RED BANK – It’s an inevitable and persistent conflict: a walking town with heavy pedestrian traffic within a community congested by cars.
Red Bank, a cultural and commercial hub, has had a history of pedestrians being struck and seriously injured and, in some cases, killed by drivers as both tried to maneuver the busy roadways. The problem has been exacerbated by the onslaught of distractions that have developed over the years.
“I’ve lived in Red Bank for almost 20 years,” said Amy Goldsmith, a west side homeowner and president of the West Side Community Group, an advocacy and informational organization for residents and businesses of the borough’s west side. “And we’ve had this conversation for 20 years,” referring to safety issues for the west side, especially the heavily traveled Shrewsbury Avenue.
“It’s a little frustrating,” she acknowledged.
“The perpetual problem is seniors can’t get across the road fast enough; lots of kids are on the streets; bicycles on sidewalks, as well as in the streets,” and “cars traveling very fast,” along with a roadway lined with legally parked vehicles, she offered. “The combination of all that creates problems.”
The hectic east side downtown area has similar issues, as shoppers and employees hurry to or from lunch or coffee breaks coming up against drivers making their way through the borough’s busy thoroughfares. Add to that, valets seen driving one-way the wrong-way down streets rushing to park or pick up cars frequenting Broad Street shops and eateries. And a police department member concedes the issue is often that neither is paying enough attention to what the other is doing, creating a situation that can be precarious.
“It’s a shift in what people are doing and thinking while out there in the roadway,” for both drivers and those walking, observed Sgt. Beau Broadley, supervisor of the police department’s traffic safety division.
Broadley did acknowledge, “When there is interaction between pedestrians and motor vehicles…the incident of injury is pretty high.”
That being said, Broadley reviewed department data and noted that in 2010 there were two pedestrian fatalities from collisions with vehicles and none since. But as recently as last fall, an elderly woman was struck by a delivery van while crossing Newman Springs Road with her 4-year-old great-grandchild. The 84-year-old woman was seriously injured and the child suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said at the time. In that case, Broadley said the pedestrians crossed in the middle of the block and not in a designated crosswalk.
There have been “several” other collisions between pedestrians and vehicles but, Broadley said, “nothing rising to the level of serious injuries.”
Despite those cases, Broadley believes things have improved on that front.
The reasons are in part that the police since 2009 have been receiving a state Division of Highway Traffic Safety grant, covering the cost of overtime and increased activity. That grant is used by the department to have undercover officers in plain-clothes walk in crosswalks and for those drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians or who are speeding. That undercover officer notifies another officer in a nearby patrol vehicle to intercept the driver and issue warnings and/or summons.
Under state law, drivers are required to yield to pedestrians crossing the street in all cases. And every intersection is a crosswalk, whether it is striped or not, Broadley explained.
In part, “The problem is that we have a shift in the mentality of pedestrians,” Broadley maintained, with pedestrians oftentimes just assuming vehicles will stop. “But that’s only if the driver sees you,” he stressed.
“We’ve had several instances where the pedestrians themselves are just not paying attention,” as they walk into traffic talking or texting on cell phones. Along with drivers, Broadley explained, this department initiative has stopped those walking across the street; with officers giving literatures and lectures about being aware of surroundings and stressing they should be crossing at intersections. “Just to inform them it’s their responsibility to make sure the roadway is clear before they step out there,” he said.
Another effort has Broadley visiting the borough Senior Center and schools to offer lectures on traffic safety. “We’re trying to change the mind set a little bit,” he said.
Traffic safety is a “top initiative of the whole county (government), the engineering department, the freeholders,” for the whole county, insisted Freeholder Thomas Arnone.
The Monmouth County officials are responsible for county roads—in Red Bank that involves Shrewsbury Avenue, West Front Street and Newman Springs Road; and Arnone said county representatives are always willing to work with local officials to try and accommodate their requests for traffic improvements—as long as funding can be sought.
But it is the locals’ responsibility to make the request. Red Bank has not made recent requests to address any safety issues on county roads, Arnone said.
He acknowledged there is a large population that walks here and noted “The businesses are flourishing; there are a lot of businesses in a condensed area.
“Which means only one thing: a lot of traffic,” he said. And as such, county officials are “looking at every measure, considering every recommendation of the municipality…and act accordingly to their requests,” he said.
In 2011 based on conversations with borough officials who were in discussions with representatives of Riverview Medical Center, the county undertook a $600,000 project for safety measures for Front Street from English Plaza, east to about Washington Street, in the vicinity of the hospital. Those measures included a pedestrian-activated flashing light for those looking to cross Front Street (an exceptionally well-traveled road that has been the site of collisions with pedestrians, including a fatality in 2006); bump-out curbing; the installation of new brick-colored crosswalks; and a slightly elevated walkway in the crosswalks, for drivers to better see those walking.
Those measures, instituted with the input of medical center representatives, “have greatly reduced the issues over there,” on Front Street, Broadley said.
County engineers have taken measures on portions of Shrewsbury Avenue, as well, Arnone remembered. Done in stages over a couple of years, it involved restriping crosswalks, installing curbing and a new traffic light at the Drs. James Parker Boulevard intersection, along with additional signage.
Mayor Pasquale Menna was not immediately available to comment for this story. But in the past, he has told The Two River Times there have been additional efforts, with the help of state Senator Jennifer Beck (R-11), a borough resident, to convince state transportation officials of the need of additional safety measure on some state-controlled borough roadways. There is talk of addressing a particularly problematic crosswalk on Riverside Avenue, just north of Maple Avenue, and frequently used by senior citizens; asking the state to consider a traffic light or other traffic control at the Riverside Avenue and Bodman Place, just south of the state Highway 35 north interchange that has long been a traffic problem, the mayor had said; and addressing the Broad Street/Pinckney Road area, where traffic can snarl and pedestrians can have difficulty crossing.
Despite some steps taken in her neighborhood, “it remains treacherous,” along Shrewsbury Avenue, in large part because of fast moving traffic, using the roadway as an alternative through the borough, Goldsmith said. She believes additional signage may help, possibly bump-outs, but more police enforcement may be the best remedy, she added.
“The best thing is a shared responsibility,” for everybody involved, Broadley offered. “Everything works best when everybody is paying attention.”
Robert Abatemarco, Red Bank Catholic High School principal, thought his students were pretty safe, even as many cross busy Broad and Maple Streets a couple of times a week. And the reason is decidedly old school, he maintained: the long-experienced human crossing guards there every school day.
“There is a familiarity,” he said. “I think the level of safety is enhanced by the relationship of the guards and the kids. The kids know the guards and listen to them.”
