Will re-scheduled this ride later in the spring.

The 2024 edition of the Philadelphia Bike Expo took place in the Center City convention center on March 16 and 17. This was the first time the expo was scheduled in the spring – and it was a welcome change. BNP members Dom Frascella, Dom Vasturia and William Jackson were there on Feb 16 to checkout the bikes and the gear, but also to circulate among the organizations representing various elements of  Philadelphia-area bike culture.

SEPTA booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo – with demonstration bus bike rack.

SEPTA – Their booth was promoting multi-modal transportation (combining public transit with one other type of travel, like a bike, as part of a single trip), and featured a hands-on demonstration stand with a standard bike rack used on the front of SEPA busses. This allowed attendees to practice the rather simple, yet intimidating, three-step process of pulling down the rack, loading an example bike, and securing the front wheel. What makes it intimidating is you need to do this while bus riders and drivers are waiting. We talked with them a bit about “Bus on Demand” coming to our area, and the possibility of borrowing one of these demo stands to promote understanding of the racks. We were told these demo stands get built as racks get decommissioned from busses and we might be able to get a demo stand of our own. We theorize we might be able to share one with The Partnership TMA of Mont Co., since they also do education on use of public transportation. So we signed up for more info.

Pennsylvania Environmental Council booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) – had a large display of maps and info promoting trails throughout the state and their efforts to create more trails and promote access to the trails. PEC is involved with exploring the connection of the Liberty Bell Trail from the southern border of Upper Gwynedd Township down through Norristown to the Schuylkill River Trail. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with the staff member working on this connection.

Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia – We made a quick stop in the afternoon to speak briefly with their Executive Director, Chris Gale. We thanked him for staffer Patrick Monahan’s quick response with supplying us with zoning examples related to bike parking/racks. We also talked a bit about our idea to spur use of apartment bike shares in our area.

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) – This group, based in Bethlehem, PA, is like Bike North Penn, but probably 7-10 years more advanced than we are. Not only to they promote bike infrastructure and do community rides (as well as other rides) they operate a community

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation booth at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo

bike cooperative where customers learn to fix their own bikes and can “earn” a bike by putting in time at the shop. They also organize bike safety/education programs for kids. We spent quite a bit of time talking to these folks about how they do what they do. It seems like they have some ideas which might work for BNP as we further develop our organization. One simple idea, which they report is very popular, is women-only community rides. We would suggest BNP members check out the CAT website for more information.

Other connections: Ran into Linda McGrane, one of the leaders of Suburban Cyclists Unlimited and who is also involved with the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia. In the past she was able to include information about BNP in the BCP monthly newsletter. She said she would also like to include something in the newsletter for Suburban Cyclists. We attended a seminar called “Folx N Spokes” which was dedicated to “supporting women, trans and non-binary riders in Philly and the region.” It ended up being more of like a meet and greet between groups. We spoke up that BNP has attempted to be as inclusive as possible and invited all to participate in our meetings and our rides. From these groups we also discovered “party-paced” bike rides!

Dom, Dom, and William at the Philly Bike Expo

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.

Thanks everyone for coming out for the February meeting. Our new meeting space at Eclipse Center for Creative Community is working out nicely. If you could not make the meeting, please use the links below to review what was discussed.

Click Here for a PDF of the agenda deck from the February, 2024 meeeting

Click Here to access at meeting recording using MicroSoft Teams

On Monday, Dec. 18, The agenda for the Upper Gwynedd Board of Commissioners meeting includes a presentation on the Power Line Trail, which is planned to cross Upper Gwynedd Township from the 476 overpass at Morris Rd., pass through Parkside Place where it will overlap with the planned Liberty Bell Trail and ultimately connect with the 202 Parkway Trail at Welsh Road.

The meeting starts at 7 PM, at the Upper Gwynedd Township building located at Parkside Place on Sumneytown Pike. Everyone interested in local trails is encouraged to turn out for this meeting,

• Link to Full Meeting Agenda
• Link to PDF with draft trail maps, images and details

The presentation materials contain draft details on the Power Line Trail as well as the Liberty Bell Trail. Some these details include:

• Proposed Liberty Bell route south out of Parkside Place, which will use sharrows on North Wales Rd to connect with a sidewalk/Trail at the intersection with Morris Rd. This is a compromise to address opposition of residents in the southern part of the township who did not want the trail near their properties if it followed the rail line out of the township.
• Route for the Power Line Trail to follow Welsh Rd. east to connect with the 202 Parkway Trail.

