Car Crash on Babcock Boulevard Injures Cyclist

Babcock Boulevard at Thompson Run Road.

On June 30th at 7:30 PM, a cyclist was hit and injured by a driver at Thompson Run Road. It is unclear at this time if either party did anything unsafe or illegal.

Babcock Boulevard is a two-lane arterial road in Ross Township. It is mainly fronted by commercial parking. There are no sidewalks or bike lanes. It sees nearly 16,000 cars per day, making it one of the busiest roads in the township. There are no planned projects for the road in the regional transportation improvement program (TIP). It is a state road maintained by PennDOT District 11.

Like most arterial roads, there is a mismatch between the functions of Babcock Boulevard. According to the Institute for Road Safety Research, the frequent drivewalks and, in some cases, parking accessed directly from the road, suggest an access function, while the high speed limit suggests a distribution function. These two functions are incompatible, which is what leads to this, and similar roads, being inherently unsafe. In terms of bicycle use, sharing a lane with trucks going 35 miles per hour is far from safe.

Criteria for determining bicycle facilities based on speed and cars per day. From Copenhagenize (2018).

Copenhagenize provides a simple classification for how to determine what bicycle facility is most appropriate for a road based on speed and the number of cars on an average day. In the case of Babcock Boulevard, the 35 miles-per-hour speed limit and 16,000 cars per day suggest a buffered bicycle track or trail. While putting it parallel to the road would conflict with all the driveways, it might be possible to build a trail along Girty’s Run, which parallels the road behind the buildings on the south side.

This crash comes after another crash on January 13 that killed Elizabeth Griser as she was walking home from work. The lack of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure combined with the high speed creates an inherently unsafe road that needs to be fixed.

Babcock Boulevard is maintained by PennDOT District 11, who will only make changes to a road after receiving a request from the municipality in writing. To contact Ross Township about making that request, contact Township Manager Ronald Borczyk by phone at 412-931-7055 or email at rborczyk@ross.pa.us; and Board of Commissioners President Daniel DeMarco at commward1@ross.pa.us.