Philly Bike Action is calling on the City of Philadelphia and Montgomery County to expand walking and biking facilities on both sides of the Green Lane Bridge, including at least an 8’ sidewalk and an 11’ shared use path.
The Green Lane Bridge Rehabilitation Project is a rare opportunity to reinvision this historic bridge as a safe, accessible connection between Manayunk and Bala Cynwyd, but the current proposals for this project will make a dangerous bridge even worse, especially for people outside of cars.
The City of Philadelphia and Montgomery County have presented two alternatives for reconfiguration of the Green Lane Bridge, both of which would remove both sidewalks in exchange for wider traffic lanes and just one shared use path. This would worsen safety for all users, especially people walking and biking, while increasing car traffic, pollution, and noise. Neither Manayunk nor Bala Cynwyd was designed to function as a highway interchange. The historic Green Lane Bridge is not the place to accommodate heavy highway traffic, especially when there is already another interchange at City Ave 1.5 miles away.
Philly Bike Action is instead proposing a road diet for the Green Lane Bridge, which would include a wider 8’ sidewalk on the south side of the bridge, an 11’ shared-use path on the north side, and 3 lanes of traffic - two westbound (leaving Manayunk) and one eastbound (entering Manayunk). Our proposal would be a significant safety improvement for all users, safer than current conditions and much safer than the alternatives presented by the project team.
Why not just use the Manayunk Bridge instead? (The car-free bridge above Green Lane, which connects to the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.)
The Manayunk Bridge is great! But every street should be safe for all users - we don’t get to say that because this bridge is safe, this other bridge doesn’t have to be. The Green Lane Bridge provides a much more direct connection between Manayunk and Bala Cynwyd, without the climb. Walking from Green Lane and Main Street to the Wawa on Belmont Ave takes only 7 minutes on the Green Lane Bridge, but that would be a 40-minute journey - including some steep hills - for a safe trip on the Manayunk Bridge instead.
Traffic already gets backed up on the Green Lane Bridge, all the way up Green Lane. Wouldn’t a road diet make traffic worse?
Nope! Two westbound lanes provide the same capacity as there is now for drivers in Manayunk to get to Bala Cynwyd and I-76. One eastbound lane would calm traffic entering Manayunk, making what is currently a chaotic intersection at Main Street and Green Lane much safer and more manageable. This is especially important when traffic is light, as drivers can pick up speed crossing the bridge and enter the historic streets of Manayunk at dangerous speeds. The project team’s alternatives would make this worse, as wider lanes make it easier to drive faster. Our proposal would calm traffic entering Manayunk, preparing drivers for speeds that are much more appropriate for a walkable, historic neighborhood.
Widening the traffic lanes would induce demand - wider lanes would encourage more drivers to use the Green Lane exit from I-76, which would increase congestion, and there is nowhere for increased traffic to go. Main Street and Green Lane each have just one lane in each direction, and they cannot be widened.
Our road diet proposal would reduce demand, decreasing traffic entering Manayunk. For drivers on I-76, the City Avenue interchange is just as effective for driving into Manayunk and Roxborough as the Green Lane exit. If increasing highway exit capacity is the goal of this project, City Avenue is a much more appropriate place than the historic Green Lane Bridge.
That said, reducing traffic congestion should never be any planning agency’s top priority. The safety and accessibility of all users is far more important than saving drivers a few minutes of sitting in traffic.
I don’t see many people walking or biking across the Green Lane Bridge. Isn’t one shared use path enough?
You might not see many people outside of cars on the Green Lane Bridge today because it is not safe for people outside of cars. This project is a rare opportunity to make a safe, accessible, surface-level connection between these two communities. Our proposal would make the Green Lane Bridge safer for all users, and that would encourage more people to walk and bike across the bridge.
No one wants to have to cross four lanes of traffic, but a single path would make that a requirement for nearly all users. With a single path, walking from downtown Manayunk to destinations on the south side of Belmont Ave would require crossing four lanes of traffic twice, introducing many unnecessary points of conflict, compared to just staying on the same side of the bridge as your destination.
There’s currently no sidewalk under I-76 on the south side and not many destinations on the south side of Belmont Ave. Is a sidewalk on the south side of the bridge necessary?
Planning should always look to the future, and a more walkable Belmont Ave is a real possibility, something decision-makers should be prioritizing. A safer Green Lane Bridge would facilitate a more walkable future for Belmont Ave. Removing the sidewalk would severely hinder that possibility and make Belmont Ave more car-centric. The lack of a sidewalk on the south side under the highway is a solvable problem, potentially through a future Belmont Ave road diet.
This might be the only time the Green Lane Bridge is reinvisioned in our lifetimes - so let’s make sure it’s done right!
I support the expansion of walking and biking facilities on both sides of the Green Lane Bridge, including at least an 8' sidewalk and an 11' shared use path.
Recent comments...
"I have family that live in this area who bike and would greatly benefit from this infrastructure. I also live in NW Philly and bike and would love if I were able to have better access to the other side of the river there."
"Please make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to use this bridge."