The draft maps include one curious detail for the Liberty Bell Trail, between Sumneytown Pike and Wissihickon Ave. The route visualized in these materials shows the trail following tight to the Wissihickon Creek, with multiple creek crossings. Though this was one possible route discussed two years ago during community input sessions, it was generally discarded at that time, in favor of taking the trail up Dickerson Rd. It is unclear why this may be back in play, given the frequent flooding along the creek which might cause the trail to be unusable after heavy rains, and require constant repair due to flood damage.

The weather for our community bike rides continued to cooperate on December 13, when more than 45 riders came out for our second annual Lansdale Holiday Lights Bike Ride. Though it was seasonably cold, everyone was in good spirits as we wound our way through several sections of Lansdale Borough (and just a bit of Upper Gwynedd) to checkout residential light displays.

The route was comprised of quiet, neighborhood streets, but also included some primary street crossings which we performed very carefully. On several occasions people came to the sidewalks in front of their homes to see exactly what was going on. More than one driver graciously pulled over to the side of the street to allow our band of bikers to pass.

Many of the riders added colorful lights to either their bikes or their persons, so we were, in effect, a traveling light display that night.

The ride started at 7:15 PM and ended at about 8:30 PM. Some of the group pealed off at various times to head home early. We finished the ride with about 30 riders and though everyone was a bit colder than when we started, the smiles were all warm as we wished each other Merry Christmas and split up for the night.

Local photographer, David Freed, came out for the ride and brought along his camera. He graciously took photos throughout the ride. A sampling of his photos are included with this post. Thank you David!

We hope to continue this annual tradition! Mark your 2024 calendars now for Wednesday, Dec. 11. Details for that ride will be posted later in the year.

More Photos Below:

Our second annual Lansdale Holiday Lights Bike Ride will take place on Wednesday, December 13 at 7 PM.

This will be a slow roll group bike ride of streets in and around downtown Lansdale to see holiday lights put out by the locals.

Bike Helmets Are REQUIRED.

We will meet outside Round House/Backyard Beans at about 7PM with the ride to start no later than 7:15.

The bike route will be no more than 6 miles and will be mostly on residential streets with low traffic. Our pace will be slow, with no one getting left behind. Bike lights are encouraged! We want this to be festive, but we also want to be visible to drivers. Be creative with your lights! Horns, sleigh bells, cowbells and other noise makers would be great.

Dress in warm layers as the weather dictates. We cannot emphasize the importance of warm gloves for this ride but be sure you also practice riding with gloves before the event. Shifting and breaking your bike may be very different wearing gloves. Be sure your bike is in good working order in advance of this ride.

All riders are responsible for their own safety on this ride.

2022 Lansdale Holiday Bike Ride

Anyone under the Age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Bad weather or if streets are icy from earlier rain or snow will cancel this event.

Safety is always our first consideration. Bike Helmets Are REQUIRED during the ride. If you want to bring a festive hat – great, but during the ride you MUST wear a bike helmet.

Bad weather or icy street conditions will cancel this event.

Google Calendar Event Info

Facebook Calendar Event Info

The Partnership TMA of Montgomery County, as part of their Bike More Drive Less campaign is leading an online ZOOM meeting on Wednesday, November 15, at 6:30 PM, to provide information to the public about bike lanes being added to the section of South Broad Street controlled by Upper Gwynedd Township.

This first meeting will include information about the concept of bike lanes on South Broad Street from Upper Gwynedd to Lansdale Borough and specifically on plans and designs for bike lanes to be added the section between  Sumneytown Pike and Morris Road.

Residents of Upper Gwynedd Township and neighboring municipalities are encouraged to participate:

Click here for the Zoom link

Join by Phone: 646-558-8656

Meeting ID: 818 6377 4543

Passcode: 548552