RED BANK – Red Bank’s bustling sidewalks and streets are the result of a vibrant cultural and business community and part of a major state highway but there’s a serious downside.
Pedestrians and bicyclists just aren’t safe anymore and something as simple as crossing the street can be crippling if not deadly.
The Two River Times has assembled a long-term task force of local stakeholders and government officials to study what solutions can be achieved quickly and which improvements can be effected in the long term. Five initiatives have been put in motion as a result of the first meeting revolving around Education, Enforcement and Engineering. It will take time and money but the task force is committed to improving the situation.
It’s a unique problem because Red Bank has a growing population, an arts and entertainment industry that rivals any town in the state and a thriving downtown business community as well as a hospital with a constant flow of EMS vehicles driving through congested roadways.
“This meeting is meant to find solutions,” said The Two River Times’ Co-Publisher/Executive Editor Jody Calendar on Friday as she and other representatives met for a monthly meeting. “The basic purpose here is to affect positive change,” by getting those in the room who can best bring about policy initiatives to improve the situation, Calendar said.
Held at Riverview Medical Center, the paper’s editorial board meeting involved Calendar and others representing the publication, including Domenic M. DiPiero, president of Newport Media Holdings, owner of the TRT; state Senator Jennifer Beck, who has an office in downtown Red Bank; Mayor Pasquale Menna; Police Chief Darren McConnell; Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas Arnone; County Engineer Joseph Ettore; Monmouth County Director of Public Information and Tourism Laura Kirkpatrick; Riverview President Tim Hogan; and others. Red Bank School Superintendent Jared Rumage could not attend because of a delayed school opening.
“There are lives at stake here,” said DiPiero, noting that an employee of his Newport Capital Group, a financial services firm on Broad Street in the downtown area, was injured when struck by a car while crossing the street in the area.
And indeed there have been instances where pedestrians have been injured — some seriously and in some tragic cases, fatally — while attempting to cross the street. One such death resulted in the installation of a flashing crosswalk sign on East Front Street in front of Riverview.
For Calendar, who grew up in the area and attended Red Bank Catholic High School on Broad Street, “The situation is just so much worse than it use to be.”
Chief McConnell named the “Three Es,” Education, Enforcement, and Engineering, as a means to address the problem. And part of the problem rests with the public’s awareness, he explained, reinforcing to drivers the law requiring vehicles to yield to pedestrians at all intersections, whether striped as a crosswalk or not; and for pedestrians to realize, while they have the law on their side, they shouldn’t abandon commonsense and be vigilant when stepping off the curb.
“When they’re driving, they’re not complying (with the law),” McConnell said. “And when they’re walking they expect compliance.”
The police department has in the past been awarded a state grant, covering the cost of officer overtime pay allowing the department to have undercover police function as decoy pedestrians, citing motorists who didn’t allow walkers to get across the street; and issuing warnings to pedestrians who aren’t taking proper precautions, such as jaywalking or texting while crossing a street.
But even greater enforcement has been promised as a result of the first editorial meeting and details are being worked out.
“We seem to have a lot of need here because of the traffic congestion,” Freeholder Arnone pointed out. And county officials are looking at those needs as they update the county improvement plan, he added.
“There’s more to be done but I think we should note that progress that has been made,” Sen. Beck said.
Cases in point include recent traffic upgrades on East Front Street in the area of Washington Street, on the borough’s eastern end, near Riverview Medical Center. That project, undertaken by the county, cost approximately $600,000, according to Arnone. It included installing pedestrian-activated flashing lights, additional signage and a slightly elevated and bricked pedestrian crosswalk.
Hogan, who explained his interest is the safety of his 1,600-plus employees and the patients and visitors to the medical center, acknowledged “It’s not foolproof,” but it has greatly improved the situation.
Beck said a planned improvement to state Highway 35, from Ocean Township through Red Bank to the Coopers Bridge would incorporate a number of traffic safety improvements. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has visited the borough and is studying other borough requests, she said.
Mayor Menna and McConnell said one partial remedy may be to ask DOT officials to reduce the speed on its roads through the community. But that would certainly mean a tradeoff, too, McConnell noted, as traffic would move more slowly and snarl, possibly frustrating drivers, who would look to other alternative borough thoroughfares. “The traffic that is backed up all day on Front Street and Broad Street would be all over town,” McConnell said. The situation is under review.
A particularly problematic intersection, many noted, is at West Front Street and the northern end of Broad Street (an area that falls under the county’s purview). There, traffic can legally turn onto Front, while the traffic light allows pedestrians to cross.
“That’s just crazy,” DiPiero said about that contradiction.
“In the past, I think, the model has been efficiency, moving traffic,” engineer Ettore explained.
But Menna suggested county officials look at what has been done in major European locations for the last two decades: where traffic lights at intersections have a four-way stop for traffic, first allowing pedestrians then vehicles to move forward.
“There’s an educational process that goes along with that,” to allow drivers to become accustomed, Arnone said.
“Why not try it in one of the worst areas,” Calendar suggested, noting, “The educational process won’t start until it’s adopted.”
Traffic engineers talk about “protection/permissive” models when mapping out traffic plans, Ettore said, looking at balancing ways to move traffic and protect drivers and pedestrians.
But traffic has changed and increased in the time since the last county traffic study, Menna said. And that had Ettore acknowledge “Maybe we need to revisit that.”
Beck thought recalibrating traffic signals may offer some relief and protection and suggested additional signage. She said Red Bank RiverCenter, which oversees the downtown business special improvement district, could offer its help by including information on its literature for events, telling drivers to be more conscience of pedestrian safety.
This week, James Scavone, RiverCenter’s executive director, offered the organization’s support for the effort.
To get county support for any initiative, whether it is an additional traffic light or other safety measures, would require the local borough council to pass a resolution. With that, county engineering would study the proposal, which traditionally take as much as six-to-eight weeks to draft it.
“I could tell you that’s no problem,” Menna offered about the resolution. Menna also contended he would like to see stepped up police enforcement—though McConnell countered that isn’t where the focus should be, believing education offered a greater remedy.
Beck joined it, telling the gathering, whatever the thought process she would advocate for it on the state level with the DOT
“I don’t think there is a 100 percent solution,” Beck concluded, “but we can make things better.”
The Two River Times plans to continue with this discussion, reconvening the group and including additional educators and business leaders in the mix to see how things are progressing and what additional steps can be taken.
— By John Burton
Editor’s Note: The Two River Times would like to hear from you in the community in this ongoing conversation. Please write to us about the areas in Red Bank you think are most dangerous to cross, bicycle along or drive through by contacting Jody Calendar at jcalendar@tworivertimes.com or posting comments on our website (www.tworivertimes.com) or our Facebook page to offer comments, suggestions and photos for this ongoing conversation.
