Call for Volunteers – The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County.

The Partnership TMA recently announced they were selected as a recipient of the AARP Community Challenge grant for 2024. This is a highly coveted nationwide grant that is only awarded to roughly 10% of all applicants.

Now that the award has been granted, there is lots of work to do!

The AARP grant will support community engagement to assess “bikeability” in Hatfield Borough and Township, and will include volunteers conducting “bike audits” August -November, 2024.

They are looking for a few volunteers from Hatfield and the surrounding areas to assist with this audit. All training will be provided, you do not have to be a bike rider to participate, and all ages are welcome!

For more information please contact: Lucas Oshman, Program Leader. Email [email protected] or call 215.997.9100

Thanks all for attending our July general meeting in person and online. Our next meeting will be Thursday, August 8, at 7 PM at Eclipse Center for Creative Community – 30 Vine Street, Lansdale, PA 19446. Meetings are also streamed live via Microsoft Teams.

Here is a link to the July meeting recording

Here is a link to the presentation deck used for the July meeting

Meeting Notes:

Bike Valet

• Been going well. No customers at the July 2, Whites Rd. event – but it was a very hot night
• July 30 – Tuesday night Whites Rd. Music Program – Dominic Frascella will be leading this event (Bill Jackson will not be able to attend)
• August Lansdale First Fridays – Dominic Frascella will be leading this event (Bill Jackson will not be able to attend)

Hatfield Township

• Bike Lanes on Derstine Rd.
  1. Line paining planned for August
  2. Lanes will run an additional 400 feet south of Elroy Rd. than originally expected!
  3. Will add an additional community ride in Hatfield incorporating these lanes
• The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County has been awarded an AARP grant which will focus on Hatfield Borough and Township
  1. Community Challenge Grant
  2. Creating a more livable community
  3. Audit of Hatfield
  4. Community Input – Meeting in August

Week Without Driving

• https://weekwithoutdriving.org/
• Sept. 30 – Oct 6
• Encourages local elected and government officials to ride instead of drive to better understand local challenges for those without cars
• BNP will attempt to get an editorial placed in local media
• BNP may try to organize a ride to at least one local government meeting that week
• BNP may send out an email to local governments in advance of this week, call it out and encouraging participation.

Sorry folks. We will try to re-schedule this for later in July.

Bicycle riders using bike lanes on South Broad Street in Upper Gwynedd.

On Tuesday, June 18, Bike North Penn will lead two community bike rides in Upper Gwynedd Township in celebration of the new bike lanes just installed on South Broad Street between Sumneytown Pike and Morris Road. These rides are in conjunction with the Upper Gwynedd township’s “Unplugged Week” activities. Riders should gather at Parkside Place at 6:30 PM, with the rides to start no later than 6:45.

The Young Family Ride is for families with younger children and will head out through the back of the park to do a short loop of the neighborhood there before coming back into the park and returning to the starting point. The length of the ride will be about 1.5 miles and go at a very gradual place. Riders must wear bike helmets. All children must be accompanied by adults.

Handout Promoting Community Bike Ride in Upper Gwynedd on June 18.

The longer ride will be about six miles. It will also exit through the back of the park, but will head over to South Broad Street for an out-and-back on the bike lanes, and then take a winding path through neighborhoods along the intended route of Power Line Trail to return to Parkside Place. Again, bike helmets for all riders are required and kids under the age of 15 need to be accompanied by adults.

These bike lanes are a first for Upper Gwynedd Township and add an important option for biking between Upper Gwynedd and Lansdale Borough. They are the result of more than a year of planning as part of the re-surfacing of the road. Bike North Penn has been advocating for bike lanes on South Broad Street since 2022 when plans for the re-surfacing of the road between Morris Rd. and Lansdale Borough were announced.

Bike North Penn would like to thank Upper Gwynedd Township for their leadership in making the first move to add these lanes to South Broad Street and to The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County for their continued guidance, with their “Bike More, Drive Less” program which has been instrumental in working with the local government entities involved.

Thanks all for turning out for the June monthly organizational meeting of Bike North Penn.

A couple of key items:

• June 18 – 6:30 PM we encourage all members and their friends and family to come out for a community bike ride starting at Parkside Place in Upper Gwynedd. There will be a six mile ride over to the new bike lanes on South Broad Street and a short ride for young families through the neighborhood behind the park.
• We will also be doing some photography of riders on S. Broad Street bike lanes at 9 AM on Saturday, June 15, meeting at the intersection of S. Broad and Garfield Rd.
• Also, the bike count cameras for South Broad Street will be active starting on Sunday, June 15 for about a week. Everyone is encouraged to get out on their bikes, use the lanes and get counted.
• There is now a plan to a bike valet at the Lansdale Farmer’s market on Saturday, August 24. We may also try to do a “bike bus” from various parts of North Penn to the farmers market.

Link to PDF of the June Agenda Deck

Link to the June Meeting Recording – (MS Teams)

The next monthy meeting of Bike North Penn. We will be discussing the new bike lanes on South Broad Street in Upper Gwynedd as well as challenges with local trails and planning for upcoming community rides and bike valet at local events.

