Thank you Lisa.
One glaring error in the article is that the turn at the intersection of Broadway and Dutch Lane should read that I have requested that the DOT planners and engineers look at prohibiting RIGHT TURNS ON RED onto Dutch Lane.
The article cut a lot out. Other ideas was connecting the Henry Hudson Trail todowntown, and bike routes through town, out of town and to destinations like Lake Topanemus and the Township YMCA.
Another meeting will be scheduled in November.
Question for you John, is there any study going on into the crazy amount of traffic and the back ups in town? This needs to be addressed, I know alot of people who dont come to town just because of the traffic. Were do we stand with that?
Keep up the good work, councilmen!
Mike,
This study is focused on pedestrian and bicycle transportation and safety. The engineer/planner is hired by the NJ DOT, and paid ultimately through federal funds. He cannot go outside the scope of his marching orders (even though traffic alleviation would tend to go hand-in-hand with your idea with safety).
I do hope to use ideas from this study to address some other non-bicycle/pedestrian concerns. I'll discuss that in the near future if things come to fruition.
But back to the topic, there are areas of concern: the intersection at
Broadway and Dutch Lane has been a concern for a while, and now that we have a DOT engineer that sees the issue (not just us local people hooting and hollering), I hope that his recommendations will be used for the state and the county to step in to address the safety concerns of parents of FLC children. This area is a bigger concern now that bussing to the H.S. has decreased, and we can perhaps expect more "walkers" in the future. Fortunately, there was only one accident in this study involving a person near a school. Unfortunately, I do not have the information to determine if it was a child. I will inquire as to how many of these accidents involved children.
The area at
79/Main Street and Spring Street/Center Street is an area with several bike/ped accidents. Part of this problem may be to the timing of the light; I have asked him to look at this issue.
We have a parking problem. The DOT engineers did a count of the number of people crossing the street in different sections of
East Main. there was a large grouping of people crossing all over the place. So, another suggestion was to add
cross-walks at the bust of liberty across from the Hotel/Jester and add another across from Cafe 360 (the tow largest areas where people "jay-walked" on E. Main.. Unfortunately, this safety concern may draw criticism due to the potential of slowing traffic. But it is a safety concern, and people are crossing regardless so I do not see how it will slow traffic any more than it does already. It would make sense to ensure safety, and to put into place mechanisms for people to cross only at certain areas. As you may have seen, the curb cut is going in now. Cross-walks would help encourage use of that parking area.
(I also recommended a
crosswalk near the courthouse at Monument and
Court Street or at Court and Broad. Given the traffic to and from the courthouse and the number of potential shoppers working at the courthouse we need to make the downtown as accessible as possible)
Another area for safety concern was the intersection at
Throckmorton and W. Main. This is a traffic nightmare at various times of the day. The engineer/planner is looking into a
traffic light there. This may help traffic as people are stuck on Throckmorton and then block traffic when they cross.
As to recreation, I would like see a connection to the
Henry Hudson Trail (which may in some small way increase business downtown, but also give better access to residents to the trail).
Other recreation ideas (1) a bicycle route through town of historic areas/places of interest (some sort of Freehold Bike Map); (2) safe route to Topanemus; (3) safe route to both YMCAs (boro and township); and (4) safe routes in and out of town to link to other trails and destinations.
At some point, we may team up with the county to conduct a survey of county workers that actually work in the borough (along with other employers) to pick their brains to figure out what can be done to encourage walking/biking to work (alleviate traffic to some extent while freeing up parking).
Again, as to
safety, we are looking at the areas around the
schools as many kids walk and bike.
A few other areas of discussion was an
inventory of the conditions of the
sidewalks in the borough; a review of pedestrian and bicycle
ordinances in Freehold; and placement of
bicycle racks.
We covered a lot of stuff. And it would be great to have an all encompassing study that included motor vehicle traffic patterns, but this is a free study that (for now) is only costing us our time. At the end of the study, we will be provided a list of programs for
grants, funding, etc. I hope we can gain the cooperation of the county regarding anything to do with the Henry Hudson and County Road 537. And I have become familiar with some of the bicycle advocates in the state. I hope that when I meet with them again that I can gain their assistance in finding private funding.
BRIAN,
A public meeting is anticipated for December.
LISA, I mentioned above that this intersection was a concern of parents. And it appears to be a well-known concern of the mayor and council who have looking into this previously. I hope that the added weight of having an official DOT engineer/planner will help us with the intersection between 2 schools. Otherwise the best we can do is a sign that vehicles must come to a complete stop before turning right on red. I hope for a sign that does not permit turns on red during school hours. As this is an intersection of a county and a state road, my understading is that we need the state's blessing.
