November 2,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Police have proposed a removal the of portion of the Bike Path at Garber Square , residents often refer to this path as the “suicide bike lane” because of its poor engineered design and obvious danger to both bike rider and motor vehicle . A July traffic study stated the obvious and suggested a portion of the bike path be removed to ease traffic flow . The portion to be removed is 856 square feet of the green paint to be covered over by black street bond for a mere $7500.
A casual reading of the Ridgewood blog since the bike paths inception would have lead you to the same conclusion for free . The aptly named “Suicide bike lane” was a dangerous disaster from the very beginning and the Village has dodged a bullet with out the loss of life .
However there was some discussion at the end of the meeting that suggests that they may put it on hold. Bernie Walsh is not going to vote to remove it. There may be others who fall into the same boat.
$7500 to cover it up how much did it cost to put down. And all the planning what a waste of money who comes up with this shit .Up top need s to say we messed up we were wrong, We made a mistake we screwed up but they never met their guilt.
What is the source of this news?
Village Council meeting video
I understand the bike lane but all that did was cause congestion with traffic the bike lane is good grow Street maybe Ridgewood Avenue Lynnwood Avenue Glen Avenue Lincoln Ave., Godwin anywhere else no.
$7,500. Sounds like a lot of money for some black paint.
Why would Bernie Walsh be against removal of this idiotic bike lane?
Bike lane from nowhere to nowhere should not have been put in to begin with.
Maybe Christopher “Bike Lane” Rutishauser should spend a couple of Saturday rolling out some black paint to hide his fuck up.
I heard Bernie Walsh’s comments last night and it seems to me that her concerns are related to the safety of bicycle riders if the green is removed. So that’s why I think she’s going to vote NO.
The whole deal was a waste of money from the outset. Drivers never paid heed to the lines. A tragedy in the making. The sooner the better.
I hope they think twice and three times before removing part of the bike lane. Part of a bike lane does nobody any good. Also why are we accepting traffic recommendations from the police? I believe the bike lanes will eventually connect to something… gotta start somewhere.
So many of us cannot believe he still has a job here. From all the harassments shooting his mouth off how he gets away with these things is beyond me. Talk about putting the village in a lawsuit. One day Karma will come around and bite him in the ass.
12:22. Haha. He should along with Roberta !
Do we have to give money back to the state too since it was a grant to build bike lane?
Why not just paint “Welcome to Ridgewood” over it?
The Garber Square project used grant money and then more than tripled the amount to incorporate a bike lane that is dangerous and has narrowed an already congested passage way under the trestle bridge. We all remember when it was 4 lanes no matter how our village engineer wants to use “revisionist history”to defend this fiasco. The bike lane should sport a sign” Use At Your Own Risk. “ Another fiasco: The concrete ramp built at Graydon to make the swimming area handicapped accessible also started from a grant and grew into a project that was not only expensive but is unusable. As predicted, algae has made it slippery to the point that able body people have slipped and no one can report a wheel chair being seen going downt the ramp. It is a hazardous situation that could not only injure someone but result in a law suit against the village. It too should support a sign, “Use At Your Own Risk.” Thank you, Paul Aronsohn.
Why not devote section of the sidewalk that is raised for bikes and just paint over the green in the street? Would be a great project for the boy scouts and would cost considerably less.
The village one scam after another you people should be ashamed yourself so you run a village such embarrassment. I’m glad I moved out now I’m just a neighbor. What a waste of tax money. The CBD is it disgrace look at some of the parking lots some of the roads they haven’t been repaved in over 20 years . You people keep on saying are we can repay the parking lot who that route because it’s in the planning we may knock down the whole block we’ve been hearing it for 20 years stop the bullshit already and repave all the parking lots and some of the side streets look Oak, Passaic, come on already.
Understanding that this will not be popular on the venue, but here is the other side of the bike lane issue. The process started with the realization that the Garber Square roadway needed to be repaved. When last done the asphalt surface was scarified or roughened to give more traction so that the motor vehicles who were speeding around the curves didn’t crash as often. The modern approach to safety now is to engineer the roadway to slow cars down as opposed to trying to find ways to let them go faster, thus making roadways safer for all users. There are engineering standards for the width of traffic lanes which vary according to the speed limit, with the principle being the narrower the lane the slower a driver will go as there is less room for error.
The NACTO Guide (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/lane-width/ ) suggests that maximum lane width be 10’ except on truck or bus lanes and that 11’ or wider lanes (which are the norm currently in Ridgewood) lead to more speeding and other negative consequences.
So if you design the roadway with narrower lanes to make it safer, what do you do with the now extra space? Typically this affords the opportunity to add things like bike lanes or additional median space and even bump outs for pedestrian crossings.
