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Pedestrian
Safety Recommendations
The following is taken from a letter that the LVGA sent
to the Middletown Township Committee in March, 2008, regarding
pedestrian safety in the center of Lincroft. The CR520 Task
Force met throughout 2007 to formulate proposals to improve
CR520 between CR520 (Newman Springs Road) between Hurley's
Lane and CR50 (Swimming River Road). County Engineer, Joseph
Ettore, will be presenting the Task Force's proposals at a
special Middletown Township Planning Board meeting in April
or early May and seeking the approval of the Township Committee
to implement the proposals. The LVGA hopes that the County
Engineering Department will include in its recommendations,
important safety-related pedestrian access improvements as
outlined below. Please note that our recommendations are not
only based upon the State's decision to adopt context sensitive
design (see background information) but they are also based
on the observations of two engineering consultants that the
LVGA has hired in the past. Recommendations by Michael Wallwork,
President and Transportation Engineer for Alternate Street
Design PA, who also designed the roundabout, can be found
here while
recommendations by Charles R. Carmalt PP/AICP, can be found
here.
NJ Assemblywoman, Amy Handlin, also supports our recommendations.
View a letter that Asw. Handlin wrote to the Middletown Township
Committee here.
Background
Information: The New Jersey Department of Transportation
(NJDOT) in partnership with the Office of Smart Growth (OSG)
and other state agencies created the NJ Future in Transportation
(NJFIT) initiative. This initiative follows the NJDOT’s
2001 decision to adopt a context sensitive design policy.
(All quotes unless otherwise noted in this letter are from
the state NJFIT website: www.state.nj.us/transportation/works/njfit)
The LVGA feels that the Momouth County Engineering Department
should follow the State's lead in creating "Context-Sensitive
Solutions" (CSS) to the problems along CR520 in Lincroft.
“Rather than just designing roads to accommodate cars,
CSS aims to balance all the users of a street: pedestrians,
transit riders, motorists, and bicyclists.” “When
communities improve the convenience and safety of walking
and bicycling, the number of people using those modes of transportation
increases. At the same time, the number of cars on the road
decreases, along with congestion and pollution.” “A
roadway with four wide lanes and a lot of curb cuts attracts
strip commercial development that is accessible only by car.”
In the early 1980's the county widened CR520 to 5 lanes, creating
a highway that discourages pedestrian use and encourages multiply
trips by cars, as well as speeding. It is time that the county
adopted "Context-Sensitive Solutions" to minimize
the problems that the 5-lane wide CR520 design created.
Proposals:
1. The slip lanes at the
corner of CR520 and CR50 need to be redesigned and controlled
by the traffic light rather than being eliminated.
• Traffic islands provide a refuge for pedestrians crossing
the very busy intersection.
• Slip lanes provide a needed easy access for the many
right turning vehicles.
• Slip lanes help large trucks make the turns that would
otherwise be at an angle of less than 90 degrees.
• Michael Wallwork, the expert who designed the Brookdale
roundabout, has made the following statement regarding the
slip lanes: “eliminating the right turn slip lanes is
a backward move. Such a design will make it harder for trucks
to turn, increase the risk to pedestrians because of conflicts
with right-turn-on-red drivers, and reduce traffic flow because
drivers will be forced to stop before turning right on red.
If the right turn on red is prohibited, as it should for pedestrian
safety, then the capacity of the intersection will be reduced.
An alternate design is to narrow the islands slightly, square
the right turn and create two radii instead of a single radius
for the right turn and move the crosswalk closer to approaching
drivers so it is within the approaching driver’s cone
of vision.”
• An example of a signalized slip lane is at the State-redesigned
intersection of Routes 33 & 71 in Neptune
2. A center
island with crosswalk needs to be built between the
Dunkin Donuts shopping plaza and the Lincroft Acme. (Please
view the proposed island: diagram)
Reasons:
• Center islands with landscaping, calm traffic and
reduce speeding. “Studies have shown that traffic calming
can reduce crashes by up to 40%."
• Drivers frequently enter the center lane at the location
of the proposed island and speed to the Swimming River Road
left turn light, a distance of about 20 or more car lengths.
• Many pedestrians cross at or near this location. (People
cannot be persuaded to walk ¼ mile out of their way
to cross at Hurleys Lane, which is safe, or at the main intersection,
which is unsafe for pedestrians. Pedestrians cross mid-block
and they need a crosswalk.)
• The island would very effectively prevent left turns
into the pharmacy entrance. (An angled entrance of the pharmacy
that only encourages right turns only will not be effective
without the center island. Left turns to the pharmacy would
enter via the Acme main entrance.)
• The proposed center island is sufficiently distanced
from the Swimming River Road left turn lane as to not cause
conflicts. (personal observations of many Lincroft residents)
3. All center islands
proposed by the Task Force need landscaping,
preferably with trees.
• “When landscaped, they can provide a visual
amenity as well as serve as a refuge for pedestrians crossing
the street. Center islands are good for entrances to residential
areas and wide streets where pedestrians need to cross.”
4. Sidewalks in the business
district need to be recessed away from the
road. The Township needs to seek the cooperation with land
owners where insufficient right-of-way exists.
• Current sidewalks are less than 2 feet from the road
surface. CR520 has 12 ft wide lanes with no shoulders. This
places pedestrians within 5 ft from passing cars, less for
trucks.
• Sidewalks are not ADA compliant at the corner of Hurleys
Lane and CR520 where utility poles are located in the middle
of the sidewalk.
• The sidewalk in front of the Dunkin Donuts lot is
only 32 inches wide and not ADA compliant.
• US Dept of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration,
recommends 5 ft wide sidewalks that are located a minimum
of 24 inches from the curb (planter/furniture zone, not including
the curb). Furthermore, “Areas that have significant
accumulations of snow during the winter will also require
a wider planter/furniture zone. A minimum width of 1.83 m
(72 in) is recommended for areas where significant amounts
of snow will be plowed onto the planter/furniture zone.”
(www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sidewalk2/sidewalks204.htm)
5. Trees should be planted
between the sidewalk and the road.
• The above Fed. Highway site states the following:
“large trees that extend over the street may have a
traffic calming effect by creating a sense of enclosure. According
to urban design research, visual enclosure is required to
transform streets into pedestrian places, which results in
increased comfort for pedestrians and decreased comfort for
speeding motorists (Institute of Transportation Engineers,
1999).”
Supporting
Photographs:
Summary
of Photos
Page
1: Pedestrians crossing CR520
Page
2: Sidewalks in Lincroft
Page 3: Center
Islands on Sycamore/location of proposed CR520 island
Page 4:
Route 33 (Neptune) center island, slip lane and recessed sidewalk
Page 5: Examples
of center islands: US Route 1, Midblock Crossing (Walkable
Communities), Ocean Ave (Long Branch), Route 7 in VA
Pedestrian Safety summary>
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