The Sanatoga Post

Lower Pottsgrove leads the population change among Pottsgrove townships during the next 30 years, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission predicts

PHILADELPHIA PA – It took a decade, from the start of the century through 2010, for Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township to grow by 846 people. It may take 15 more years to add another 917, both according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. But watch out beginning in 2025!; the township may have a real growth spurt – 1,141 extra bodies – through 2040.

Those are predictions – or at least educated guesses – about what’s ahead for the township’s population over a 40-year span. They are based in part on U.S. Census data and researchers’ studies, and were released Thursday (Jan. 26, 2012) by the commission, the agency responsible for land use planning guidance in the nine-county greater Philadelphia area.

The 2010 Census in Lower Pottsgrove showed 11,213 people living within its borders, and by 2010 Census the population had grown to 12,059. By 2015, the commission believes, the township will be home to 12,157; by 2020, 12,434; 2025, 12,976; 2030, 13,517; 2035, 13,870; and by 2040, 14,177. That means 2,058, or 17.1 percent more people, will have moved in between 2010 and 2040.

The commission predicts that, due to the recession, DVRPC forecasts slower population growth in the near term, with an increasing rate of growth between 2020 and 2030.

Among Lower Pottsgrove’s municipal neighbors during the same period:

• Limerick could gain the most people, 5,442, and watch its population rise 30.1 percent.
• Upper Pottsgrove might anticipate an influx of 2,039 people, up 38.4 percent.
• Pottstown borough won’t grow by as much or as fast. The commission expects it to add 1,441 people (6.4 percent more) by 2040. And,
• West Pottsgrove may grow by only 844, or 8.9 percent over 30 years, the forecast said.

“Population forecasts are an essential component of long-range transportation and land use planning,” the agency noted in releasing its results. DVRPC last adopted population forecasts in July 2007 for the period through 2035.

The commission willingly admits its forecasts can go awry.

For example, five years ago it predicted the city of Philadelphia would lose almost 42,000 residents between 2000 and 2010, before seeing its population stabilize after 2030. Instead, the 2010 Census revealed a gain of almost 9,000 city residents. “This positive trend is forecast to continue,” the commission now says, “as young adults continue to be attracted to the urban lifestyle and Philadelphia’s Asian and Latino populations continue to increase.”

Composite map created by The Post from DVRPC data

POTTSTOWN PA – Chalk this one up as a win, at least for now, for the area’s commuting public.

Traffic moves west along U.S. Route 422 at its Royersford-Trappe exit.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) threw in the towel this week on its two-year-old proposal to impose tolls on drivers who use U.S. Route 422 from King of Prussia to the Berks County line as a means of paying for improvements there. The toll plan was heavily criticized from the start, as opponents derided it as a special tax from which they would receive questionable benefit.

“Public and political sentiment told us that people would rather see a comprehensive statewide solution than a local toll,” DVRPC Executive Director Barry Seymour conceded Tuesday (Oct. 4, 2011) on the agency’s 422plus.com website.

A state Transportation Funding and Advisory Commission in August “proposed a comprehensive package to increase funding for transportation infrastructure across Pennsylvania. Support and passage of this package will enable critical transportation improvements to proceed, without a toll,” Seymour noted.

Whether the commission’s recommendations will be fully implemented, however, remains to be seen. So, too, does whether it will generate enough money to allow substantial improvements to 422, which twice daily becomes so choked with traffic that it slows to a crawl.

Although he acknowledged the plan could currently go no further, he also added that DVRPC’s study of the issue – in partnership with PennDOT, SEPTA, and Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties – indicated “a modest toll managed by a local authority could pay for these improvements, and have them in place far faster than waiting for available funds from Harrisburg or Washington.”

In its pages, Seymour added, the study continues to maintain tolls could be a viable way to proceed if the situation on 422 worsens, or if the advisory commission’s suggestions fail to bring in enough revenue.

Those recommendations include shifting some non-roadway expenses taken from gas tax revenues, which are earmarked to pay for highway improvements, to the state general fund; renewing vehicle registrations every two years, and drivers’ licenses every eight; closing some driver license centers; and allowing uninsured motorists to pay a $500 fine instead of having their registration suspended.

As its closing volley on the subject, the partnership released 12 different downloads on most aspects of the project it studied. Among them were:

• Seymour’s cover letter;
• A summary of the study’s findings; and
• The tolling study’s traffic and revenue forecasts.