Come and join us for a lively discussion and bring your ideas! We are looking for people to participate from all over the North Penn region.

Eclipse Center for Creative Community
30 Vine St., Lansdale, PA 19446

Microsoft Teams meeting

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Meeting ID: 280 044 962 899
Passcode: K8KjtA
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UG Newsletter info on installation of bike lanes on South Broad Street.

As reported here earlier, the Upper Gwynedd section of South Broad Street – between Sumneytown Pike and Morris Rd. will, in the next few days, have the paint applied for bike lanes. To be clear, it will be a mixture of dedicated bike lane sections as well as several “sharrows” sections where existing turn lanes are being retained – however – this IS progress! Bike North Penn along with The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County  as part of their Bike More, Drive Less program have been pushing for bike lanes on South Broad Street since the fall of 2022 when re-surfacing of South Broad Street was announced.

We are hopeful, when Montgomery County resurfaces their section (targeted for 2025), between Sumneytown Pike and Lansdale Borough, connecting bike lanes will be added there and then some kind of connection can be made in Lansdale as part of their Active Transportation Plan, which is currently being organized.

There will be a celebration of the UG bike lanes on the evening of Tuesday, June 18, which will be part of Upper Gwynedd’s “Unplugged Week” organized by their Parks and Recreation Department at Parkside Place. The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County will be there with an info booth and will be sizing kids for bike helmets. If we can get enough Bike North Penn volunteers, we will be organizing two simultaneous group rides:

• A short ride for families with younger children, at about 1.5 miles in length. It will head out the back if the park and do a loop of the neighborhood there before ending back into the park
• 

  Map of long ride route for June 18.

  A longer ride for adults and older kids, at about 6 miles, which will also head out through the back of the park, but using the cut through to West Point Pike, take us through the village of West Point, do and out and back on the new bike lanes on South Broad Street, then take a winding route through the Apollo neighborhood and finally back through West Point Village and back through the park.

More info on these rides and the June 18th even will be discussed at the Bike North Penn monthly organizational meeting on Thursday, June 13, at 7 PM, at the Eclipse Center for Creative Community, 30 Vine Street, Lansdale, PA 19446 (next to the Lansdale Post Office).

The Circuit Trails Map

The Circuit Trails, a regional coalition of bicycle and trail focused groups has published its 2023 annual report HERE.

The two key milage goals for The Circuit Trails are: 500 interconnected trails in the region by 2025, and 850+ miles of interconnected trails by 2040. In the North Penn area, the 202 Parkway Trail, The Liberty Bell Trails (some completed segments) and Upper Gwynedd’s “Power Line” Trail would be part of this milage count. You would think Hatfield’s Chestnut Street Trail and Frick’s Trail would also count, but at present they do not show up on maps published by The Circuit Trails.

The 2023 Annual report details trail segments completed in 2023 as well as grants awarded for trail development.

Attendees at the BNP May organizational meetings. Others attended virtually via MS Teams

The Bike North Penn monthly organizational meeting was held on Thursday, May 9. Here are links to a PDF of the presentation deck and the meeting recording:

• Presentation PDF
• Meeting Recording (MS Teams)

A couple of key points from the meeting:

Bike lane striping of the Upper Gwynedd section of South Broad Street (between Sumneytown Pike and Morris Rd) is tentatively scheduled to happen in May.

• • We discussed and are starting to plan a kickoff event to celebrate this important milestone – possibly on the evening of Tuesday, June 18 (pending confirmation with Upper Gwynedd Township).  This will likely take place at Garfield Park, and may include a pop-up bike lane on Garfield Ave. as well as group rides on the new bike lanes on South Broad Street.
  • The Partnership TMA of Mont Co. is also arranging cameras to be set up on South Broad Street both before and after the installation of the bike lanes. We will post more details on this once we have them, but expect some “get-out-the-riders” activities once the lanes are in.

The Lansdale Active Transportation Plan committee is off and running, having had their first meeting at the end of April

• • William Jackson and Dominic Vasturia attended representing Bike North Penn. Jacqui Baxter-Rollins also attended representing The Partnership TMA Montgomery County
  • Timing of completion of the plan looks like it will take 18 months
  • Input from the BNP membership is encouraged so the group’s ideas can be represented in upcoming meetings.

April was a busy month for Bike North Penn:

• Three community rides:
  • Lansdale (Evening Ride)
  • Upper Gwynedd (Evening Ride)
  • Hatfield (part of Celebrate Trails Day – Afternoon Ride)
• Upper Gwynedd Peace and Unity Day (info booth with The Partnership TMA) promoting South Broad Street Bike Lanes
• Celebration of the new bike fix-it station in Lansdale’s Stony Creek Park – featuring a fix-it demo by Rena Frascella

May is also off to a brisk start:

• Bike Valet at the Lansdale’s May First Friday event
• Community Ride, “Lunch at the top of Lansdale”

Rider Leader Training

• No Updates at this time