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 .
Not sure the objection to moving the bus stop. Seems like a great idea to me. Centralize the transit hub and create more net parking. Seems like a win-win.
Always knew the bike lane thing would end up being ripped out for a total waste of incredible amounts of money. It was stupid, stupid, stupid and should not have happened. With traffic at an all-time high and worse expected, you don’t reduce the width or number of lanes at the main east-west/west-east thoroughfare. Train tracks cut the town in two a century ago and our options for movement are limited. Why limit them further? What a dumb, counterproductive, wasteful idea that was.
Adding buses to that small area of tight turns, and with Franklin about to be used more than ever, would be insane. Just no on that. Meanwhile move or disband the farmer’s market–it has vastly outgrown available parking. Van Neste would be better, or somewhere less central.
Traffic is terrible in the area of the train station after Chris ” Bike Lane ” Rutishaser redesigned the area now he is going to bring busses and more commuters to the area. I would like to know his plan for the busses when they reach the end of Franklin Ave? Do they make the turn on to Maple Ave and then turn onto Ridgewood Ave. He said last night he has an alternate plan for the busses to get to Ridgewood Ave. Well what is it “Bike Lane” ? Redesigned the area, spend in excess of three hundred thousand (Cost overruns not included) all for the sake of commuter parking.
this was thought about in the 90’s back during the cigar squad days they wanted to get the busses off east ridgewood ave and the bus station out of the cbd to the train station and make rwd ave a one way and franklin ave one way in the other direction.
Buses already run through the train station/Franklin area dont they? At least 163 and 164 do. Not sure about the other 2 lines. The issue would be when they are parked there as at the bus station now. I dont really understand the plan but I love the idea of moving the bus station there and getting the buses off of Rdw Ave. Nevertheless whatever is done you still need to also build a parking garage.
164 goes to midland park
Looks like the mayor wanted to spend some small amount of money to redraw parking lines at train station. Someone tagged his big idea on top of it to make it a 300k project. He is always looking for ways to get businesses for his buddies from Washington township.
Mark my words, this 300k project is going to go to a contractor from Washington township and a tree company from Hawthorne.
A centralized “transit hub” might work for Hoboken, but Ridgewood is better served by having the bus and train stations physically separated because it helps distribute the traffic better.
Yes, what 12:39 said!!