Other coverage:

• Route 422 study: Tolling may not be best option (The Mercury)
• Route 422 toll plan gets red light, on indefinite hold (Reading Eagle)
• Official: Tolling Feasible But Not Solution (Pottstown Patch)
• Plan to put tolls on Route 422 appears dead for now (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Related (to U.S. Route 422 Corridor planning):

• Route 422 Toll Plan Officially Dead, At Least For Now
• Lawmakers, Editorials Press On Transportation Funding
• Chamber Presents Members’ Forum On 422 Proposals
• Toll Road, Rail Line Deal Announced … NOT For 422
• Candidates Criticize DVRPC Toll Info Position
• On 422 Toll Plan, DVRPC Fights Information Requests
• Notebook Worthy (U.S. Route 422 Forum Edition)
• Drivers will subsidize new rail line in 422 tolling plan
• Agendas Abound Tonight At 422 Forum In Royersford
• Quigley Seeks Crowd As Source Of Comments On 422
• State Road Tolls A Future Funding Solution, Official Agrees
• Report Expected To Suggest Law For Road Toll Authority
• I-95 A Big Problem; 422 A Solvable Problem (With Tolls)
• Even With Tolling, 422 Might Be Free (For A Few Miles)
• County Candidates Brown, Castor Oppose 422 Tolling
• Quigley, Other Reps Questioning 422 Tolls Proposal
• 422 Toll Proposal Wins Some PA Commission Backers
• Exec Highway Group To Hear Rt. 422 Tolling As ‘Model’
• 422 Questions Answered, For Your Viewing Pleasure
• In 422 Tolling, Planners Say, Studying Doesn’t Make It So
• Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
• Online Survey Seeks Opinions On Local Road Congestion
• 422 Plus Project Plays Offense With FAQs Debut
• Peering Into The Future? Gov’s Bridge Proposal And 422
• Another Township Endorses 422 Master Plan
• Neighboring Limerick Supervisors Endorse 422 Master Plan
• Understand 422 Plan Endorsement, Lower Pottsgrove Advised
• Lower Pottsgrove Holds On 422 Plan Endorsement
• Engineers Claim PA Roads Worse Now Than In 2006
• Tuesday Session Tackles Funding For 422 And Elsewhere
• Tolls, Lower Pottsgrove Station Part Of 422 Plan
• Pending Decision May Affect Route 422 Projects
• Last Day For Your Say On Route 422 Plan
• Notebook Worthy (Aug. 24, 2009)
• Consultants Express Interest In Studying 422
• Don’t Like 422 Tolling? Website Wants Your Alternative
• Truckers Alerted On Highway Partnerships Bill
• In 422 Debate, Time A Hindrance And Help
• Notebook Worthy (June 29, 2009)
• Growth, Planners Say, Is 422’s Growing Problem
• Tech Used To Draw For 422 Meetings
• Route 422 Toll Meetings Next Week
• 422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday
• 422 Proposal, Like Traffic, Creeps Ahead
• Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It
• Train Service On The Front Burner Once More

POTTSTOWN PA – Community leaders want to know what you’d do if you were in charge of growing the local economy. What changes would you make? What businesses would you attract? Where you locate new merchants, and why?

Your chance to tell them arrives Sept. 8 (2011; Thursday), when the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee conducts a public meeting beginning at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of Pottstown High School, 750 N. Washington St., Pottstown PA, to ask for comments and input on helping to grow commerce across the greater Pottstown area.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

The committee includes representatives of Lower Pottsgrove, Douglass, East Coventry, New Hanover, North Coventry, Upper Pottsgrove, and West Pottsgrove (PA) townships as well as the borough of Pottstown. During the spring it hired a Maryland-based economic and planning consulting firm, TischlerBise, for a market assessment and fiscal impact study intended to determine how townships can encourage economic development without competing against the borough.

TischlerBise has already surveyed local consumers and business owners for their thoughts; the meeting will be the latest means of fact-finding among constituencies the company may not have yet reached, Montgomery County planner Darlene Wynne indicated in an e-mail Thursday (Sept. 1, 2011). “We are looking to get the word out to as many people as possible and invite them to attend,” Lower Pottsgrove Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott added in an earlier e-mail.

Refreshments will be served during the meeting. For more information on the study or the event, call Wynne at 610-278-3748.

