I am not sure where to go with this, but the Scoop seems to be able to get things done so I am sending this to you. If you publicize it anywhere please remove my name and contact info.
To whom it may concern,
As someone who sits in traffic at least 2 hours a week on Central Avenue, I would like to make a few suggestions that I believe can dramatically change the situation there. The more of these that can be executed, the more traffic will be alleviated. Obviously there is a bigger picture which traffic engineers will need to take into account, but as an end user, here are the ideas.
- Block off caranetta where it meets central. The street should be a dead end. Cars constantly cut through the intersection slowing it down tremendously and creating close calls.
- Hurley Avenue westbound should be adjusted so that only the center lane goes straight and the right lane is a right turn only.
- Westbound central Avenue should be one lane only and not two that must immediately merge into one which is dangerous as is.
- Eastbound central should have three lanes as it approaches route 9. A left turn, a right turn and a lane going straight. (There is room for this of suggestion 2-3 are implemented)
- The traffic lights should be adjusted so that they have right and left turn signals in every direction (except 9 north which does not need a right turn signal)
- The first three side streets that meet central should have no left turn during rush hour.
- Repaint the lines on central Avenue to reflect the changes removing the shoulder as far back as feasible.
Thank you.
A resident of Hollywood Avenue.
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected])
Carasaljo doesn’t hit central what your talking about is careneta (however its spelled) and i agree
Pls dont. i use it to circumvent traffic:)
Thank you, I meant Caranetta, not Carasaljo. In any case they shoud paint a box there Eastbound.
1: There is a sign there on Central that says “Do Not Block Intersection” and is clearly marked. The law breakers are on Central not Carasaljo.
3: Westbound Central (Hurley at 9) right lane should be right turn only.
4: The left lane turning lane should be longer instead of the diagonal lines. People should obey #1.
6. It is illegal to block an intersection. Painted lines would help but people just ignore them as usual.
I wish we had more police to spare for Central. It’s a gold mine for the town in terms of driving violations. The license plate camera on the corner of Central and Carasaljo is going operational soon. The 5G tower near there interfered with the satellite network but it will be IP or 5G instead.
There are a couple of reasons why people block the intersections:
1. They are tired of waiting so long and want to gain whatever advantage they can.
2. If the intersection is left open, that would just allow drivers from the side streets (Caranetta, Freeman, Bradshaw, Davis) to cut off the drivers waiting before the intersection and to make their turns onto Central Avenue, blocking the intersections themselves. In either case, the intersection will be blocked, so it might as well be by the driver who is already on Central Avenue (those drivers have the right of way).
When the traffic is backed up, it is the law to keep the intersection clear.
It is up to you to obey the law or not. It is up to you to be responsible and courteous or not.
When did Hashem give you permission to act like you’re more important than any one else? I’ll wait. (Pun intended).
i can tell that the writer is saying the truth about sitting in so much traffic by having all the plans for all directions. as a resident of the neighborhood my self for several years I agree with the writer. the most important part that the writer left out are the vehicles holding up all the traffic on central while trying to squeeze into the left turning lane from carenneta .it is extremely selfish.
I think he means caranetta not Carasaljo
You mean Caranetta, and Hurley
Nice to see someone goal-oriented but residents did it to themselves here and elsewhere in town.
Builders will overbuild and overbuild because they are like bees making honey. It is the responsibility of the city boards to not approve construction that negatively impacts the quality of life of the residents.
But the board members are puppets voted in by people who care not about the city but about their own interests. One ringleader told me this straight out.
If enough residents wouldn’t just vote by what some piece of mail tells them and instead do a little investigating of their own, maybe thousands of people wouldn’t sit in traffic and be accident prone on a daily basis.
But this train has long left the station. You get what you pay for.
There needs to be and Underpass , overpass system at the Intersection of Central ave and Route 9 so that Traffic can constantly Move
Please please do this! I sit there daily on my commute to work waiting and waiting while people cut in from caranetta which really sliws traffic down. Every time i drive by there i wish there was something i could do!!!!
A very simple solution is to do the following.
Add in flexible delineator posts on central Ave starting from before the intersection of carenetta.
By doing this, all traffic going from carenetta to central Ave will be forced to make a right turn into the right lane and have no access to the left turn lane.
