The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com.
Question:
Dear Mayor Coles:
I don’t know if you are in Lakewood long enough to remember that 2nd St used to be 2way from Clifton to Monmouth. Traffic in those days was nowhere near what it is today. Still someone had the foresight to make 2nd st 1way despite that businesses probably protested.
It is beyond time to institute 1 way streets throughout downtown so traffic can move.
I propose making 1st through 4 alternating 1way streets. More importantly I propose making Clifton & either Lexington or Monmouth 1 way in alternate directions from at least 5th thru 1st (Main would be preferable but since Main is a state road you may be resticted).
You may say since Clifton is a major business road how can we make it 1way ? Let me point out 13th Ave, the major business area in the Boro Park area of Brooklyn, NY was made 1 way with amazing results. Previously traffic was at a standstill. They made 13 Ave 1 way in 1 direction & 14th the other way & it works well.
Yes you’d have to redesign the infrastructure of the intersections but it would be well worth it.
All the best,
Sam.
Response from Mayor Coles:
Thanks Sam,
We have discussed this issue several times. I have asked Maser Consulting, who is currently doing a traffic study in town, to look at every possible solution. Nothing is off the table. I have forwarded your letter to them.
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Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com
Comparing clifton to boropark and in particular 13 av is totally ludicrous. For 1 clifton shopping goes from 1st thru 5th. 13th av shopping goes from the low 30 to 70. No comparison at all. Also clifton is alot narrower.also double parking is tolerated on 13 . Not in lakewood.
Should also stop parking in narrow street as an example 9th and 10th between Clifton and Lexington where there is anyway a huge parking lot.
we had one way streets at one time and it didn’t work we need the through ways.
stop the parking on the streets and on Clifton and add lanes.
Third street between madison and clifton needs to be chnaged back to one way. There were too many near accidents. There is no room for two lanes
When will this Maser survey be over with already?!
Yitz, sounds like you are a boro parker, 13th is from 38th to 60 with the main shopping from 39 to 54, Clifton would be a great one way avenue.
Clifton leads to cedarbridge and is the only road that can be used as an alternative to route 9 (different from 13th in boro park, where all the parallels continue the grid.) I suggest:
1: Open the grid throughout the town
2: one way streets and avenues throughout the town.
3: traffic lights and more traffic lights, starting with the replacement of the 4-way stops and then more as needed to keep the traffic flowing.
As a long time residential of lakewood I remember 1st Street being one way from Monmouth Ave all the way to Madison Ave 2nd Street one way from Clifton Avenue to Monmouth Ave and for Clifton Ave that’s a County Road in wich Lakewood has to maintain it and we don’t need more traffic lights I say in the past 20 years Lakewood has over bloomed with heavier traffic and more properties being built a litter over crowded. There was a time that you can go from The Raintree section of Lakewood and head weat on Lanesmill to RT 9 and be there within 8 minutes now it will take you 20 minutes
Maybe you can make parking on 9th and 10th between Clifton and Lexington where there is a huge public parking lot only on one side of the street to help navigate those skinny streets
I don’t think it would help to make clifton into 2 lanes, because the main traffic issue is going southbound, and if you make it 2 ways southbound you will have the same issue that we have on rt 9 – that it turns to one lane and creates a bottleneck…
Hey “voter” . Learn how to read. I never wrote boro park goes till 70th.i t will be an absolute nightmare if clift. av is a one way.