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Upper Providence holds first public workshop for township-wide bicycle and pedestrian greenway plan
Summary
Township planning staff and consultants presented maps, design examples and an interactive 'WikiMap' tool at a public meeting to gather resident suggestions for a phased bicycle‑pedestrian greenway network; attendees raised concerns about property access, trees, flooding and e-bike safety.
Jeff Grace, the township’s director of planning and zoning, opened the first public workshop for Upper Providence Township’s bicycle and pedestrian greenway plan and turned the presentation over to the consultant the township hired to lead the effort.
"This is the first public meeting in this project, and the objective of this meeting is to get all of you talking about what you wanna do," said Bob Thomas, the consultant leading the project, as he outlined maps, local examples and a process for prioritizing improvements.
Why it matters: The township-level plan is intended to fill gaps left by county and regional documents and to identify local priorities, costs and phases so small projects can be linked into continuous walking and biking routes. Thomas told attendees the work will include inventories of roads, rights-of-way and existing sidewalks, outreach to PennDOT and the school district, and a phasing plan so the township can build connectivity over time.
What was presented: The consultant team reviewed historic and recent regional plans and showed GIS layers of existing roads, trails and open space, pointing out opportunities to connect to the Schuylkill River corridor and nearby state park land. Team members used examples from nearby systems—the towpath between Newtown and Yardley, the Radnor Trail and the Chester Valley Trail—to show how landscaping, shade trees and pulled-back fences or short bridges can preserve property character while creating safe crossings and off-road segments.
Public engagement tool: The team demonstrated an online 'WikiMap' tool where residents can drop anonymous pins marking origins, destinations, hazards or opportunities, upload photos and import routes from common fitness apps. A presenter explained the icons and said submissions are visible to other users only after they are submitted; residents asked whether exports from MapMyRide, Strava or RideWithGPS would import (the team confirmed they can be imported if exported from those apps).
Questions and concerns: Residents raised practical and design concerns during the Q&A and table work. One attendee asked, "What about Map My Ride?" when discussing route imports. Other comments and questions focused on negotiating private property and institutional fences, protecting large established trees near proposed paths, addressing flood-prone sections of roadway, and designing for e-bikes and other mobility devices after the consultant noted a recent e-bike crash on a bike lane.
Next steps: The team said they will collect the paper maps from tonight’s tables, compile the online map contributions, and meet with PennDOT, the school district and police as part of the review. They plan to return with a prioritized list of initial projects (Phase 1) intended to create the first meaningful connections, followed by subsequent phases to complete the network.
The workshop then moved into table exercises; staff and consultants circulated to gather site-specific input that will be incorporated into the digital map and used to shape the final recommendations.
