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.
In Ridgewood, there is a belief by many pedestrians of a protected zone as soon as they begin to cross the street. Because of this ‘walk first’ mentality, they endanger themselves, and others, by their reckless behavior. You see them – eyes glued to their phones or blissfully unaware that they’re walking in front of a 2-ton vehicle. For the sake of pedestrian and driver, they should look first, both ways, before proceeding into traffic. That will go a long way in preventable accidents. There will still be obnoxious drivers who don’t adhere to the rules of the road and allow them right-of-way, but a knowledgeable pedestrian will be alive and unharmed if they look and make themselves known.
We have a problem with entitlement in Ridgewood . By both the drivers on all the roads and the pedestrians on E Ridgewood Ave.
Make the police do there job.
What’s really amazing is these nitwits just walk off the sidewalk right into the street without even looking .looking at the grounds. Are you people kidding me, I will never ever teach my kids to do that. What happened to commonsense look both ways before you walk into a street so stupid that Law is given pedestrians the right away, what bullshit. What the hell is going on with this country. Other country see this and laugh at us. I could see having a speed limit on Ridgewood have no 15 miles an hour. 25 on E. Ridgewood Ave. is too fast in the CBD. Holy shit, what is it going to take more people to get killed. For those who have kids don’t tell your kid to walki into the street without looking pretty smart. Thank you, The one that sees it every day.
As both a driver and a pedestrian, I simply don’t buy the crap about pedestrians marching out into traffic without looking and cars having to screech to a stop. Has it happened? Yes, probably, but probably very rarely. What tends to happen is a pedestrian will see that cars are far enough away so that they can begin to cross. I suspect that a lot of drivers simply do not know pedestrian crossing law or simply resent it. Even very mild braking on their part to yield to a crossing pedestrian is viewed by them as arrogance on the part of the pedestrian, and will wildly exaggerate the experience as having to stop on a dime. Harp on all you want about “common sense”, yielding to pedestrians is a legal requirement and if you aren’t focused on this as a driver, be prepared to get a summons or worst still, getting sued for killing/injuring a pedestrian.
New BRIGHT RED Paint on the faded pedestrian cross brickwalks in CBD would stand out better – like they did in Glen Rock. As a driver, you can’t help but notice them!
“As both a driver and a pedestrian, I simply don’t buy the crap about pedestrians marching out into traffic without looking and cars having to screech to a stop.”
You must not drive in Ridgewood.
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Its rampant in the CBD and even worse at RHS.
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“Harp on all you want about “common sense”, yielding to pedestrians is a legal requirement and if you aren’t focused on this as a driver, be prepared to get a summons or worst still, getting sued for killing/injuring a pedestrian.”
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Keep teaching this to your kids… they will DIE an honorable death… they will be RIGHT; the drive will be IN JA
… BUT THE PEDESTRIAN WILL STILL BE DEAD !!!
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Pedestrians need to look, stop, run, retreat, etc etc etc etc… IF THEY WANT TO STAY ALIVE … EVEN IF THE DRIVER IS “WRONG”.
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What EXACTLY do you NOT GET about THAT ???
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For instance on Franklin Ave, it is already a busy street. Cars coming from all directions. I personally find it hard to follow pedestrians on top of busy traffic. The pedestrians are not always visible, esecially with dim street lights at night. I see many cars jamming on the breaks last minute. There should be traffic lights for pedestrians which is more visible to drivers.
I walk in town been doin so for 40 years. Back then the drivers stopped for pedestrians. Now they do not. I will not cross the street if a driver is closer than a half a block away, because they are speeding on local roads. I wait until the driver has stopped or passed by. Ridgewood is not now and will never be a pedestrian friendly town and I will not support the CBD by buying or eating in it. Except for the supermarkets. Period. I’m talkin about speeding on Meadowbrook and Northern PKY, those kind of roads. Crossing Linwood Ave. from Northern PKY, is practically impossible, the cars are speeding and the drivers seem angry. Often on a daily walk , I just give up at the corner of Northern Pky and Linwood and change my route. I used to regularly cross Linwood and walk around Vets Field a few times and then return. Nowadays on Sunday morning sometimes when all you good god fearin people are in church and not in your cars.
While we are discussing pedestrians, they constantly walk behind cars that are backing, or obviously preparing, to back up, When the car hits one, the driver is blamed. What happened to the common sense that used to prevent people walking that way? Also, I have often stopped for a pedestrian only to have the car behind me pass on the opposite side. Several pedestrians have been hit that way. And I am also one who has had to slam on the brakes when a pedestrian–who was not on the corner or near it when I entered the intersection–continues walking while using a cellphone or listening to music and walks directly into the path of my car. Part of pedestrian responsibility is looking both ways BEFORE just walking into the street. That is especially true when not using a crosswalk and entering the street between parked cars.
We (idiotically and emotionally without any regard to actual facts) lowered the speed limit in the entire town to 25mph…. How come then are there MORE accidents after this change?
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Perhaps it could be that 25mph is NOT reasonable so there are a larger number of drivers who TOTALLY IGNORE the speed limit.
If the speed limit was placed at a reasonable and appropriate speed based on the ACTUAL road conditions and accident history – on a street-by-street basis – their would be greater compliance to the posted speed limit. (accidents and speeding went down on US highways after the National 55mph law was lifted).
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Examples of more reasonable speed limits in Ridgewood could be: 35 MPH on parts of North Monroe and Lincoln and Linwood, 30 mph on other streets – 25 mph in school zones and maybe even 15 or 20 mph in the CBD.
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But I guess that would make actual sense and would not produce a feel-good-we-care hashtag policy that can be trumpeted from the rooftops – because that apparently is more important that actually doing the boring work of making people safe and making life pleasant for all residents – both drivers and pedestrians.
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To all you streetwalkers wake up picking her up and take the earbuds out and look both ways before crossing the street. Be smart not stupid bitch all you want but Dietrich it’s common sense. Just Because it’s a Lauren it’s OK just walking to the street doesn’t mean it’s the right lot and it’s common sense. So wake up and get your head out of your ass. Professional driver
I do not buy the “raise the speed limit” argument. The same people who ignore 25 mph limits will ignore higher limits. Perhaps more stringent enforcement, along with public awareness campaigns on speeding and safe crossings would help. When officers forgive speeds of 10 mph over the limit, 35 mph becomes the real speed limit. Speeding on Linwood and Glen Avenues is normal behavior in Ridgewood, but it is very rare to see police out checking. I walk (and drive) past the electronic speed sign in my neighborhood, and regularly see numbers in the high 30’s and even low 40’s, and still some of the drivers do not slow down. All too many of those drivers can be seen with cell phones in hand, including Ridgewood police officers, which is particularly inexcusable behavior. Yes. I have seen this myself on several occasions.
As a pedestrian, I wait until it is safe to cross, but even in areas with signs advising drivers to yield to pedestrians in cross walks, few drivers in Ridgewood do so. Indeed, some speed up when pedestrians enter the crosswalk. I have had a dozen consecutive cars drive past me as I waited to cross before one driver politely (and legally) stopped, only to have drivers traveling in the opposite direction continue.
How do we change the attitudes of the large percentage of drivers in Ridgewood who ignore pedestrian crossing signs and laws? How do we get more of those people to recognize that they would be protecting the lives of their friends, neighbors, and family members by demonstrating respect for the law as well as common courtesy?
Richard – you are thinking with emotions, not facts. that is why you do not “buy” the argument…
And Anonymous offers no information, just insults.