The “Road Diet” Reaches Dickinson

The traffic calming measures are designed to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.

April 15, 2011

In the short term, the changes have the potential to cause some confusion for motorists and pedestrians alike, so use extra caution when crossing the street—and when driving or riding your bike on High Street. Please pay careful attention to traffic control and signs, and when driving, do not cross the line, cones or barricades.

Work has commenced on the West High Street portion of the “Road Diet,” the section that runs through Dickinson’s campus between Cherry and West streets. Starting this week and extending into May, lane markings are being removed, new ones installed, and renovations are underway to improve sidewalk accessibility for people with disabilities.  

Once completed later this spring, the project will feature five-foot wide bicycle lanes on each side of High Street—a move that is in keeping with the commitment by the college and Carlisle Borough to sustainability and active living. And with drivers limited to one lane in each direction on High and Hanover streets with a center lane for turns, the downtown will be a safer environment for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists alike. The plan also calls for the use of decorative stamped asphalt on the center lane through the Dickinson campus.

The “Road Diet” will encompass High Street from Cherry Street to South Spring Garden Street (at the Weis store), and South Hanover Street from High Street to Noble Blvd. near the Interstate 81 interchange.

“The project will provide a calmer roads-cape that is more in keeping with our college and downtown Carlisle,” said Dickinson College President William G. Durden.

Carlisle received full funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the $2.8 million road diet. Dickinson contributed more than $50,000 toward traffic surveys of the High Street corridor. 

See an artist’s rendering of the completed project from an earlier article.