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 Mr. Mayor,
I was very disturbed today by a sight in Lakewood. I was driving my son home from school at 4 PM and noticed Ridge Ave was closed between County Line Road and New Hampshire Ave. This caused a gridlock on the entire New Hampshire Ave-cars coming from (way before)Rt 88 down to Ridge Ave. Cars were unable to make a right turn and were only allowed to make a left turn on the light. Can we please make sure road closures do not happen during rush hour traffic? And in the event that an emergency happens, can there be local Police or Traffic Safety assisting with traffic? Cars should have been able to make a left turn a lot quicker and not need to wait for the light! Cars weren’t even coming the other direction since it was closed off!
Please help the gridlock situation in our town.
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good afternoon,
We do our best to limit road closures to the hours of 10:00AM and 3:00PM. In fact we are in the process of changing our ordinance to reflect those hours. However, if a job runs into an unforeseen problem, it may not be possible to complete the job in time for rush hour. I know how frustrating that is, but we have to err on the side if safety & the contractors have to be able to restore what they were working on so we can allow traffic to flow.
Thanks
Ray
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Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]
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Contractors should be awarded township jobs based not only on the lowest bid, but on the demonstrated ability to complete jobs on time.
Why couldn’t Police be there to assist with the traffic flow? The cars should have been able to make a left turn on the red light since no cars were coming the other way since the road was closed.
That is why it is important to have more through streets.
It’s inconceivable that the planning board still accepts the flawed testimony of Traffic planners that have been proven to misrepresent the facts and are the root cause of Lakewood traffic woes.