Mt. Airy community comes together to call for traffic calming amid fatal crashes

MOUNT AIRY - Community members in Mount Airy are pleading for life-saving traffic efforts in their neighborhood. It comes after three deadly wrecks in the area, just over the past few months.

Close to 100 people came out in the sweltering heat Sunday because they are fed up with property destruction and innocent people killed because of reckless driving on and around Lincoln Drive.

Anne Dicker, with the West Mount Airy Neighbors Association Traffic Calming Committee, pointed to states from a pilot speed camera program on Roosevelt Boulevard that issued 30,000 speeding tickets in its first year and only 2,000 in its second.

"We need a traffic safety audit," Dicker said. "We absolutely need to redevelop the plans for Lincoln Drive. Secondarily, we need speed cameras. Speed cameras would instantly decrease the speed. We know if you decrease the speed, you will decrease the fatalities."

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Francis Kilson lives over at Lincoln and McCallum. He said he has 16 metal poles in front of his yard, and six of them have been hit the last few years.

"It’s comparable to being on the Autobahn or being in Cabo," Kilson said. "Cars are racing at 60 to 70 miles an hour. Someone was killed a few weeks ago at Lincoln and Emlen Street."

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Several elected officials either sent members of their office, or listened in via Zoom to the meeting.

Sidney Ozer’s 17-year-old son Samuel was hit and killed on Henry Avenue near Lincoln Drive while riding his bike home in 2020.

"HB140, a state house bill, needs to be passed in its original format so that we can have protected bike lanes," Ozer said. "Right now, protected bike lanes are not generally permitted in the state of Pennsylvania. Samuel would be alive today if there was a protected bike lane or a recreational trail on Henry Avenue."

They are hoping the decision-makers hear their voices and take action to make the streets safer.

The West Mount Airy Neighbors Association Traffic Calming Committee will be doing a walk audit for Lincoln Drive on September 11th.

To learn more about them click here.