And lastly, by doing this, it will cause the end of carenetta to be a one way st. No incoming traffic from central Ave.
I know people will say that you can’t make it one way. But stand on the corner of central and carenetta for 20 minutes and you will see how many cars drive on the wrong side of the lane on carenetta (on the oncoming traffic side) to cut around all the other cars waiting patiently.
Some of us in the Caranetta neighborhood are living here before you even heard of Central and you definitely did not live on Hollywood, cause that was totally out of town. So very nice of you to suggest making “our block” a dead end, but no thanks!! We moved here to have easy access to Rt 9.
Thats right you show him! rule 1 is a bad idea
The eitzas are great, but are only bandaids. The real issue is the building and building and building…. Until it stops, any solution will only alleviate the problem temporarily. The selfish are not the people cutting in from carreneta – they pay high taxes and should not need to sit in heavy traffic – the selfish are the builders and those who sign off on this ridiculous overdevelopment of the town.
The police should hand out tickets to cars that turn from Caranetta into the left lane of Central. Central has the right of way!
On Central: “DO NOT BLOCK INTERSECTION”. You are totally wrong and would lose in court. Don’t hit anybody. If anyone honks, IGNORE THEM.
There should be an over pass on northlake to Lakewood ave. And another to Private way and another to Forest ave. Like thisthey wont hold up 5he cars from 9 south and traffic runs smoothly.
Time to get rid of the shoulders on Central Avenue and make it into two lanes each way (or at least for the eastbound side). Kudos to the writer of this letter, if our askanim with the Trenton ties can’t vouch for us, at least the common people can try. Simply dont allow for cars to inchtheir way in. I usually only allow in cars from other states who dont live here, its not their fault that Waze unfortunately also knows that this the “fastest” route and sent them down Carranetta. The problem really got out of hand eversince Cedarbridge became the new center city, this made it that so many more cars are traveling west from hurley towards central, and now cars making left from central onto Route 9 only have chance to go on the green arrow, and very few cars can take advantage of the regular non arrowed green to make left, as there are too many oncoming cars coming from hurley!
A Stone, I totally agree. When I bought my house off Sunset in 1998, the commute to BMG was about 7 minutes. It is a tremendous עולה that the builders don’t need to take responsibility for updating the town infrastructure every time they overdevelop a neighborhood. We shouldn’t be doing patch jobs that inconvenience those taxpayers who bought existing homes.
I’ve been saying for years that the traffic is here to stay and it’s only getting worse. All these other ideas don’t usually work. But I think we’ll be best is, for during rush hour morning and afternoon, Lakewood should have an army of traffic controllers in most intersection… they have the power to override any traffic light this way they work in sync with one another to make traffic run smoothly
From the Central Ave or New Central Ave areas during School Commencement or School let outs to get to East of Madison areas it quicker to go all around the lake by taking Miller or S Lake to Hope to N. Lake Dr.
The problem with making only the Center lane on Hurley westbound going onto Cenral is that during many hours of the day, Hurley can not contain the volume headed into Central as it is. One lane would get backed up over Cedar Bridge and cause it’s own set of issues.
Additionally, has anyone else noticed that on Sundays the turning arrow at the Central and 9 light is much shorter? I believe it is. That really needs to change too.
Also, that merge to one lane getting onto Central is dangerous and slows traffic a lot too….
#6 and #11.are correct. Building is totally out of hand. Roads can not handle this amount of traffic. Its like New York City here now.Stop the building. This is why the other towns do not want this building..A 10 min drive takes 40.
Sorry eli G. READ THE SIGN.POSTED THERE. You are the extremely selfish one.
that sign was put up 30 years ago when things were very different, it obviously doesnt apply anymore. I’d still be waiting in front of that sign letting u and all ur comrades in had it still apply. And please be nice
Relating to this this post; when people hitch at those corners, it creates backup issues as cars need to slow down, either because someone stops to pick them up or slows down.
Yes there is a sign there telling people not to block intersection. However, the selfish people are the ones coming from caraneta and trying to squeeze into the left turn lane on central. They are always blocking all traffic in the right lane trying to go straight. Also, if people wouldn’t block the intersection all the cars from carneta would constantly squeeze in and cause central an even longer wait.