PennDOT study recommends reducing some Atherton Street travel lanes. What’s next?
The state department of transportation is recommending reducing the number of travel lanes in a section of South Atherton Street in State College to improve safety on the stretch of road, project representatives told the State College Borough Council on Monday.
PennDOT recommended implementing a “road diet” — the removal of travel lanes or the reduction of travel lane widths to create space for other uses — on South Atherton Street from Westerly Parkway to Allen Street, with some roadway and drainage improvements recommended as well.
Between Westerly Parkway and Allen Street, a study recommended reducing the lanes from two travel lanes each way to one travel lane in each way, and adding a 14-foot center turning lane, according to Lou Spaciano, who addressed council Monday as an employee of Verdantas, the lead engineering firm on the project. There is also a recommended shared-use path on one side that pedestrians and cyclists can use.
By reducing the travel lanes and adding a turning lane, Spaciano said it will reduce the number of conflict points for turning vehicles and the severity of crashes.
“From an operations standpoint, by separating a left turn lane, we’re able to get a dedicated area for turning movements. So by that, we also improve side street traffic crossing. They have an area for vehicles to come out, a protected area to turn before merging onto traffic and also reduce speed differential reductions,” Spaciano said. “We have less vehicles turning, stopping traffic, so we keep that speed differential more consistent.”
Council President Evan Myers had concerns about whether the implementation of the road diet would lead to more traffic in neighborhoods if motorists on South Atherton see there is congestion due to reduced travel lanes.
“People might actually start to turn off, not at University Drive, but keep driving down Atherton Street, get somewhat closer and turn off into (and) drive into the neighborhoods if they see a backup, onto Pugh Street, onto Old Boalsburg Road, onto Allen Street, making rights or lefts as they head into town. So, that could also drive more traffic into the neighborhood by people doing that,” Myers said.
But council member Matt Herndon, who lives in a neighborhood south of South Atherton, said given the layout of the neighborhoods, he doubts people would cut through neighborhoods more than once because it won’t save anyone any time.
PennDOT said it did not conduct an impact study on diverting trips in areas outside the road diet, which is expected to tentatively start construction in spring 2028. Myers said it would be helpful to see how many cars might do that. Even a few additional cars driving in some neighborhoods could seem like a lot, he said.
Herndon said he was disappointed that the road diet didn’t extend all the way to University Drive, as that’s where he sees the biggest problem with left turns.
“With those two lanes of traffic, people turning left into the neighborhood, people turning left into the shopping center, and it just creates this moment where, like, you’re in the left lane to go fast, and then, oh, in front of you is someone in the left lane who stops to turn left, and that’s where you have either crashes or near-crashes,” Herndon said. “Living there, I see it all the time. And so I would like it to go further back. I can understand if maybe there’s data that says it absolutely shouldn’t, but that’s something I was hoping to see here.”
There was a lot of support among council members for the shared use path that was recommended as part of the study. PennDOT Project Manager Jared Lapczynski said they’ll work with the Centre County Planning and Metropolitan Planning Organization for funding for the shared use path, and would evaluate continuing the path out to University Drive.
Council member John Hayes supported extending the path, as riding a bike in that area can be dangerous.
“I really support the idea of the shared use path the entire length, because I’ve ridden that stretch on my bike twice and only twice, because if you go a little bit further east, once you get over to by Meyer Dairy there’s a really nice bike path you can pick up there,” Hayes said. “So if you’re trying to ride your bike out to Boal City, it’s quite lovely, except for this exact section where you take your life in your hands, because, let’s just say that the drivers along that stretch are not so friendly when they’re coming in and out of the parking lots. So I think having a shared use path there sounds excellent.”
What’s next?
PennDOT is still in preliminary engineering stages, and it will continue to evaluate a shared use path between Allen Street and University Drive. It tentatively plans to have a final design between spring 2026 and September 2027 and put the project out to bid in August 2027. Construction would then start in spring 2028 and continue until summer 2029.
PennDOT owns the roadway, but it wants to be “good neighbors,” which is why it presented the recommendations to the council. They’ll have additional meetings with the council and a public plans display and presentation of the project before starting final design, but scheduling for the public meetings is still several months away.