Related:

• Sept. 8 Public’s Chance To Guide Economic Discussion
• What’s Your Take On Growing The Local Economy?
• Survey Now Looks For Local Business Owners’ Opinions
• Wanted: Your Opinions On Where And Why You Shop
• Study To See If Townships, Borough Can All Prosper

POTTSTOWN PA – All things considered, Barry Seymour acknowledged last week, he’d rather talk about Interstate 95 through Philadelphia than U.S. Route 422 across its western suburbs.

Montgomery County Planning Commission Assistant Director Leo Bagley, foreground, and DVRPC Executive Director Barry Seymour, during last week's presentation

“I-95 is easily the most congested highway in our area,” Seymour, executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), said Wednesday (June 22, 2011) in a presentation about 422 made to greater Pottstown public officials. I-95 needs the most improvement, he noted, and would cost the most to fix, but likely would have the greatest positive impact on area traffic conditions once solved.

Creating a local tolling system to fund repairs for I-95, however, in the way the DVRPC has suggested imposing tolls on 422, won’t happen any time soon, if ever. “Establishing tolls on an interstate is a very different process,” Seymour said with a subtle smile, as Pennsylvania learned last year when it proposed tolls on I-80, a move rejected by the federal Department of Transportation.

More improvements could be made to Routes 309 and 202, even though a substantial amount of work has already been completed on those roads. The Schuylkill Expressway, also an interstate highway facing the same tolling difficulties, is blocked on one side by a rail line and developments and on the other by the Schuylkill River. It lacks the room to be expanded.

That leaves 422, Montgomery County Planning Commission Assistant Director Leo Bagley chimed in. It’s a twice-daily car-choked, limited-access highway where problems will only worse with each passing year, he said. “We can identify a package of improvements that will make things there substantially better,” and without tolls “there are not a lot of other choices” for 422, he added.

“Tolling is the last resort,” confirmed Chester County planner Natasha Manbeck, from a seat at the back of the Borough Hall room where the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Commission was meeting.

The prospect of charging motorists more than $2.50 for a one-way trip over 422 from King of Prussia to Amity upsets some area residents and elected representatives alike, Seymour agreed. “It’s not easy to get from free to paying for something,” he admitted, “but you’ll be paying for certain improvement.”

“Otherwise, the problem’s not going to go away,” Bagley said, “and there’s no other money to fix it.”

Related (to the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee meeting of June 22)):

• I-95 A Big Problem; 422 A Solvable Problem (With Tolls)
• Even With Tolling, 422 Might Be Free (For A Few Miles)

Related (to U.S. Route 422 Corridor planning):

• I-95 A Big Problem; 422 A Solvable Problem (With Tolls)
• Even With Tolling, 422 Might Be Free (For A Few Miles)
• County Candidates Brown, Castor Oppose 422 Tolling
• Quigley, Other Reps Questioning 422 Tolls Proposal
• 422 Toll Proposal Wins Some PA Commission Backers
• Exec Highway Group To Hear Rt. 422 Tolling As ‘Model’
• 422 Questions Answered, For Your Viewing Pleasure
• In 422 Tolling, Planners Say, Studying Doesn’t Make It So
• Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
• Online Survey Seeks Opinions On Local Road Congestion
• 422 Plus Project Plays Offense With FAQs Debut
• Peering Into The Future? Gov’s Bridge Proposal And 422
• Another Township Endorses 422 Master Plan
• Neighboring Limerick Supervisors Endorse 422 Master Plan
• Understand 422 Plan Endorsement, Lower Pottsgrove Advised
• Lower Pottsgrove Holds On 422 Plan Endorsement
• Engineers Claim PA Roads Worse Now Than In 2006
• Tuesday Session Tackles Funding For 422 And Elsewhere
• Tolls, Lower Pottsgrove Station Part Of 422 Plan
• Pending Decision May Affect Route 422 Projects
• Last Day For Your Say On Route 422 Plan
• Notebook Worthy (Aug. 24, 2009)
• Consultants Express Interest In Studying 422
• Don’t Like 422 Tolling? Website Wants Your Alternative
• Truckers Alerted On Highway Partnerships Bill
• In 422 Debate, Time A Hindrance And Help
• Notebook Worthy (June 29, 2009)
• Growth, Planners Say, Is 422’s Growing Problem
• Tech Used To Draw For 422 Meetings
• Route 422 Toll Meetings Next Week
• 422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday
• 422 Proposal, Like Traffic, Creeps Ahead
• Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It
• Train Service On The Front Burner Once More

DVRPC Exeutive Director Barry Seymour spoke Wednesday to Pottstown area planners

POTTSTOWN PA – If U.S. Route 422 ever becomes a toll road – and regional planners agree, currently that’s a big “if” – local commuters, those traveling within just one or two interchanges on the limited-access highway, may not be required to pay a fee for that privilege.

