CRANBERRY TWP — Earlier this year, plans were made to add a crosswalk to a busy intersection.

On Sunday, a 77-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and killed crossing the road at that junction.

The township expects to complete the $750,000 update to where Route 19 and St. Francis Way intersect — which includes a crosswalk and pedestrian crossing signal on the north side of the intersection — by February.

But when Thomas Jarzab of Oil City, Venango County, crossed from the Cranberry Mall to the east side of Route 19 on Sunday, there was no signal, nor was there a crosswalk. The only sign across the road was one prohibiting crossing the street.

Jason Kratsas, the township's director of engineering and environmental services, said Cranberry has an annual goal of increasing pedestrian infrastructure, in part to prevent incidents like this from occurring.

“Pedestrian safety and pedestrian connectivity is a big priority,” Kratsas said.

To that end, the township has aimed to increase the number of sidewalks since its 1995 comprehensive plan. After developing that plan, the township updated its ordinances to require new developments to install sidewalks within the neighborhoods and on roads the property abuts.Don Henshaw, director of planning and development services, said residents joked at the time about “sidewalks to nowhere.” By 2019, however, Cranberry had more than 200 linear miles of sidewalks installed.The township, too, installs sidewalks, making it a priority as it plans other projects, Kratsas said. During road improvements, or even road-opening water line repairs, the township tries to install walkways where possible.“Our projects treat pedestrian and bicycle facilities as integral to the project as pavement and the road itself,” Kratsas said.Every year, Cranberry also examines “missing links” — areas between sidewalks or places pedestrians may want to travel that don't have formal walkways.“We have a scientific way of finding our missing links and assigning priority,” Henshaw said.Assigning values based on draw — parks and retail draw more from residential neighborhoods than other residences — helps the township determine where to put sidewalks and crosswalks. Cranberry goes beyond its scientific method, too, by examining where people want to walk with a simpler tool: the eye.Dirt paths in the summer or more heavily packed snow in the winter is an obvious sign of where people want to walk, Henshaw said.Sidewalks are relatively inexpensive, Kratsas said. He estimated one foot of sidewalk costs the township $35 to $60. They can also calm traffic, something necessary for more expensive crosswalks.

Part of pedestrian connectivity is the ability to cross roads, highlighted by the Sunday fatality.There are, however, additional considerations when installing crosswalks, Henshaw said. Price point is one of them.Even at the lowest cost — painting the road, adding lights and installing signals on existing poles — a signalled crosswalk would cost the township $40,000 to $50,000. Purchasing and installing the new poles ups the cost, as in the $750,000 St. Francis Way project.Lighting is a necessity in putting in a crosswalk, Kratsas said, for two main reasons. The first — and most obvious — is so motorists can see pedestrians enter the crossing. Even at intersections where all vehicles have red lights, that is important, he said, because drivers may not see a pedestrian while they are turning right on a red light.The second reason is to help create the expectation that pedestrians will cross there.“If motorists are not expecting to see a pedestrian, that's not a feasible point,” Kratsas said.There are other infeasible spots to put crossings, too, Kratsas said. One of them is at the intersection of Route 228 and Cranberry Woods Drive, where they would have to cross seven lanes to get to the other side of the street. Even then, though, the township has a bypass in the MSA Thruway.Traffic calming measures, like more sidewalks, can lead to the expectation that pedestrians will cross at an intersection, Kratsas said. They have the added benefit of slowing traffic to lower the likelihood of collisions, with pedestrians or other vehicles.According to Kratsas, the design of intersections, too, can affect whether pedestrians can safely cross. Roundabouts, for example, are safer because traffic is at a lower speed and pedestrians cross only one lane at a time.The point of all these measures, Kratsas said, is to lower the risk of car-on-pedestrian accidents and increase Cranberry's walkability.