BETHLEHEM, Pa. — If you’ve been around the Lehigh Valley for any length of time, chances are it takes you longer to get from one place to another than it did just a few years ago.
Whether it’s white-knuckling Interstate 78 with 18-wheelers, merging onto an increasingly crowded Route 22 with impatient motorists, or creeping along Route 33 at rush hour, driving around here seems to be — pardon the pun — taking a toll.
A few months back, a Lehigh Valley lawmaker said something that gave us pause. According to state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh, aggressive drivers in the Lehigh Valley are our region’s No. 1 threat to public safety.
Not crime. Not gun violence. Not the opioid epidemic.
Driving — something most of us do every day, multiple times a day.
It’s an issue we’ve decided to explore in detail, and we’re reaching out to you for input.
We at Lehigh Valley Public Media and LehighValleyNews.com have launched a project aimed at Lehigh Valley traffic — how, if and where it's grown and what it has meant for our quality of life.
It seems appropriate to kick off this effort during National Passenger Safety Week, a campaign spearheaded by traffic safety organizations to curb crashes and encourage folks to speak up when they feel a driver isn't being safety-conscious.
Folks in the major metros may chuckle at our gripes and definition of "traffic" here in the Lehigh Valley. It's not exactly the Schuylkill Expressway or the George Washington Bridge.
But for anyone who's driven the kids to the mall or even commuted to work, something has changed. It's not just me, right?
There's more traffic, bigger vehicles and too many close calls. And most days, patience, etiquette and accommodation seem to be in short supply.
It's something we've had a lot of conversations about lately. Now we want you to help us tell the story.
Most dangerous spots. Best times to travel. Places to avoid. Solutions. Tell us what you think.
Tom Shortell is our lead reporter on the project. Suffice it to say he knows his way around the Valley.
Tom's been covering Lehigh and Northampton counties, and transportation issues, for more than a decade. He wrote the "Road Warrior" column in his time at The Morning Call, and he'll be authoring a weekly newsletter that we're launching next week. (You can sign up for it in the module above or at this link on our newsletters page.)
The idea is to take you along for the ride, so to speak — to share what we're working on and nuggets that we're finding thanks to our team and from you.
Yes, we'll publish a series of stories and multimedia to make a splash of it. But that won't come for some time.
In the meantime, if you have a story to tell or a burning question or an idea where we might want to focus, let us know.
You can reach out directly to Shortell by email at toms@lehighvalleynews.com. Or hit us up on social media:
Facebook:LVNewsDotCom
Instagram: @LVNewsDotCom
X: @LVNewsDotCom
LinkedIn: LehighValleyNewsDotCom
Threads: @LVNewsDotCom
We're eager to share what we find and make a difference.
In the meantime, chill out, slow down and let the merging traffic in.
