Ridgewood NJ, you may notice an increased presence of New Jersey Transit Police Officers during your holiday travels. While New Jersey Transit Police continue to harden and protect the system, they ask that you remain vigilant. Let them know if you see something that doesn’t look right. Text us 24/7 at 65873 or call us at 1-888-TIPS-NJT (1-888-847-7658).
Ridgewood NJ, the agenda of the Village Council noted ,”Award Professional Services Contract – Feasibility Assessment for the Ridgewood Indoor Firearms Range” , has created much consternation by parents who clearly are watching too many reruns of “law and Order” during lock down.
Ridgewood NJ, Coach USA, one of the largest passenger transportation companies in North America, announced a new alternative commuting solution, Custom Commute. In the wake of COVID-19, employers are developing plans to return their employees to the workplace while protecting their health and wellness, especially within transit-dependent urban centers like New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta where social distancing on public transportation may be a challenge.
First – add the damn spaces at the train station right away. What is the delay???
Next – cancel the garage. Repave that lot and re-stripe it, reduce the access~egress curb cuts to just one or two. This will add a ton of spaces.
Next – reduce the cost of commuter parking passes. It is ridiculously high now (but not as high as Voigt had suggested when he laughingly said it should be $1500 because the people in Ridgewood could afford it).
Next – put parking at the lot behind Ben and Jerry’s where that old garage was. Plenty of space there and only a two block walk to the train station.
Next – make the meters stop at 6 PM once again. 8 PM is way too late. Also, please have FREE parking on Saturdays throughout the year.
The Midtown Direct train ride through certain Essex County towns straight into Penn Station (34th street) in Manhattan remains the gold standard for NJ residents. It’s tough for Ridgewood to compete with that, even though we do enjoy the most convenient (i.e., combination of short and frequent trips from one train station) train service yo and from the Secaucus Transfer station of any town in Bergen County. Now that the inbound Lincoln Tunnel has been hobbled due to desperately needed road work, the permanent lane shutdown from this road work creates an unavoidable bottleneck that hurts the efficiency of the many Coach USA buses that carry commuters from the Ridgewood Park-n-Ride to Port Authority Bus Terminal (42nd street) in NYC midtown. Hopefully that road work will be completed soon. Also hopefully, all of the West Bergen, Weehawken, Hoboken and Secaucus mayors are very polite to Governor Murphey and his political enforcers during this period of cross-Hudson traffic “difficulties”. Or is that just a republican problem (LOL).
Ridgewood NJ, For years now we’ve heard the Aronsohn administration’s head cheerleader, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, go on at nauseam about the importance of improving parking opportunities in the Village. We’ve listened to Ms. Sonenfeld, Mayor Paul Aronsohn and current Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Presidnet Paul Vagianos proclaim at meeting after meeting why the availability of downtown parking is so crutial to the existence of RIdgewood’s business community. Nothing, they say, is more important to keeping existing Ridgewood businesses alive, and attracting new businesses to the Village, than maximizing parking opportunities. All of us have been led to believe that unless more parking opportunities are created, downtown Ridgewood will eventually become a ghost town.
So I ask, if the availability of parking is indeed so critical to the success of business in Ridgewood, why wasn’t snow cleared from every available parking space in the Central Business District prior to the start of business on Monday? The snow stopped falling at approximately 8 PMon Saturday – Portions of several municipal lots were still snow covered as of 3 PMon Tuesday. Metered parking spaces on Godwin Avenue and on Franklin Avenue were still inaccessible as of 6 PMon Monday. Metered parking spaces on Oak Street were still being cleared on Tuesday morning.
It is certainly understandable that the Village’s first priority was to clear traveled roadways, especially those near schools and medical facilities, and to ensure the safe egress of emergency vehicles in and out of their garages/headquarters locations. I also understand that there are a limited number of Village employees and limited pieces of Village owned snow removal equipment. But why where there no contractors called in to work exclusively on the removal of snow to facilitate downtown business operations, with a target of getting everything cleared out prior to the start of Monday morning business operations? And why weren’t contractor resources directed to remove snow from the Route 17 Park & Ride? Governor Chrisie encouraged commuters to leave their vehicles at home and take mass transit – that’s not easily accomplished if you can’t park your vehicle at a mass transit departure point.
Clearly, someone dropped the ball here. Contractors should have been placed on standby in the event the snowfall was too much for our own employees to handle. And I hope that Ms. Sonenfeld doesn’t use the lame excuse that contractors cost money – we’re prepared to spend over $12 million to improve parking opportunities, but won’t spend peanuts to remove snow from parking places? Give me a break!
I strongly encourage Village officials to be prepared for the next “big one.” Their lack of attention with respect to clearing snow from existing parking spaces suggests to me that all the talk about needing more parking is nothing more than a bunch of rhetoric.
Ridgewood NJ, The town still has not cleared the parking lot at the Ridgewood Park & Ride on Route 17.
Walking from the parking spaces is now to the point of being brutal.The area froze last night and someone is going to get hurt.
Village residents get fined 24 hours after snow ends if not removed from the property.Commuters are now fining the town $200.00 a day for failure to clean the snow within 24 hours and compensation for dry cleaning.
Ridgewood NJ, The Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) is undergoing gate changes in an effort to further improve access and service to all bus customers – those of NJ TRANSIT as well as the independent carriers. This reorganization builds upon the ongoing cooperative efforts of the Port Authority of NY & NJ, NJ TRANSIT and the independent carriers to improve operations, efficiency and the overall customer experience at the terminal.
Building upon our previous initiatives, such as the addition of WiFi service, expansion of MyTix, and the improved reliability of service and reduced wait times during the PM peak commuting hours, further operational improvements are necessary to address congestion in the terminal that often occurs due to multiple carriers sharing common areas of the platform queues.
To enhance operation and control within PABT, carriers will be consolidated into specific areas of the terminal, which will make it easier for customers to find their specific carrier, minimize traffic conflicts and improve flow to alleviate customer congestion on platforms. This will offer a more streamlined experience since most routes and personnel within a given area are from the same carrier.
The reorganization of gates at PABT will further improve on-time performance, resulting in shorter customer queues and wait times in the terminal. It will also offer greater operational flexibility and faster recovery time when delays and disruptions do occur. Please refer to the charts included here to find your new gate assignments.
NJ TRANSIT gate changes effective 9/8/15.
Bus Departures
For information on the Port Authority Bus Terminal and a terminal map, go to https://www.panynj.gov/bus-terminals/pabt-terminal-guide.html
Reader says 1 multi-space pay station at the Park and Ride a Dumb move.
“A pay-and-display method, where a user receives and displays a parking receipt on the vehicle’s dashboard, was also considered but ultimately rejected by village officials. That process requires an enforcement officer to individually survey the parked vehicles, whereas the pay-by-space system allows the officer to examine cars based on the information stored in the pay station.”
1-Pay & display is better from a security & enforcement standpoint. Officer must see every vehicle. Can determine if someone is inside passed out, if inspection sticker is expired, or if break in to vehicle has occurred. Lazy way out is to have one station.
2-One station is no good when people are trying to catch a bus. NJ Transit has more than 1 ticket machine at train station. They are not stupid like the Village.
3-Take credit and debit cards. Cash walks away in employee’s pockets.
4-SOL when machine breaks when only 1 machine.Dumb move.
