Scranton's Downtown: A Walkable Future

Center City is also home to the largest concentration of small businesses, from those located in the Marketplace at Steamtown to others bordering our downtown colleges and universities, making it a destination for residents, tourists, and families alike.

Downtown Scranton is the most walked area of the City, but it is also the most dangerous area for pedestrians to walk. The blue roads on this map have the highest concentration of pedestrian accidents in the city. Green segments represent bicycle crashes, and red sections represent vehicle crashes.

Other areas of the City are also dangerous, particularly North Main Avenue in West Scranton and Green Ridge Street near North Scranton, but our highest concentration of roads can be found in Center City. Closing sections of Green Ridge or North Main would also be incredibly disruptive compared to rerouting people through downtown, and the changes necessary to make them safe are much more complicated.

We are making equal investments into other quality of life improvements, including improving traffic signals on North Main and restriping crosswalks on Main Avenue and Green Ridge Street. Our long-term goal is to dedicate connectivity and maintenance funds to each of those roads to unite the different areas of the City.

(Source: PennDOT crash data, 2012-2021)

Our downtown road network contains multiple roads that lack the volume of traffic necessary to justify the extra turning lanes.

Speck explains that the average two-lane, two-way road can handle up to 10,000 trips. The only roads in our downtown that meet that volume are Mulberry Street, Jefferson Avenue, Washington Avenue, and Wyoming Avenue, with the last two barely surpassing the 10,000-trip indicator while Mulberry Street gets nearly 20,000 trips.

The primary benefit of removing lanes is what we can replace them with. We can add bike lanes, parking, and safety measures including curb bump-outs, wider sidewalks, and street trees.

Stand at the corner of North Washington Avenue and Linden Street one busy morning, and you'll see the potential flaws in our current one-way system. A driver (1) stops to turn left up Linden Street, and the driver behind them (2) maneuvers around them.

Because car 2 would likely only look right for oncoming traffic, they could overlook the pedestrian on the left, indicated by the blue circle. They might either strike the pedestrian or take an illegal right-hand turn to miss them and be facing the wrong direction of traffic.

These kinds of issues are exclusive to one-way intersections. Passing on a two-way road is impossible, and with fewer lanes, cars would queue up, allowing the pedestrian to cross at their own speed. Vehicles stopping at the intersection would look both ways, checking for incoming cars before going through.

In the mid-20th century, like many other American cities, Scranton changed many downtown streets to one-way traffic to avoid delays caused by left turns across traffic and to make cars travel faster through downtown.

However, this change negatively affected pedestrian comfort, business activity, and the overall efficiency of driving downtown. It also turned many local trips into longer routes.

In the 1960s, Scranton further complicated traffic flow by reversing the direction of Biden Street (then Spruce Street) to accommodate traffic from the Central Scranton Expressway, now the President Biden Expressway. This change also affected Linden Street, making navigation around Courthouse Square more difficult.

Cities previously installed traffic signals as a symbol of progress, or a sign of a more modern, cosmopolitan area.

Many reports show, however, that signals are not always the best option for intersections with moderate traffic. Research shows that all-way stop signs, which require drivers to approach each intersection with a sense of negotiation, are much safer than signals.

Unlike signal-controlled intersections where drivers may rush to beat the light, drivers at all-way stops normally proceed at very low speeds. There's more eye contact among users, and drivers typically wait only a few seconds to move through. Pedestrians and cyclists are usually given priority, often being waved through first.

The safety and ease of use through the downtown is our utmost concern.

With inspiration from the Speck study, the City engineer, Reilly Associates, conducted additional traffic counts to see which changes were truly warranted.

With extra data, Reilly found that only 17 of 24 intersections suggested in the Speck study warranted the conversion from traffic lights to all-way stops.

The existing 34 traffic signals downtown are indicated on this map.

The red traffic signals on Lackawanna Avenue, West Olive Street, Biden Street and Adams Avenue represent locations where stop signs were suggested, but our studies disagree.

The impact of these changes on members of our community with limited mobility or visual impairments is of great concern. The City of Scranton continues to engage with the Lackawanna Blind Association throughout this process.

Because of their feedback, we've already upgraded original plans for sidewalks to create higher visibility for people with partial vision and are exploring other suggestions we've received. The SMART grants we've applied for at other intersections will help demonstrate the effectiveness of any future upgrades.

Drivers tend to be more comfortable speeding in wider traffic lanes.

A typical American urban lane is 10 feet wide, comfortably supporting speeds up to 35 miles per hour (MPH). A typical American highway lane is 12 feet wide, supporting speeds up to 70 MPH. Any urban lane wider than 10 feet encourages speeds that increase risk to pedestrians. Believe it or not, some of our current lanes measure up to 15 feet.

Numerous organizations including the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), have endorsed 10-foot lanes for use in urban contexts.

Crosswalks in the City currently lack consistency. There are several different styles of crosswalks, from the wide ladder-style crosswalks downtown to two simple parallel lines in areas including South Scranton.

The Speck study gave three ways we can improve our current sidewalk network:

That's why we're using ARPA funds to repaint more than 1,200 crosswalks. Many crosswalks in Scranton have faded or are in need of other repair. Creating a uniform style of high-visibility crosswalks that align directly from one block to another would greatly improve pedestrian safety.

Red markers on this map show new crosswalks we intend to add. The remaining marks show crosswalks in dangerous corridors and in critical areas like schools and hospitals.

Bicycle commuting is on the rise in cities across the United States. As this mode of transportation increases in popularity, the need for infrastructure that supports cyclist safety also increases. The simplest and most effective way to support cyclists is by adding bike lanes to our streets.

The Lackawanna River Heritage Trail stretches more than 70 miles, passing through the heart of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area. The Lackawanna Heritage Valley is located amid the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania where the waters of the Lackawanna River flow, and it serves our primary bike path.

We're aim to add several bike lanes, but as most of the roads downtown are stated-owned, changes require approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). Future updates to this plan will include final locations for bike lanes.