"We use the bridge to walk to/from Manayunk most days of the week, especially for SEPTA use"
"It's a shame when both drivers and pedestrians completely avoid an area of the city because the roads are dangerous and frustrating. This is absolutely what has happened at Green Lane Bridge. I primarily walk around Manayunk while my partner primarily drives, and both of us actively avoid Green Lane Bridge because of the congested intersections. I am so glad that action is being taken to improve the area and make it safer for everyone!"
"We definitely need safer streets that encourage walking and all types of micro-mobility. The original designs make more room for drivers to sit in traffic while making travel outside of a vehicle more hostile. As the society moves towards more e-bikes and alternative means of transport we should be future-proofing out redesigns when the once in a lifetime opportunity comes to make these improvements. My family frequently travels between Bala and Manayunk, so it would be an incredible opportunity to make biking and walking more viable, safe, and pleasant. Better pedestrian and micromobility paths would help connect our communities, while additional car dependent infrastructure would do the opposite."
"I ride my bike to Philly from Penn Valley. From 2017-2022 I did it almost every day. That bridge is the most dangerous part of the ride--not just to me but to the pedestrians who have to dodge all the bikes (for whom there's no room on the road, and are forced onto the sidewalk). Plenty of people cross that bridge on foot and bike. It needs better facilities for walkers and cyclists."
"My family and I often walk over to manayunk from Belmont hills and use this bridge. It’s an essential part of connecting the 2 neighborhoods"
"I use the Green Street Bridge to walk to the Manayunk train station for my work commute and grabbing a coffee with my wife on the weekends. Rerouting pedestrians to the Cynwyd heritage trail would make my commute time significantly worse and put an end to my weekend trips to Manayunk with how much longer it would be. I also use the bridge to access to towpath for running, moving to the other bridge would drastically increase my interactions with cars with more intersections that need to be crossed just to get to the towpath. Making more space for peds/bikers would make the bridge much safer."
"I often walk this bridge to visit friends when taking the Manayink SEPTA line, and I also use it to access the Towpath to run. It would be horrible to a LOT of pedestrians to remove this."
"I love walking to Manayunk to run along the Schuylkill river trail or grab a coffee, and I always take the Green bridge when I walk over. Without a sidewalk I wouldn’t ever go to Manayunk because taking the Bala Cynwyd heritage trail more than doubles the walk time. My husband also uses the Green bridge to get to the train when he commutes to work so increasing that time would be a big problem for his mornings."
"My family lives in Belmont Hills and one of our favorite things about the neighborhood is easy walking access into the city via the Green Lane bridge. We use it regularly to walk to businesses on Main Street, the canal path, and to get onto regional rail at the Manayunk station. Please keep the bridge pedestrian friendly!"
"This improvement is needed."
"I would love to be able to use the Green Lane Bridge for a more direct connection from my home to Northwest Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the route is completely unsafe. By adopting the plan to extend walking and biking facilities on the bridge, a whole new safe travel corridor would be opened up!"
"As a Roxborough/Manayunk resident it is so important to me that our roads be safe for all, including pedestrians and cyclists. Walkability is a key reason I live in this neighborhood and enjoy it. I will support anything that makes traffic safety and more modes of transit more possible."
"I support walking and biking facilities on both sides of the Green Lane Bridge!"
"It’s essential for our bridges to prioritize safety of vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists."
"I support this proposal for a road diet of Green Lane Bridge. Road diets are consistently shown to improve safety."
"I support the expansion of providing for safer walking and riding on the Green Lane Bridge. This plan would encourage more connection for residents of both Belmont and Manayunk communities."
"I strongly support this. I have personally biked along the sidewalk here and it is very dangerous and not inviting to pedestrians and cyclists"
"This is the direct connection between main street Manayunk and the suburbs, and it needs to be safe for all road users. Few places are more walkable in all of the city than Main street, yet the current design would create unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists who want to enjoy this space."
"There's literally no benefit to widening or adding car lanes because everything is bottlenecked by main street. There no capacity to be gained. Instead we should support the latent demand people have to walk and bike safely through their own neighborhood."
"I live in Philadelphia, while my Dad lives in Penn Valley to the north west of Green Lane Bridge. The bridge is the only place where I have to get off my bike because it is so unsafe. Reducing speeds and adding more space to walk and bike would go a long way to making the bridge safer. When cars crash into eachother, they frequently land on the sidewalks or bike paths."
"Especially with the proximity to one of the largest bikeways in the Delaware valley, it is important that such important connections over the river keep non-car options in mind and make it easier to get around the area without the need for an expensive car, especially in such dense areas as Bala Cynwyd an Manayunk ."
"The Green Lane Bridge should be a much safer experience for all. It is often concerning to walk, bike, or even drive over. Additional space for lanes where car drivers routinely ignore the existing lane markings will only make the problem worse. The increase lane width and car travel lanes will not improve but worsen the existing issues. As a local user of this bridge I should be able to safely cross in any method without speeding traffic or unsafe crossings. The PBA proposal represents an incredible opportunity to improve the connection between Manayunk and Bala Cynwyd with safe passage for all bridge users."