One of the most-often cited complaints about the prospect of tolling 422, a proposal being explored by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), is that area residents would have to dole out a couple of quarters or more to drive just a few miles from their homes to reach area shopping centers or other routine locations.

Right now they make that trip over 422 for free. They still might, even if tolls are imposed, DVRPC Executive Director Barry Seymour told the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee last week (June 22, 2011) during its monthly meeting at Pottstown Borough Hall.

Tolling 422 continues to appear to be the best way to create a large, locally controlled fund to significantly improve the transportation corridor between King of Prussia and Reading PA, Seymour explained, despite the fact that both area residents and state legislators criticize the idea. “There was a lot of heat shed on the project” last week, as a result of a lawmakers’ press conference, “but not a lot of light,” he said.

Depending on where gantries are erected to electronically collect tolls (there probably would be three such towers, Seymour said), it would be possible for motorists to enter 422 at an interchange beyond one gantry, exit before the next collection point, and never be charged a fee.

Of course, the exact placement of the collection points themselves, like almost everything else related to the tolling proposal, is likely to also be contentious. West Pottsgrove representatives on the committee made that clear in discussion following Seymour’s presentation.

“If there are other ways to do this,” gathering enough money that does not rely on increasingly scarce state or federal financing to help relieve morning and evening commuter congestion on 422, “it’s still very much a wide open discussion,” Seymour acknowledged. “We’re looking for your suggestions.”

Those who believe, however, that declining gas taxes or PennDOT funding should be enough to accomplish the $750 million work DVRPC expects will be needed to fix 422 for the foreseeable future, are only kidding themselves, he added.

Related (to U.S. Route 422 Corridor planning):

• Even With Tolling, 422 Might Be Free (For A Few Miles)
• County Candidates Brown, Castor Oppose 422 Tolling
• Quigley, Other Reps Questioning 422 Tolls Proposal
• 422 Toll Proposal Wins Some PA Commission Backers
• Exec Highway Group To Hear Rt. 422 Tolling As ‘Model’
• 422 Questions Answered, For Your Viewing Pleasure
• In 422 Tolling, Planners Say, Studying Doesn’t Make It So
• Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
• Online Survey Seeks Opinions On Local Road Congestion
• 422 Plus Project Plays Offense With FAQs Debut
• Peering Into The Future? Gov’s Bridge Proposal And 422
• Another Township Endorses 422 Master Plan
• Neighboring Limerick Supervisors Endorse 422 Master Plan
• Understand 422 Plan Endorsement, Lower Pottsgrove Advised
• Lower Pottsgrove Holds On 422 Plan Endorsement
• Engineers Claim PA Roads Worse Now Than In 2006
• Tuesday Session Tackles Funding For 422 And Elsewhere
• Tolls, Lower Pottsgrove Station Part Of 422 Plan
• Pending Decision May Affect Route 422 Projects
• Last Day For Your Say On Route 422 Plan
• Notebook Worthy (Aug. 24, 2009)
• Consultants Express Interest In Studying 422
• Don’t Like 422 Tolling? Website Wants Your Alternative
• Truckers Alerted On Highway Partnerships Bill
• In 422 Debate, Time A Hindrance And Help
• Notebook Worthy (June 29, 2009)
• Growth, Planners Say, Is 422’s Growing Problem
• Tech Used To Draw For 422 Meetings
• Route 422 Toll Meetings Next Week
• 422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday
• 422 Proposal, Like Traffic, Creeps Ahead
• Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It
• Train Service On The Front Burner Once More

HARRISBURG PA – A proposal to bring tolls to U.S. Route 422 between King of Prussia and Reading was unveiled Monday (June 6, 2011) before Gov. Tom Corbett’s Transportation Funding Advisory Commission and, possibly to the consternation of local opponents, won praise from several public officials, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported.