Now another argument is that the new design reduced the capacity of the road as there were sort of two lanes before and now there is one lane with a right turn lane added at each end. If you look , on the east side both Broad and Franklin are one lane roads, as are Ridgewood Avenue and Godwin Ave/Wilsey Square on the west side. Having Garber remain two lanes all the way doesn’t speed things up or increase capacity if the roads leading into it remain one lane. The only change is that fewer cars can be stacked in there waiting for red lights which is an issue only at the busiest times. When the plan was presented I remember people screaming that the line of cars would back up all the way to Midland Park. I would say the changes have been minor. Traffic backs up at 8am, 3PM and around evening rush hour just like it did in the past.
It seems like our Village Council spends more time on issues involving cars than any other issue, between whether or not we need a parking garage, complaints from neighborhoods about commuters parking on their streets all day and the complaints about traffic delays or speeding thru neighborhoods. Instead of trying to find more ways, at great expense, to cram more cars onto our streets we should be looking at ways to allow residents to get around without depending completely on cars. Thru the mid 20th century most children got to school either by walking or riding a bicycle. Now almost 90% are driven to school with the resulting traffic jam in town twice a day. The village and Board of Education have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars widening roads or adding new ones to create drop off areas and we force school administrators and teachers to become traffic cops two times a day. It would be cheaper for taxpayers and much healthier for kids if we stop spending money trying to make it easier to drive to school and instead find ways to make it easier and safer walking and cycling there. The distances are short and the obstacles few.
There are many studies showing that making central business districts more walkable and bikeable increase the economic vitality of the area. Simple google searches will get dozens but here is a general resource about the concept (https://smartgrowthamerica.org/resources/evaluating-complete-streets-projects-a-guide-for-practitioners/ ). In short, if folks are more comfortable walking around downtown, they will stay there longer and spend more.
Right now on nice days 50-60 bicycles are locked up at and around the train station. Improved parking facilities and making their trip to the station easier and safer would increase their numbers which in turn means fewer cars and less fighting about parking spots and garages.
Summing up, I think the problem is we have too few bike lanes in town. Adopting a Complete Streets Plan, and encouraging walking, bicycling and mass transit can do a lot of good for Ridgewood. It can improve quality of life, health of our residents and improve the economic vitality of our village . I am a realist and understand the automobile will remain the dominant mode of transport but if Ridgewood ignores the demographic trends occurring in millennials (lowest rate of car licensing/ownership since WW2) and current trends in planning and street design (https://smartgrowthamerica.org/our-vision/ ) it will become less attractive as a town folks want to live in. My credentials include riding a bicycle about 3000 miles each year and being Board Chair of the largest bicycle safety and education organization in the USA ( https://www.bike.nyc/ ). And by the way, the design of the bike lane meets all current engineering standards and is the safest way by far for a bicyclist to cross from the west to east side of town.
Talk about a story Please enough
Dear Mr. Diamond, The problem in Garber Square is that it is really dangerous for bikers and pedestrians. Biikes used to use the sidewalk and often walked their bikes in that locatiom. No one is using the bike lane now except the cars. While bilking and walking are better for the people and the environment, not all areas are conducive to both cars and bikes. Garber Square is one of those areas.
Narrowing car lanes may have been a good idea 30-80 years ago but so many SUVs and vans are on the road now, not to mention the trucks and buses that drive under the overpass, that we need WIDER lanes, not narrower ones, which make this driver feel the opposite of “calm.” PAINT OVER THE GREEN LANE, break out the widened barrier and make it narrower, and send the bill to P. Aronsohn, who perpetrated this, the idiotic Graydon ramp, and many other boondoggles for his own benefit.
Leonard – lots of words to “add gravitas” to a series of conjured up assumptions and desires in an attempt to force a narrow vision of “utopia” (which really translates to a state of misery) upon the “ignorant masses”.
No amount of words changes the fact that forcing an artificial reality upon the people does not change actual reality (nor the will and actions of the people).
7.26 is absolutely correct Paving upkeep completely mismanaged to other fun political imagining.. what if projects and vote buying priorities.
village street surfaces & muni lots..( where visitors asked to pay ) and upkeep is a disgrace..Imagine what visitors think about where RIDGEWOOD is and where it’s going..never to late to shift to responsible governance ..
Where is the man with a lantern in the night? Presumably Ridgewood is filled with intelligent people. Would someone please prove that to be true?
Thank you Leonard Diamond for the thoughtful response. The Anonymous replies here are from trolls who won’t even give their names. I applaud your efforts and would like to help with the effort you describe of making Ridgewood a walking and biking friendly town. As it stands now, downtown Ridgewood is probably the most dangerous place I ride.