TPD recently completed a borough-wide Traffic Calming Plan for Media Borough. The Team employed several innovative engagement tactics to gather public input in addition to the traditional Public Meeting approach. A pop-up table was manned at the Media Open Streets event to promote the Traffic Calming Plan and engage with Borough residents, including an online wiki-map and pop-up table at a Borough-organized open streets event.
The Project Team also engaged the steering committee via an evening walking audit and online polling using Mentimeter. These technology-based engagement techniques can be important tools to utilize on future projects with the uncertain future of public gatherings in this age of COVID-19 and social distancing practices.
Detailed conceptual drawings were provided as part of the plan for several corridors throughout Media in addition to a radical redesign of Baltimore Avenue, and the development of a neighborhood greenway along Jefferson Street. These detailed drawings are complimented by a wide array of education, encouragement and enforcement strategies, as well as appropriate traffic calming techniques to apply throughout the neighborhood streets of the Borough. Several pop-up projects to temporarily demonstrate the effectiveness of traffic calming devices and help increase public awareness were identified, as well as areas for the Borough to engage residents through street art and neighborhood programs. In addition, a comprehensive review of Borough code was completed identifying areas that could be strengthened or revised to provide for better future transportation improvements.
TPD’s Traffic Calming Plan included recommendations for painting murals and other artwork on the street surface to encourage traffic calming and engage the community. In September 2021, the Borough ran with the Plan’s recommendations and installed an intersection mural via volunteer support and partnership with a local arts non-profit organization. Officials have referred to the project as “a raging success.”
