Time Extended at Route 66 Crosswalk
The designated pedestrian crosswalk so residents can walk across Route 66 to shop at Riverside Quality Foods and Manor Furniture will now allow some extra time.
by Jonathan Weaver
A potential disaster to Ford City and Manor Township walkers crossing Route 66 at the Riverside Intersection (near Riverside Quality Foods and Manor Furniture) may have been averted.
Manor Township Supervisor Pat Fabian said the walk signal will increase to allow walkers a maximum of 32 seconds to cross the highway – an increase of six seconds.
The increase came after Ford City Borough Manager Eden Ratliff and Borough Council Representative Vicki Schaub penned a letter to Manor Township officials that, due to Spagnolo’s Foodland closing in July, residents are now crossing the five-lane Route 66 to buy groceries at Riverside Meats.
“A lot of our citizens – including some of our more senior citizens – are crossing that intersection with walkers, wheelchairs, electric scooters, and even with the walk signal for them to cross, it’s just not long enough for them to get across the intersection,” Ratliff said in October. “There’s not much we can do about it since its Manor Township property, so we would like a traffic study done to see if there’s a way to improve pedestrian crossing there.
“We feel like it’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
Last week, Ratliff was excited to hear the timing was increased.
“That is fantastic - I am very glad to hear that!” Ratliff exclaimed. “I’m not sure if that should be the permanent solution, but I’m glad to hear that at least a change was made due to the traffic study. We appreciate Manor Township’s help with this.”
Before the traffic study, Township Supervisor Paul Rearick himself timed the walk signal at at-best 11 seconds, and agreed to ask PennDOT for the traffic study, as well as paint crosswalks.
In October, Ratliff said Borough Council members would consider paying for at least some if there are any expenses associated.
Ford City, Local News, Manor Township | jweaver January 20, 2015
By Darla, January 20, 2015 @ 9:44 AM
That extra time still is NOT long enough for some people with walkers, like me, to get across. And drivers sometimes do NOT obey the traffic signal. Look how many crashes because someone has ‘blown’ the red light.
By sickofpayingforit, January 20, 2015 @ 10:59 PM
I can appreciate the situation here with the closing of the store and all but typically speaking, how many 4 lane, 45 mph roads have a crosswalk to begin with???
Remember the big picture here, every penny spent at Wally World is a hammer blow to another nail in the coffin of one of our local businesses that are NEVER appreciated until they close down……..Then stuff like this comes up………
By jorn jensen, January 21, 2015 @ 8:05 AM
This is probably one of the most dangerous lights in the county. Pay close attention to it when you go through there. It is a sensor-activated light, so, as you come down either 4 lane roadway, if you see green and see no cars at either side road, it might stay green. One car pulls up from Ford City, with no waiting time, and the light immediately stops 4 lanes of traffic for one car. This stuff is all programmable and the program is a mess. The yellow, for the 4 lane, should be much longer, regardless of what “PennDOT Rules” are - this light is a unique situation due to the 4 lanes into a deep V.
Add to that, the timing for the pedestrian crossing, and it really doesn’t matter that time is added for the 4 lanes stopped, once stopped. Again, this is simply programming with some state person taking the time to understand this particular light and program it properly.