HARRISBURG, Pa. — It's been nearly two years since the City of Harrisburg completed its transformation of North 2nd Street from a three-lane road to a two-way residential street, and while officials say it has slowed traffic, accidents are still on the rise.
According to PennDOT, between 2022, when the multi-million dollar project was completed, and 2023, accidents along the road increased by 63 percent. But Matt Maisel, communications director for the City of Harrisburg, said reducing accidents was never the goal.
According to Maisel, "Vision zero was not meant to eliminate crashes. It's meant to eliminate serious injuries and deaths as a result of crashes."
The 2nd Street transformation project is part of the city's Vision Zero program, which aims to eliminate fatal crashes and serious injury crashes by 2030.
According to PennDOT, there has been just one fatal crash and five serious injury crashes on 2nd Street between Forster Street and Division Street since 2018.
While the city is focused on preventing more serious crashes with traffic calming measures, Maisel says, "Yes, we would love to see there being absolutely no crashes, but we know crashes are inevitable. What we really wanted to eliminate was this speedway mentality that 2nd Street was for 50 years."
By replacing traffic lights with raised crosswalks and roundabouts, Maisel says the city can keep traffic flowing at reduced speeds, which in turn helps residents feel safer in their community.
Maisel expressed another goal of the project was to "give residents of 2nd Street their neighborhood back, to make this feel like an enjoyable place to live."