“This is a model for tolling. This is definitely state of the art,” Commission Chairman and state Secretary of Transportation Barry Schoch told his colleagues. No commission member voiced opposition to the 422 proposal, The Independent noted.

“The 42-member commission in August is expected to provide Corbett with funding proposals for the state’s decaying transportation infrastructure, which the state has said requires an additional $3.5 billion annually to be restored and maintained,” The Independent said. The 422 tolling plan was presented as an idea that could be enabled statewide, so other local governments could do similar projects.

• Read an article by reporter Jim Panyard, titled “422 tolling plan gets no opposition from transportation commission” and published Monday by The Independent, here.
• See an Adobe Acrobat document that is a copy of the slide show presented to commission members. It was released Monday at the 422Plus Project website.

Related (to U.S. Route 422 Corridor planning):

• 422 Toll Proposal Wins Some PA Commission Backers
• Exec Highway Group To Hear Rt. 422 Tolling As ‘Model’
• 422 Questions Answered, For Your Viewing Pleasure
• In 422 Tolling, Planners Say, Studying Doesn’t Make It So
• Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
• Online Survey Seeks Opinions On Local Road Congestion
• 422 Plus Project Plays Offense With FAQs Debut
• Peering Into The Future? Gov’s Bridge Proposal And 422
• Another Township Endorses 422 Master Plan
• Neighboring Limerick Supervisors Endorse 422 Master Plan
• Understand 422 Plan Endorsement, Lower Pottsgrove Advised
• Lower Pottsgrove Holds On 422 Plan Endorsement
• Engineers Claim PA Roads Worse Now Than In 2006
• Tuesday Session Tackles Funding For 422 And Elsewhere
• Tolls, Lower Pottsgrove Station Part Of 422 Plan
• Pending Decision May Affect Route 422 Projects
• Last Day For Your Say On Route 422 Plan
• Notebook Worthy (Aug. 24, 2009)
• Consultants Express Interest In Studying 422
• Don’t Like 422 Tolling? Website Wants Your Alternative
• Truckers Alerted On Highway Partnerships Bill
• In 422 Debate, Time A Hindrance And Help
• Notebook Worthy (June 29, 2009)
• Growth, Planners Say, Is 422’s Growing Problem
• Tech Used To Draw For 422 Meetings
• Route 422 Toll Meetings Next Week
• 422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday
• 422 Proposal, Like Traffic, Creeps Ahead
• Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It
• Train Service On The Front Burner Once More

Photo from The Independent

POTTSTOWN PA – Public opinion, maybe as much as consumer spending, could make the sluggish local economy flourish once more … or, at least, that what Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township and several surrounding municipalities hope.

The township this week on its website officially issued its call for local residents to participate in a study intended to determine how Pottstown, Lower Pottsgrove and their neighbors can grow their own economies without robbing business life from the borough. A survey that is part of the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee’s regional market assessment and fiscal impact study is now available online.

• Take the survey, which can be completed in several minutes, here.

Most survey questions ask about local residents’ shopping habits: what they buy, how frequently, and where. They ask about out-of-home dining, too, as well as about home ownership and future lifestyle changes. Survey answers are anonymous and confidential, and no personal identification is required.

The study is being funded, in part, by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and is being supervised by Montgomery County. Its results will depend on “a significant amount of public input through interviews, focus groups, surveys and public meetings,” according to county Community Planner Darlene Wynne.

The migration of businesses, particularly retailers, from Pottstown to its more residential neighbors like Lower, Upper and West Pottsgrove has been an increasing source of irritation to Pottstown Borough Council.

Committee members generally agree it’s in the area’s best interest to focus on the borough as an economic center. In recent years, though, more commerce has left the borough’s boundaries to be closer to desirable traffic in the townships. The study hopes to find ways to counteract future changes.

Related:

• Wanted: Your Opinions On Where And Why You Shop
• Study To See If Townships, Borough Can All Prosper

Photo from Google Images

How do area townships attract business, while continuing to recognize Pottstown as the TriCounty region's economic center?

POTTSTOWN PA – How does Lower Pottsgrove- or any one of the seven townships surrounding the borough of Pottstown PA – encourage economic development inside its borders without, at the same time, competing against the borough itself? The Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee hopes to find out from a “regional market assessment and fiscal impact study” due to get started this month (June 2011).

