Losing lane will lead to disaster
MAY 23, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014, 1:52 PM
Losing lane will lead to disaster
Ellen McNamara
To the Editor:
Has anyone noticed the recent construction on the approach to the train underpass, heading east toward Franklin Avenue, and wondered how Ridgewood might be improving this dangerous, always crowded curve that is an eyesore in the village? It was just brought to my attention that this road is going to be altered from a two-lane road on each side, to one lane in each direction. This is going to be a disaster.
Our new village manager responded to my friends’ and neighbors’ concerns via email, but this is clearly a done deal. She outlined the plans for the underpass approach, and while I agree a median with trees will improve the look of the road, and a larger corner at Broad and Franklin will improve pedestrian safety there, the traffic that will result from slowing the flow of vehicles into and out of the underpass will surely create a backup of cars in every direction.
Traffic is already awful. Pedestrians are not safe, as drivers circle, looking for parking, or attempt to beat the traffic through town to their daily activities. Traffic backing up on both sides of the underpass will surely lead to road rage.
Apparently, the point of this plan is to create bike lanes. If I were to ride my bike under the train trestle using one of these lanes, what would I do when I reached the other side? Take my life in my hands, that’s what.
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Wilsey & Garber Square Road Resurfacing and Improvements
Click Here https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/engineering/2013WestSideStreetscapeOptionE.pdf
I am all for the current construction change. The current two-lane layout gets too crowded (you said it yourself). People currently switch lanes right now in a moments of indecision or to try and overtake. The new layout will lead to a more orderly flow of traffic, with one good lane in each direction, instead of the two narrow lanes that currently exist.
It will encourage residents to avoid the downtown i already avoid traveling through town. I use Glen or I use Ackerman and Maple. Town is too backed up and dangerous. Pedestrians are crazy.
Maybe the plan is to force more residents to avoid the downtown.
Do you really have such a strength of personality that you can encourage residents in their driving habits?
This plan will most certainly create a traffic nightmare on both sides of town. Mark my words. A typical example of the government spending money on an ill conceived project that only benefits the contractor who somehow landed this lucrative contract.
Through-town traffic can only flow as fast as its narrowest or most congested point. This short stretch, either as it was, or as it will be, is not that point. My conclusion is that this work will have a positive effect. Now, whether the work itself is being done cost-effectively, that’s an entirely separate debate. I suspect, being that public funds at being spent, there will be the usual waste and borderline corruption that always takes place.
Well Declan Harrison, if this is going to have a positive effect, then please explain why drivers are being asked to take alternate routes to avoid delay. The number of lanes open now while the work is being done is the same that will remain in the end. And since the current reduction of lanes has indeed caused delays getting from one side of town to another, that is evidence of more problems to come. Why waste our money to create inconvenience and create what will be a dangerous path for bicyclists? Makes no sense at all. Surely we have more pressing matters to address.
I’ve already laid our my opinion in the fist comment. As for asking people to take alternative routes while the construction is going on, I put that down to Government in action. It’s the standard advice they give out in every road maintenance project. I do, however, think that once all the work is finished, the workers and the equipment is gone, the lanes are nice and smooth, etc., that flow will not really be the same as it is right now.
My only real concern here is the usual banditry that takes place with public works projects. Take for instance the recent paint job at the pedestrian underpass. I forget the sum, but I think it ran into the $200,000 level. It was nothing more than rolling paint over the surface. It is already peeling.
#3 i said that I avoid the downtown. I do not care what you do.
Now that we’ve lived with this so-called improvement for a while, I think all of us agree: It IS a disaster. The traffic piles up, it is poorly designed, we’ve had accidents while the “designers” scrambled to move the post that kept causing side-swipes! Who designed this??? I know who paid for it, and those who did should be considered more when voting in these projects; sadly we saw that again last night.
The one biker I actually saw using the lane came within an inch of losing her life to a njtransit bus trying to navigate the narrow turn. Traffic is a nightmare as predicted.
And we should trust these people with the downtown???