The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].
Question:
Hi,
I am reaching out to you as a driver down Route 88 every morning. The crossing guard by Linden Ave is great and eases up the backup down Linden with cars turning down the 88. However I am wondering how the crossing guards calculate how long to stop cars on the 88 while allowing the Linden cars to go? Every morning it seems like the 88 is stopped for a while backing it up quite a lot while the crossing guard allows the entire Linden Ave to empty out.
Just curious how the crossing guards work. thank you.
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good afternoon
I wanted to get this right, so I asked Sgt Work from Traffic & Safety. Here is his response:
Ray, great question! (the credit for the question goes to you of course!)
Normally, the crossing guards are told to wait and let a few cars stack up in line (about five cars) before letting them out, usually up to 10 at a time. The corner of Linden and Rt. 88 has become such a big success and helpful to everyone.
Clover and many side streets leading up to Linden are backed up 10-15 cars deep waiting for traffic; motorists tend to get impatient and make bad decisions by jumping out into traffic, thus creating a crash and tying up the whole roadway.
The word has spread around town that there is help at Linden, and people are migrating towards the intersection of Linden Avenue and Rt. 88.
While it may slow down Rt. 88 a bit, the safety benefits are undeniable. The crash rate has significantly decreased at this intersection, and traffic, although it flows slowly, has remained steady. We understand that our volume has increased, and many of our roadways cannot handle the volume. However, we are heartened by the many calls from residents thanking us for the crossing guard at Rt. 88 and Linden during the morning rush hour between 8 and 10:30 am.
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Crossing Guard?
Sounds like a traffic officer.
It would be nice if the crossing guard would coordinate better with the light. I also think they need a real cop at the corner of 88 and Clover to prevent the people going East who are held up by the crossing guard (yes, it happens) from blocking the box and not letting anyone on Clover go when they get the green light.