The following article was submitted to TLS by Bill Hobday, who is on the ‘Widening Rt. 9 Committee’: Lakewood residents can only dream of the day when US Rt. 9 in Lakewood and points south are redeveloped and widened to accommodate the volume of traffic. However, the dream of a better, safer, and more robust roadway in Lakewood Township became a mission by Lakewood resident Jacob Leitman. Jacob began to network with other Lakewood residents and called an initial meeting to discuss the ways and means to address the problem.
Click here to view the full letter. TLS.
Route 9 should not be widened. It should be diverted. Please don’t bring a major highway through a densely populated city.
They need to install those red light cameras on Rt. 9 like all of the other towns have. This would help out with so many different things.
to aa – you chose to live near a major highway not the other way. actually most of rt. 9 is 2 lane except for south side of the lake until toms river
Everyone should take the Defensive Driving Course. It will teach you a bit of Derech Ezetz on the road
It already is a major highway. And it’s only gonna get worse unless something is done. Diverting the traffic may help a bit , however with the long term growth projected for this town we are going to need rt. 9 widened and a secondary route.
best thing to do is to make a entance to the parkway south at cedarbridge that will divert alot the people traveling south on rt 9
We need an arrow light on the corner of pine street and route 9 by Viva Mexico b4 someone gets killed trying 2 make a left turn
Too late to widen it now all the condos are right up to the roadway. Great planning!
It should have been widened 30 years ago before it got so bad. I usually avoid Rte.9 when going to Toms River and take New Hampshire instead, but sometimes one just has to go down rte. 9. It should be widened because there is a hospital there and it is dangerous to have so much traffic in the way. What if there was a major emergency and rte. 9 is all backed up?
the only option is to open vine from cedar bridge all the way to chestnut
The roadway isn’t the problem, the amount of vehicles are. Bnei Brak is allot smaller then Lakewood and has 10 times the amount of people, & still, there’s way less traffic. The answer is, buses. If there were buses every 15 min going to every part of town, people wouldn’t have to own two cars, thus eliminating about 10,000 cars, figure out the rest.
P.S. And in addition to easing traffic and mva’s, it can be a source of revenue for the township. Just saying.
#10 you can build a bridge over SCHI if you’d like!
i agree with pretty boy floyd. we should have city busing.
Imagine how hard it would be to make a left out of developments such as Sterling Forest, Regency etc. if there would be 2 lanes to cross. It’s hard enough as it is with 1. With 2 it would be basically impossible. They would need to have e/o make a right and install jughandles every half mile. But how owuld they have land to do that?
Lakewood Township should have some type of mass transportation, however, we need to do all that we can to improve and widen US Rt. 9 at the same time. Without improvements in this primary north/south corridor, mass transportation will not be able to flow. They will be bogged down in traffic congestion with the rest of us.
Ocean County in general and Lakewood Township specifically have not received their fair share of infrastructure upgrades including the widening and dualization of US Rt. 9 with the proper ingress and egress points along the way. We are more than 92 thousand residents in Lakewood, and we need to push the Federal Government to address this roadway that cannot accommodate the traffic.
I live right near Route 9 and agree that all should be done to make it into at least 2 lanes in each direction with turning lanes. Regarding the developments, Sterling Forest, Sterling Place, Chateau Park, Regency, Chesterfield, and all those on the West side of the 9 should have a road that lets them exit onto Massachusetts. High Street, Presidential, and all those on the East side of the 9 should have a road that lets them exit onto Vine Avenue.
My only question for Bill Hobday is “How about running for Township Committee?”
well said
Years ago – 2 ideas were bandied & eventually died from lack of interest. If we can get the thru traffic -meaning traffic going farther north or south out of Lakewood – then rt 9 will have mostly only local traffic.
1 plan was a Lakewood bypass – like there is in Freehold. Rt 9 would channel into New Hampshire Ave & channel back into current 9 south of Lakewood’ I think Park Ave was discussed at that time too, but with all the construction there it is no longer feasible.
another plan was a NJ turnpike extension from New Brunswick to Toms River. A lot of the right-of-way was purchased then but a lort has been sold since the idea was abandoned.
How can we get in touch with the committee & sgare ideas with them ?
Mass transit Great Idea……NOT!! You are complaining about your taxes now, who is going to pay for it?? More public employees and pensions and benefits. Also are we going to need 2 buses to run at the same time, the first one for MEN the second for Women? You can’t get school buses down some of these now you want to send school buses AND mass transit buses together, more thought is needed, the streets cannot handle these large vehicles.
To get on the parkway south take rt 88 to chambersbridge, make a right on chambersbridge and you’re on! don’t like that? take cedarbridge to New Hampshire to rt 88 to chambersbridge. Why spend $100 million to do what you can do already?
People who are used to going by car won’t take buses, especially if they taking their children along. It’s too hard (in E”Y they’re used to that but, we’re not). For those men going to Yeshiva, though, it’s a good idea. The developments should have alternative ways out like #16 says, very good idea. Then traffic will be horrendous on Massachusetts ave.
Route 9 has to be diverted and planning needs to take place now. Wider toll free highway will only attract more traffic savings miles and tolls vs. GSP.
diverted where? diverted how? You have 40% of Lakewood living on 9 South and diverting will do nothing to alleviate. You simply need a wider road to handle the volume there is.
I still remember as a kid when Route 9 from The Freehold Circle to Lakewood was 1 lane in each direction. And then the construction project to widen it, it took forever to get to Lakewood from Brooklyn!
And all the malls between Freehold & Lakewood had these MASSIVE parking lots untill they chopped them in half during the widening.
ok we should make 2 levels the bottom sohould be the southbound top should be north simple as that
The new bus company can charge 50 cents to a dollar
and you can have a few routes
which can lead to:
a few jobs
pay for a bus ride as opposed to lease gas and insurance
less cars on the road
less chances of accidents
if private it can be a tax benefit as well to Lakewood
walk to your corner (promoting healthier lifestyle)
the bus company can advertise on the side
and much more
who is blocking such an entity
i bet they are connected
50 cents what year do you think this is. Even New York City transit doesn’t make money with the fares ($2.50 one way) that they charge, they are heavily subsidized by the State just to keep the buses running