West Chester, Pa October 19, 2022 – Planning assistance is coming to Oxford Borough to build a more accessible, walkable, and bikeable community state Senator Carolyn Comitta announced today. 

The borough was awarded $25,000 in funding through WalkWorks, a program managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center in partnership with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to equip more communities with safe and accessible walkways and develop community-level transportation plans. 

“As Oxford borough continues to grow as a popular destination for families and businesses, it is important that we have an inter-connected and accessible system of transportation,” Comitta said. “This assistance will go a long way to improving access to essential services, support active recreation, and enhance the overall health and well-being of Oxford residents.” 

With this funding, Oxford Borough will develop a comprehensive Action Transportation Plan. Community leaders will work over the next year with professional transportation and community planners to collect data, assess current conditions and aspirations, and incorporate public input to improve pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks.   

“It is important to us that the municipality be responsive to concerns about pedestrian safety, and that the Borough provide infrastructure to support non-vehicular modes of transportation,” Oxford Borough Manager Pauline Garcia-Allen said. “An Active Transportation Plan will provide the framework for how we prioritize, fund and execute projects and policies that enable and promote walkability, bikeability and ADA accessibility in Oxford.” 

Oxford Borough was one of eight Pennsylvania municipalities to receive the award.  

The grant recipients were selected from a competitive pool of high-quality applicants by a multidisciplinary review team that included representatives from DOH, the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and their Local Technical Assistance Program, DCNR and the Department of Community and Economic Development. 

 “Pennsylvanians deserve safe transportation access no matter how they travel,” PennDOT Acting Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation Andy Batson said. “This initiative recognizes and invests in the unbreakable link between community connectivity and our citizens’ health and mobility.”

 

For more information about WalkWorks visit www.health.pa.gov