The deadliest stretch of Allentown for pedestrians is on the city’s east side, where a single-family home neighborhood and high school meet a highway-like thoroughfare.
On Union Boulevard near the intersection with Irving Street, cars often whiz by well over the 35 miles per hour speed limit and sometimes turn right on red without looking out for pedestrians on the corner. Lines meant to mark pedestrian crossings are faded, the buttons pedestrians press to indicate they intend to cross do not work, and there is no pedestrian traffic light at all.
It’s the deadliest area in Allentown for pedestrians — four pedestrians have died within roughly a five-block radius over the past 10 years. Residents who live in that area say that crashes happen frequently on their doorstep and they often see drivers failing to adhere to traffic laws.
Across both Allentown and the United States, the numbers of pedestrian deaths are increasing, reaching near all-time highs. Nationally, more than 7,500 pedestrians were killed by drivers last year, the highest since 1981.
In Allentown, pedestrian deaths also appear on an upward trend, with five people killed in both 2022 and 2023, and three so far in 2024.
What makes being a pedestrian so dangerous in Allentown, and what can be done to fix the problem?
The numbers
According to data obtained by The Morning Call via a Right-to-Know request, three pedestrians have been killed near the Union Boulevard and Irving Street intersection since 2014.
It is the deadliest area for pedestrians in Allentown, and there are a few things that make the neighborhood so dangerous.
First is that both roads are major city thoroughfares — Union Boulevard connects Bethlehem to Allentown, and Irving Street connects the city to Airport Road, a major highway shopping district that lacks pedestrian infrastructure, and northern suburbs such as Hanover Township.
The roads are wide and have two lanes of traffic in both directions — four total — making it daunting to cross as a pedestrian.
But perhaps most importantly is that the area is not just a shopping and driving district: Side streets of Union Boulevard are lined with single-family homes, and just a block from Union Boulevard on Irving Street is Dieruff High School, with a student enrollment of 1,915.
Neighbors, students and school staff that choose to walk on the sidewalk or cross the streets in their own neighborhood could be putting themselves in danger.
“If everything about the road is telling the driver to move fast, it’s really hard for [drivers] to do that while simultaneously looking out for pedestrians and paying attention to them,” said Vikash Gayah, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State and interim director of university’s Larson Transportation Institute.
Union Boulevard could be described as a “stroad” — a 2013 term coined by American civil engineer Charles Marohn that refers to a type of street/road hybrid.
A street generally is a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare where people drive at safe speeds and pedestrians can easily access shops and residences. Roads are a high-speed connection that efficiently moves traffic. A stroad is a combination of the two, and often comes at the expense of pedestrians.
In essence, it is a high-speed road with many turnoffs that lacks safe pedestrian infrastructure.
“The shortest distance between Bethlehem and Allentown is Union, so those roads see a lot of drivers who are just getting from A to B and in between,” said Scott Slingerland, executive director of the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, a local nonprofit that advocates for biking, walking and public transportation. “Even if they don’t mean to drive aggressively, they are still not thinking about the context that those are neighborhoods.”
The danger
One of the pedestrian deaths in that area that prompted outsized attention toward the issue was that of Angela Yowakim, a 25-year-old paraprofessional who was killed in 2022 while crossing North Irving Street.
Yowakim was struck at 6:42 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2022, at the intersection of Irving Street and Andre Reed Way — one block away from Union Boulevard, and just three minutes before signs and lights would have turned on designating the area a 15 mph school zone.
The driver was charged with careless driving and pedestrian right of way, both summary offenses, in connection with Yowakim’s death. He was driving around 37 mph in heavy rain in a 30 mph zone. (The city has since reduced the non-school zone speed limit to 25 mph on Irving Street.)
Neighbors who live on North Irving between Union Boulevard and Dieruff High School say crashes are a common occurrence right on their doorstep.
In fact, as a reporter stood out the Union Boulevard and Irving Street intersection during an interview with Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk on traffic issues, there was a two-vehicle crash between Union and Andre Reed Blvd on Irving Street. No one was severely injured, but police were called and an ambulance attempted to render care to a driver.
