Surprise, surprise. Lower Macungie Township, the place where almost everyone drives wherever they go, has a major section that is almost completely walkable. About a quarter of Lower Macungie residents live in a walkable community! Who knew?

Lower Macungie is a place where thousands of people can walk or ride bikes on walkways to a drug store, grocery store, state liquor store, medical and dental offices, banks, churches, convenience stores, restaurants and other merchants and services.

 
But wait, there’s more!.

In fact, this walking system is almost complete in connecting walkers on Sauerkraut Lane from Route 100 to Brookside Road, and from Sauerkraut Lane up Mill Creek Road to Mill Creek Spur and up Willow Lane all the way to Route 100 at the Macungie Wawa, with only one more road crossing to be installed.

Residents in the neighborhoods of Ancient Oak South, Legacy Oaks, Penn’s West and Brandywine behind Willow Lane School are prime users of this walking system. And the neighborhoods of Brandywine near Sauerkraut Lane, Brookside Farms, Fairways at Brookside, Penn’s Meadow, Brookfield and Winding Brook Manor are connected to this walkway system. And at the far reaches of this walkway system are Danfield Run, Spring Ridge Crossing, Graymoor, Beaumont at Brookside, Village of Farmington, Farmington Hills, Farmington Hills III, Spring Creek Village and Ancient Oaks West. Ancient Oaks West is probably the farthest place from the shopping area on Route 100, near the Wawa in Macungie, at 21/2 miles, a distance not many people will walk very often though it is in bicycle range.

Why are walkways like these important? More and more people are resisting the idea of living in a community where no one is out walking and where everyone goes almost everywhere in a car. Cars are quite anonymous. Walking communities are friendlier, better for our health, better for the environment and safer. In fact, walkable communities help people feel connected to their neighbors and help them enjoy their lives here. Walkability makes a neighborhood a place where people want to live. Neighborhoods where walking is not encouraged probably contain a lot more lonely people.

And the health considerations of walking could not be more important. Health experts say every adult should walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week, and children should double that time to 60 minutes a day, seven days a week. That is the minimum we should all do to prevent diminished lives in the future because of physical problems.

Walking helps avoid diseases like diabetes, depression, dementia, breast and colon cancer, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety and osteoporosis. The idea is to prevent these problems, rather than treat them once you have them. Walking may also contribute to improved mood, improved sleep, improved bowel habits and stronger muscles and bones. And you look and feel better. Wow, what a great idea!

Property values in these areas may be increased because people want to live in walkable communities. Some older people are leaving our township, with many of them relocating to communities where they can integrate walking into their daily lives, such as walking to the coffee shop and drug store.

And today, young people, who in general are less likely to possess a driver’s license, drive 25 percent fewer miles per year than older drivers. Those young people will not buy homes or rent apartments in one of our car-only neighborhoods in the township. So when older people are selling and younger people are not buying in unwalkable parts of the township, homes might stay on the market longer before they sell and property values are likely to drop.

Thanks to our township staff, commissioners and planning commission members for good planning and creative problem solving to make this whole system mostly paid for by developers and grants.

The last pieces of this system to be installed are a curb cutout at Village Lane and a crossing across Willow Lane near the Wawa in Macungie to connect the existing walkway on the northwest side of Willow Lane to the existing walkway in front of the Wawa on the southeast side of Willow Lane. These are expected to be completed later in 2014.

So get out and walk now for health, for fun and to make your community a better place to live. To make the rest of Lower Macungie Township a walkable community, find out more at sites.google.com/site/lmtwalkways or Google “LMT Walkways.”