each resource, he said.
Information was entered into the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office's database, PA-SHARE and is available to the public.
Richmond said the survey results can be used to review the borough's Historical District limits and designate buildings, monuments, art and other elements worthy of preservation.
Carlisle Director of Sustainable Community and Economic Planning Jared Woolston said in addition to informing the public about the borough's architecture, the survey results will also assist planning efforts.
"This ... helps us understand better our regulatory tools to sort of have a better idea of how it's helping historic preservation, or if it's not doing a great job and we need to go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments," he said. "There are some eligible areas that are not regulated. This also helps us evaluate those to see if they need a little bit more protection."
Maddie Seiler is a news reporter for The Sentinel and cumberlink.com covering Carlisle and Newville. Love Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
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