Often during our community rides around the North Penn region, we reveal and take advantage of cut throughs which allow bike or pedestrian pathways from one neighborhood to another, often avoiding busy roads – and are otherwise not available to autos.

Upper Gwynedd’s Parkside Place is a vital artery of cut throughs when moving between several neighborhoods in the township, as well as passing in and out of North Wales Borough. In the future, several of these cut-throughs will be leveraged as part of the Power Line and Liberty Bell Trails.

Map of cut through routes via Parkside Place

The paved trail headed south out of the park connects immediately with the residential neighborhood there. If you turn right on the trail, as if headed to the Green Ribbon Trail (No bikes are allowed on the Green Ribbon Trail), the pavement will eventually turn to gravel and after crossing a small foot bridge over the Wissahickon Creek heads the up to West Point Pike. 

New Gravel on the west cut-though, where the paved trail connects with the start of the Green Ribbon Trail

Part of that gravel section can be muddy at times, but recently some new gravel has been laid down which helps with some of this mud. The gravel is rather large and it is not compacted, so be careful, it can grab your tires.

Trail cut though at West Point Pike

Heading left on West Point Pike takes you over the railroad and the streets to the right can connect you with the quite neighborhood of West Point Village and other neighborhoods further west – all the way over to Valley Forge Road. 

Back at the Basketball courts in the center of Parkside Place, if you head down the road along the tennis courts, and then jump to the paved trail headed east – the trail will take you up and out of the park and deliver you to Center Street in North Wales Borough. Up two blocks there is a pedestrian-triggered crossing light which can get you through Walnut St./North Wales Rd, to the southeast side of the borough and destinations like the North Wales Area Library.

Elm Street in North Wales Borough

The great improvement with this route is Elm Avenue. For a long time this street has either been in poor condition, or under various types of construction. That construction is now completed and a fresh layer of pavement has been applied. Elm Avenue is important for bikers who want to reach the northwest quarter of the borough and possibly the North Wales SEPTA station. With the exception of Walnut (which some people don’t like to ride due to auto volume and narrow lanes), few streets in the borough align to allow for crossing Sumneytown Pike.

Elm Avenue and School Street are not exactly aligned, but are close enough for a fast crossing so long as you wait for a safe opening in traffic on Sumneytown Pike.

Understanding the importance of the Parkside Place cut throughs can unlock biking routes which otherwise might be intimidating to hesitant riders.