September 18,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, on Sept. 26th at the Ridgewood Public library the library in conjunction with the Village of Ridgewood ,the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce and The Ridgewood Guild will hold a forum titled, Moving Forward Together: Fostering a Pedestrian Friendly Community.
The event is designed to help us create a more connected and vibrant community. Numerous organizations are collaborating on this effort. The forum with take place from 7-8:30pm .
This event will be followed by a second event which is a village-wide, month-long walking initiative that will take place during October titled Walktoberfest. Guided walks are being scheduled to entice residents to learn more about our village and its businesses. There will be historic, architectural, food, fashion, beauty, parks, interfaith and municipal building tours available. Please watch for promotional materials and emails throughout the coming weeks.
Bull S”T. It can’t be ped friendly with drivers Speeding and Staring down at their phones. Also with new multifamily housing complexes coming it will be even more car crowded. All the council does is ENCOURAGE CAR traffic with cutting away the islands at the train station for even more cars, and less foot space and building a parking deck. HEY, I don’t know , but I’ve been told that there comes a time when you SAY enough is enough to vehicle congestion. And the law is NOT being enforced sufficiently about phone use and driving. It’s a difficult law to enforce. They should ban phones in cars, period. Phones should be legally confined to trunk of car. Real sad future: as far as I am concerned best food experience in Ridgewood is that Sunday Farmer’s Market and that will be destroyed once the walkways disappear when they cut away the island.
Is this a joke? Seriously does anyone feel safe crossing ridge wood, franklyn or Godwin avenues? There is no enforcement as drive speed up and try to take out pedestrians in cross walks. Sidewalks around the village and schools are blocked with cars parked on them, bulk pickup items or yard waste put out a week early, and many covered in rocks from the growing number of illegal make your own driveways. Ridge wood is far from pedestrian friendly and based on recent trip and falls, I would say dangerous.
Go visit Glen Rock and compare driver behavior with what you see in Ridgewood. Ridgewood has a car culture problem and a road design problem. Almost all drivers in Glen Rock respect the pedestrian crossings. Few Ridgewood drivers stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks or those waiting to cross. Oddly enough, more drivers stop for me when I am walking my dog than when I am walking alone or with my wife. The same is true for kids. Too many drivers ignore children on their way to and from school, which is very dangerous, especially when students try to cross Linwood or Glen (other streets could just as well be added, but I am less familiar with the problems there).
The pedestrian crossings in Glen Rock are clearly marked (unlike Ridgewood’s). The main street in Glen Rock is also wider than Ridgewood Ave, with narrower sidewalks. The wider streets give drivers better visibility. That said, the attitudes of drivers in Ridgewood is very different than that in Glen Rock. We have a cultural difference between superficially similar towns, and R
Why not hire a reputable specialist to create and propose a well-designed pedestrian circulation system? How many lectures and talks does this group need to have before they realize it’s a scope beyond their league.