The study has been a discussion topic for months among members of the committee – Lower Pottsgrove is represented there by township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliot – and various groups at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) in Philadelphia. The commission recently agreed to pay for part of the research in its amended 2012 budget. The study will be managed by Montgomery County planners John Cover and Darlene Wynne.

The committee also consists of Pottstown, East Coventry, North Coventry, Douglass, Upper Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, and New Hanover townships. All want to see their municipalities prosper. All want their commercial tax bases to grow. For the most part, all say they believe economic development should be centered on the borough, given what commission documents describe as “its vacant industrial sites and struggling urban core.”

The market assessment portion intends to “identify ways in which all municipalities within the region can collaborate to attract new economic development” that satisfies their varied financial needs, DVRPC was told in May.

No one anticipates the task will be easy, Elliott acknowledged to Lower Pottsgrove’s Board of Commissioners. Some Pottstown officials are still bristling over what they contend were efforts last year that encouraged retailers from shopping centers on State Street and Shoemaker Road to relocate from the borough to the nearby Upland Square complex on the west side of Route 100.

That happened despite a long-held committee philosophy to try and keep businesses bound to Pottstown.

Lower Pottsgrove itself seemingly has potential conflicts with conclusions the assessment might draw.

• It currently is investing millions of dollars in sewer system upgrades that, in part, will make it possible to attract more commercial development – which otherwise might go to Pottstown – to its side of the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

• During April, the township staff presented a list of vacant commercial properties within Lower Pottsgrove that board Vice President Bruce Foltz ardently wishes it would help market to outsiders. Commissioners as a whole so far have declined to act on Foltz’s request, but he’s made it clear his “main objective is to get business into the township,” board minutes show.

The second half of the coming study focuses on the fiscal impacts of attracting businesses to any municipality. “All development has economic costs,” DVRPC notes; it expects the research “will assess those costs on municipal finances and on the transportation infrastructure, both near- and long-term.” References to transportation surely will include 422 itself, the main thoroughfare that cuts east to west across the region, and its possible future as a tolled highway.

A Maryland-based economic and planning consulting firm, TischlerBise, has been selected by DVRPC to conduct the study.

Related:

• Study To See If Townships, Borough Can All Prosper

Illustration from Google Images

POTTSTOWN PA – If you’re tired of the speed-up, slow-down, stop-then-go hassle that is a regular feature of commuting on U.S. Route 422, maybe a chance to win one of five $50 Amazon.com gift cards is what you need to perk up your day. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission hopes so.

Have you seen these? The DVRPC wants to know

The commission continues to plan the future of the portion of four-lane, limited-access highway that stretches west from King of Prussia to Reading PA. It wants commuters to know more about and consider using “mobility alternatives programs” like public transportation and carpools, so it created a survey to ask drivers for their opinions on the topic. The gift card lottery is being offered an as an incentive to participate.

Survey questions focus on marketing brochures and other components of promotional campaigns intended to encourage commuting alternatives. While not 422-specific, the brochures address some concerns often voiced by motorists: the availability of emergency rides home, environmental consciousness, and time wasted in traffic lines. The creators of those items want respondents to describe how they can be more effective.

They online survey is short; it takes about 5 minutes to complete. Those interested in an opportunity to be one of five respondents who win a gift card for Amazon, one of the world’s largest online retailers, need supply only an e-mail address.

• Find the survey here.

Brochure photos from DVRPC

PennDOT Expressway Patrol trucks like this one are common sights on U.S. Route 422 and other major local highways

PHILADELPHIA PA – When area highways get backed up, it’s often due to one of two reasons: traffic is heavy, or an accident occurred … and sometimes accidents occur because traffic is heavy, which only complicates the snarl.

Clearing traffic incidents more quickly, while keeping responders safe, is the subject of a conference being held today (Tuesday, May 10, 2011) at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

More than 150 police, fire, emergency medical services, towing, and other highway-related personnel from Pennsylvania and New Jersey are expected to attend the day-long event, according to Communications Manager Elise Turner of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Montgomery County emergency dispatchers and police chiefs from several county townships will be among them, Turner said.

Its agenda promotes “the need for cooperation and a unified incident command structure so that responders can perform their jobs efficiently, and most importantly, safely,” Turner said. Part of the day involves what she called an “emergency vehicle placement training” intended to demonstrate principles of emergency traffic control and scene management.