For more than 20 years, Pittston has been improving its Main Street - but now, the city wants to make sure people can access the downtown without having to drive.
“Over 70 percent of residents said they cannot safely get to Main Street from their neighborhood using active transportation,” said Shannon Bonacci, the city’s director of community development. “That’s what we’re working to combat.”
Active transportation is anything that runs on human power - so things like walking, biking or using a wheelchair. Bonacci and the city’s Active Transportation Steering Committee have a survey out to residents to help them form an Active Transportation Plan.
Walking up Pine Street from Main Street, Bonacci said the street is a prime example of a “main street connector” that they hope to improve. It’s wide enough that they could improve the sidewalks and possibly add lanes for bikes.
“In terms of an easy, implementable change, Pine Street may be a good opportunity,” Bonacci said.
Main Street Manager Mary Kroptavich works to build up events and help businesses along Main Street in the city. She says the city already has a solid reputation for walkability, but that’s mostly focused on downtown. Improving the neighborhoods is the city’s next step in revitalization.
“As we continue to grow downtown and have more residents in town,” she said. “They want to be able to get out of their apartment, go grocery shopping, have their entertainment, have all those needs right outside their door without getting in a vehicle.”
The Pittston Pedestrian Survey, which closes on Monday, asks residents what their “nice to haves” would be to make the city easier to traverse without a car, Bonacci said. They want to know about intersections residents think of as dangerous, or where they think new traffic signals could be helpful.
“We also want to hear people’s creative ideas for what would be great to have,” Bonacci said. “Some of the responses that came back were like a rail car or a tram car.”
She said one of the biggest issues is how narrow most of Pittston’s neighborhood streets are, especially when drivers need to park their cars.
“Cars are often parked on the sidewalks,” she said, walking by a car that was straddling a curb on Pine Street. “We’re figuring out ways to enforce no parking on sidewalks in making sure there are things like neighborhood parking lots that people can utilize, so that when you leave your house, you can easily hop on a sidewalk.”
Kroptavich lives in Duryea and has said she’d love to be able to walk to work in Pittston. As the city embarks on its active transportation project, she’s getting surrounding municipalities involved as well.
Once the survey closes, Bonacci and the committee will review the responses and incorporate them into an Active Transportation Plan. They plan to hold a public meeting to get more feedback from residents, then present a plan to city council in September.
Once approved, work can begin.
“It makes it a lot easier to go after grants when you can say that hey, all of this work has been studied and these are all solutions that have been identified,” she said. “We can start going after federal funds.”
The Pittston Pedestrian Survey is available on the City of Pittston’s Facebook page.
