April 6,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, at the Wednesday Council meeting ,Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser spoke at length on the addition spaces at the train station . Rutishauser suggested some compact car parking spaces to add more spaces . He also said the new plan would involve the planting of more trees at the train station then currently exist.
The Village engineer also suggested moving the Ridgewood Bus Station to the Train Station Property and claimed a net increase in parking spaces would amount to 38. (28 at Train Station and 10 more at Van Nest Square ).
The advantage would be more (10) spaces CBD parking near Van Neste Square, and buses would travel on Franklin ave instead of East Ridgewood Ave . The current bus station is in need of repair and has been a point of contention for the Ridgewood Police department.
According to New Jersey Transit over 900 people take the bus per weekday,300 on Saturday and 100 Sunday’s . There are 6 bus routs the 163,164, 175, 722 ,746, and 752 . On a typical weekday there are 301 bus movements through Van Neste. With peak movement being 7:30-8:30 am (38) and 6:00-7:00 pm (21).
Rutishauser assured the council the cost would be around $300,000 .
The council peppered the engineer with questions on traffic congestion and traffic flow at the Train station as well as Franklin Ave. They asked about the impact of new previously approved development coming to the Central Business District which will add to Franklin avenue traffic. The discussion also veered to returning the Gerber square streets back to their original two lanes .