The reaction from neighbors who rushed out of their homes to see what had happened? A resounding “not again.”
“It’s been an issue since I moved in,” said Melissa Kochanasz, who has lived on the block for 23 years.
Neighbors recalled dozens of accidents they witnessed outside their door. Kochanasz said she once held the head of an injured man in her lap as he bled (he survived). Doug Snellen, who lives on the same block, said a car once hit a power line on the street, causing it to collapse.
After Yowakim’s death, the city introduced several safety measures on North Irving Street, including repainting pedestrian crosswalks, installing new signage and reducing the speed limit to 25 miles an hour.
But neighbors say while those improvements helped, crashes and unsafe driving remains a problem. Several said an average of around one crash a month occurs near their doorsteps.
“It’s like a race track,” said Snellen, who has lived on the block for eight years.
They say people turning onto their street frequently do not respect the speed limit and disregard the signage and crosswalks in place.
“They don’t stop for the kids,” said Tina Alotta, who lives on the same block. “Hopefully something changes. The school is right there.”
The solutions
Increasing pedestrian deaths are not just an Allentown problem. Nationwide, more pedestrians are dying in roadway accidents every year.
Part of the problem comes down to enforcement Tuerk said — citations and fines for people who choose to drive recklessly and put other people in danger.
But the “stroad”-like design of Union and Irving plays a role too, because drivers are used to traveling at fast speeds on that road. Changing the road design can incentivize safer driving.
The city is looking at several changes to dangerous parts of the city where speed limits are exceeded. Generally, municipalities looking to be more pedestrian friendly will repaint and install flashers indicating a pedestrian crosswalk, as well as “bump outs” at the crosswalk so that pedestrians have a shorter distance to travel in order to cross the street.
Other traffic calming measures include lane narrowing, speed bumps and roundabouts in place of traffic light intersections.
Though the city made safety improvements on Irving Street following Yowakim’s death, Union Boulevard and Airport Road are state-owned. Sean Brown, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said the state agency takes a “data-driven” approach to making roadway improvements. PennDOT collects and publishes crash data on its website which can be searched via the “custom query tool.”
According to Brown, PennDOT does not currently have plans in the works to add pedestrian safety improvements to the Union Boulevard and Airport Road area, but they could be included in the city’s “Safe Streets for All” comprehensive plan, which will be finalized later this year.
The city earlier this year also secured a federal grant to make improvements to Hanover Avenue, not far from the Union and Irving intersection, which would reduce the road to one lane of traffic in both directions with a central left turn lane and bike lanes.
The city’s lofty goal is to achieve “Vision Zero” — a moniker that indicates the city aims to have no pedestrian accidents by 2030. City Council officially adopted a resolution in January committing to the goal.
Yet, is it realistic, when Allentown — and the United States — are moving in the opposite direction?
“If we are going to have a goal, our goal has to be zero. Is that a goal that will be achieved in my lifetime? Probably not, but it’s the only goal worth having,” Gayah said. “The problem is that it’s a very complex problem, where you have drivers moving at high speed. Driving is a very complicated task; we almost take it for granted because we do it every day, and we take the responsibility lightly, unfortunately.”
Tuerk acknowledged that achieving zero pedestrian deaths could take years beyond 2030.
Regardless, the city is putting resources toward addressing pedestrian safety.
Allentown is soliciting feedback from residents: Visitors to the city’s Safe Streets for All website can mark on a map a specific change they want to see, from bike lanes to crosswalks to lowered speed limits, and include specific written comments and suggestions.
The city will then take that feedback to formulate a comprehensive plan, and submit an application to the federal government’s Safe Streets for All program later this year.
It will take several years and millions of dollars to make Allentown safer for pedestrians — an investment that city leaders say is worth the time and effort.
Tuerk has spoken personally about losing two close friends to car accidents, and as a frequent jogger and biker throughout the city, said he at times has worried for his own personal safety and that of his family.
“This is a long-term effort, but I think it’s doable,” Tuerk said. “It’s something our residents care about.”
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com
