Old people, children, deer, drunks and dumb people.
What do they have in common? They’re often not smooth crossers of busy roads, and Saucon Valley (like most of the Lehigh Valley) possesses its share of all five categories.
A sign proclaiming that Hellertown is “a pedestrian-friendly community” is affixed to a utility pole on Main Street in the borough. (Contributed photo)
On the one hand, in Hellertown, there’s an increasingly vibrant, interesting and pedestrian-attracting town center. But partly because of that, and poorly managed suburbanization in Lower Saucon Township and surrounding communities, more and more traffic clogs our main drag. It’s not a new issue, but we’re getting to be a victim of our own success.
The thing is, Hellertown’s Main Street is only going to get more sensational. It best days are definitely ahead. If you’re trying to find a stylish new restaurant with sidewalk flame-tower heaters or buy some last-minute earrings for your sister-in-law’s birthday, Hellertown has the goods. I’m a restaurant snob, for example, and I’ve sampled it all, and I can safely say that La Kang is the best Thai in the Lehigh Valley at the moment, hands-down.
We’re striking that perfect commercial/residential/public services balance, too. Indeed, if I were in the commercial real estate business in Lehigh Valley, I’d be scrambling to add Main Street properties to my portfolio. If I were a parent of small kids, I’d be looking to move into Saucon Valley School District.
Precisely because of all these things, our community stands at a “crossroads” (pun intended) when it comes to the creeping pedestrianization of State Route 412. We’re going to have to decide how pedestrian we want to be. Personally, most people I know want a more pedestrian central Hellertown.
While a sign even proclaims Hellertown’s municipal new self-image as “pedestrian friendly” when you drive in from the north on 412, I’m not sure how many drivers or pedestrians, for that matter, grasp this yet.
Hellertown Borough skillfully managed a few years ago to get excellent, flashing pedestrian crossings installed on Main Street with the help of state casino funds. They work very well, but as anyone who has tried to depend on them soon learns, the crossings are only as good as drivers are careful.
From what I’ve seen, many drivers aren’t very. First of all, drivers often exceed the speed limit and forget about the crossings. When a pedestrian does actually hit the button to activate these well-marked, flashy crossings, it can take five or six drivers before one attentive driver finally brings their lane to a halt.
But that’s just one lane. Frequently, the one driver and the pedestrian then enter a waiting game for a nice driver in the oncoming other lane to wake up to their presence on planet earth and … voila … obey the flashing lights.
I’ve been stunned at times by how long it takes after the activation of the lights for drivers to notice and stop. I get it. They’re still a comparably new feature of Main Street. I myself have at least once been shocked by how the lights seem to pop up out of thin air when I least expect it.
Since the dawn of the automobile, Main Street has proven dangerous to pedestrians. In one unfortunate example, in 1927, a peanut peddler named Gottleib Riegley, 70, perished after a “machine”—as cars were sometimes called a century ago—smashed in poor Riegley’s face and sped off. Riegley, who lived in rooms on Water Street, was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s.
Four years ago, a friend of mine named Fran Miller was killed on Main Street by a vehicle under harrowing circumstances. My friend was also in her seventies, and she did not drive; I got to know her by driving her around town. No one will ever know what Fran was thinking when she crossed, but she was reportedly at a crosswalk and had every reason to believe there was no imminent danger. The case is still working its way through the criminal courts, but Fran’s death illustrates the stakes. Her only mistake may have been trusting that our system based on drivers and pedestrians following rules mostly works.
The fact is, it does mostly work, until it tragically doesn’t.
I sometimes hear intolerance from citizens about all the “wrong” ways people use the crossings or jaywalk. Yes, bicyclists sometimes cross without properly dismounting. Yes, immature adults and kids sometimes press the crossing buttons just for fun. Even worse, kids, deer and drunks sometimes don’t even use the crossings. They don’t wait for cars either. They do all the “wrong” things. But still, we need to think proactively about safety and pedestrians on Main Street. We need to think of it as our responsibility to look harder and faster and more attentively than the drunks and deer and dumb people who frequently don’t do what they’re supposed to do.
It’s a state road. That limits the borough’s power to fix the problem. (I myself wonder if marking parts of the road with flexible bollards, such as those sold by Uline, might help slow traffic at pedestrian choke points. Maybe? I’m no engineer, and truly need to “stay in my lane.”) But like so many people in Saucon Valley, I want to see our community prosperous and safe.
Saving lives on Main Street and making our community work as a vibrant pedestrian-friendly community—a fun, positive vision many citizens share—means changing how we think every time we walk across or drive down Main Street.
Bill Broun is a resident of Hellertown, a professor at East Stroudsburg University and a novelist.
