the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, PSE&G work in Ridgewood is causing major traffic impact for the Ridgewood and makes the central business district almost inaccessible.
As previously posted on this blog a Traffic Alert “beginning Friday 7/8/16 W.Glen Ave will be closed between Oak Street and Upper Boulevard while PSE&G continues their gas main replacement project from 7am to 4pm Monday through Friday for approximately 2 weeks as the crew works through the train trestle. This will have an impact on traffic traveling west and east through Ridgewood. Traffic will be diverted to the Franklin Ave Underpass for cars. Trucks will be diverted to Wyckoff Ave in Waldwick due to height restrictions. Officers will be deployed to critical intersections to assist the traffic flow. Please plan an alternate route if possible.”
Hopefully PSE&G is paying the overtime for police stationed at Frankin and North Broad, Franklin and Oak, and Godwin and West Ridgewood.
I think they made it worse when they closed some side streets to prevent cut through traffic.
Open the side streets. I have never heard of public roads being closed because the residents did not want cars driving on them. I live in Ridgewood too.
Closing side streets for no reason will cause drivers to doubt the closing of streets for real emergencies.
Yes, PSE&G is paying for the police. Just imagine how bad it would be without them.
Yes, get rid of the green bike lanes and restore the crucial car lanes we lost between the Franklin Avenue underpass and West Ridgewood Avenue. Ridgewood went soft-headed in the recent past, which included getting caught up in the so-called “traffic calming” trend. What was this, an effort to reduce traffic “incivility?” We need to sharpen our thinking again and start doing what’s right for Ridgewood residents.
The streets are not closed. They are for local traffic only…if you are headed home to me that is local.
That underpass needs to be re-opened, the safety committee wiped clean, and we need a real safety/speed czar.
The worst “traffic calming” device of all has been to close major arteries and create gridlock at many intersections in town. That only leads “road rage”: more speeders, this time on cut through/side streets and more dangerous road conditions. There are simultaneous posts on Facebook right now about speeders on side streets and gridlock in town…this is not a coincidence people!
Lastly, look at towns suck as Westwood, Waldwick and kenilworth nj. The police presence is so great, and ticket writing so frequent that drivers brake as they enter town. Our PD, or citizens if need be, should study and employ their practices here because road safety is a major issue for everybody.
Open the roads.
I live on the east side and cut through those streets all the time I consider that local traffic
Have a little patience people. You like the gas to be there when you turn on your heat.
Yesterday’s traffic was much better at 3 pm going through town.
A Ridgewood police officer was manning the light next to Ken Smith, allowing a longer light at the intersection.
LOL @ blaming the bike lane. If the traffic is backed up all the way to Lincoln, adding another lane for three hundred feet isn’t going to solve the problem.
One of the things I like about Ridgewood is that there are no street level railroad crossings like Glen Rick has. The trains have no impact on traffic. As a trade off, there are only three crossings: Ackerman, Franklin and Glen. When one is closed off, it is a major inconvenience. Unfortunately, we’ll have to deal with it. Well, you will. I’ll be on LBI for the next week or so.
Where are the extra duty cops that are supposed to be protecting Ridgewood residents from PSE&G? Sitting in their depreciating, air conditioned Village cars, using Village fuel, and talking on Village cellphones? Why don’t they pull the extra duty work on foot or bicycle?
@8:25 and @ 9:10, the bike lane is part of the problem absolutely. As you say, there are 3 crossings. Does it make any sense to you whatsoever to purposely narrow one of those arteries, thus eliminating 25% of the capacity? It makes needed repairs that much worse and that was easy to foresee. And there have been perhaps a handful of bikers at best that use it.
Again, larger problem is that gridlock at all of our intersections is creating dangerous speeding on through streets all over town.
People you will only be inconvenienced for two weeks get over your self importance. As for speeding in town it all comes down to needing more enforcement not just an empty patrol car sitting on some street, get out of the cars and write the tickets.
Another great idea would be to add hundreds or thousands more cars for apartments and a monster garage! That will also ease the traffic!
@10:26, this is not about inconvenience or self importance. This is about public safety and we all should be fed up with the speeds at which people fly around to avoid traffic snarls in other areas.
From the second I heard about the removal of a lane in both directions at our most central and important underpass I knew that the entire boondoggle would eventually be ripped out. Of course when Aronsohn hears about it he will cheer because it will just mean another huge construction contract. Unfortunately, they widened the central median and added a bunch of fancy light poles, so all that will have to be replaced as well, because restoring two lanes in each direction now would make them even narrower than they were before, and it was always tight, with that sharp angle and huger and huger cars/vans/SUVs, not to mention buses and trucks. The whole thing was an unconscionable waste of money that defied logic from day one. Electrical workers can remove the distracting and hideous electronic announcement sign while they’re at it. Let’s get this done within the next year despite the cost, because it’s essential.
12:12 the deconstruction costs and traffic delays will be too much. Dont make a bad situation worse. Let it be a reminder to keep a close watch over city hall. We have a great group now
PSEG PASSES ALL COSTS TO TAX RATEPAYERS STOP THIS BS BABYSITTING Set up a cone lane and be done
The closing of Glen Ave is unavoidable. The cones and confusing detours are adding to the traffic jam. I drove theough the local traffic roads. I am a Ridgewood taxpayer.
Why are so many roads closed? Why would you want to force drivers onto Franklin Ave? Franklin and the feeder roads were backed up. The closing on Glen should not have caused this situation.
When they were doing work on Ridgewood Ave a few years ago we had busses driving down our narrow road. They did not force cars to go on Linwood, Glen or Grove. It was crazy but once the work was done things went back to normal. The folks who live near the Glen Ave construction need to suck it up. Take one for the team.
I don’t know if it is the bike lane causing the traffic snarls. But things are really bad.
What will the downtown be like with high density housing? Do they think that we are that stupid – to think that the new residents will all be walking and using public transportation? Things will only be much worse.