LehighValleyNews.com asked readers for input for The Road Ahead, our latest project examining local traffic and road safety. They rose to the challenge and shared their takes on road design, traffic patterns, driving trends, public transit and more. Each week, The Road Scholar will review some of the concerns driving Lehigh Valley motorists. Comments from readers have been edited for grammar, space and clarity.
I have been all over the world in the military. I get excited when I reach Routes 22 and 33 to see my mountains. I was born here. Then I look down and the trash is unbearable. I am embarrassed to say I now live here. You could build at least three cars from all the parts along the road. And the trash! Let's help make PA beautiful again! — Cynthia S.
I've been covering Lehigh Valley transportation a long time, but I don't recall getting many questions about litter in the past.
But I've gotten more complaints about it in the past month than almost any other topic.
I fired some questions about trash collection to PennDOT District 5 Press Officer Ron Young. He was prepared, and sent back a lengthy, detailed response within two minutes.
Clearly, PennDOT gets an earful about litter, and Young said the complaints peak this time of year. Trash tends to collect during the winter, when snow and ice makes cleanup difficult. Road crews and volunteers efforts ramp up once spring rolls around.
Young wrote that PennDOT spends $14 million a year so its personnel can collect litter from more than 40,000 miles of state-owned roads.
500 million pieces of trash
PennDOT crews try to make at least three litter runs on each road every year, but it's a tall order, Young said. PennDOT estimates there are 500 million pieces of rubbish on Pennsylvania roads, he said. About a third of it are cigarette butts, if anyone out there needs more incentive to quit.
Young described littering as a serious problem that reflects poorly on the state. Back in 2018, state lawmakers passed Act 62, which changed the penalty for people convicted of littering.
Along with paying a fine of up to $300, people guilty of littering must also collect litter or illegally dumped trash for up to 30 hours. For repeat offenders, the penalty jumps to fines of up to $1,000 and up to 100 hours of cleanup duty.
But unless litterers dump documents with their personal information on it, it's near impossible to get a ticket unless somebody throws their trash out the window in front of an officer.
Even if you're not doing something that thoughtless, we, collectively, are to blame for the trash strewn about the roads.
Being part of the solution
Sure, there are bad actors dumping old toilets in the woods, but not all the trash is getting there in such dramatic fashion. Much of it winds up cluttering the gutter through innocent means such an overworked parent forgetting their coffee is on their car roof, someone failing to secure their trash can on a windy night or a gust of wind tearing apart a picnic. And when you have 700,000 people living in a two-county area, those honest mistakes can add up.
PennDOT could dedicate more money to roadside cleanup, but I'm not sure that's what people want. Paying more professionals to do cleanup would require either generating more revenue, likely from taxes, or moving funds away from road maintenance and improvements. As it is, the Lehigh Valley alone has $2.6 billion of projects it can't afford to get to in the next 25 years.
So if we are the problem, we will have to be part of the solution. Many of us already are.
Volunteer organizations such as Lehigh Valley Trash Raiders and LV Clean Up routinely go out on weekends to remove mountains of trash from our communities. Many businesses and organizations participate in programs including Adopt-A-Highway (where their members pick up trash) or Sponsor-A-Highway (where they provide funds for clean up). The state also organizes Litter Brigades, where adults required to perform court-ordered community service can chip in.
PennDOT, for its part, provides gloves, trash bags, safety vests and grabbers for events from March 1 to May 31. After that, volunteers will be on the hook for those items and likely landfill space for what they gather. Volunteers also will be more likely to contend with soaring temperatures, ticks and even snakes once the summer arrives.
If you want to do your part, check out Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful. The non-profit runs a community calendar of scheduled cleanups across the Keystone State, making it simple to find one close to home and participate.
Anyone who doesn't see one in their community or targeting a road that needs some love can organize their own; Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful provides tips for that on its website.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Want to be plugged in to all things traffic and transit in the Lehigh Valley? Sign up for Tom Shortell's weekly Road Scholar newsletter and get it delivered to your in-box every Tuesday. Better yet, tell him what you're thinking — or what you want to know — at toms@lehighvalleynews.com.
