Attention Township and Ocean County,
As I’m sure many readers here can attest, navigating the streets of Lakewood during peak hours can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. The congestion that plagues our town during rush hour is not only a nuisance, but it also has serious implications for our quality of life, air quality, and local economy.
That’s why I’d like to propose an idea that may seem radical at first, but bears consideration: congestion pricing. For those unfamiliar, congestion pricing – similar to which was implemented this week in NYC – involves charging drivers a fee to enter certain areas of town during peak hours. The goal is to reduce the number of cars on the road, thereby decreasing congestion.
Of course, implementing congestion pricing in Lakewood would require careful planning and consideration. We’d need to identify the most congested areas of town, determine the optimal pricing structure, and invest in public transportation alternatives to give drivers viable options.
But I believe the potential benefits are worth exploring. By reducing congestion, we can make our town a more pleasant place to live, work, and visit. It would also be another revenue stream for the town, which can be used to improve our infrastructure.
Signed, a local driver who sees the streets getting worse by the day.
TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected]
You’re insane.
There’s no subway here and the “Public Transportation” is not as close to convenient as NYC.
well my bubbie took the trolley to Coney Island for a nickel! if it was good enough for bubbie, ah”s, it’s good enough for Lakewood!
Really? You see useable public transportation in and around Lakewood?
You noticed all the drones?
Its funny to notice two types of people commenting on this forum. One type reads the question, has a good laugh because it patently ridiculous, and moves on with their day with a smile. Type two reads it as if this totally random letter was being actually deliberated at a zoning board, gets super mad and red-faced about stupidity and wokeness and at the Scoop. Which is also pretty funny…
Nice try. Won’t work. Can’t compare “Apples” to oranges. In the Apple , they are charging outsiders for coming to find business. Lakewood areas are mostly made up of residential houses with a few scattered streets providing retail. Non starter.
You could leave your radical liberalistic ideals in NYC, much happier hear in Lakewood without them!
Kishenmeintachat chabibi
You are disgusting
is this going to be the new moneygrab?
YES
The worst idea ever. It’s even worse of an idea than putting wooden carriage spoked wheels back on the modern day car. No, we will not do this congestion pricing. No thank you.
I can’t wait for the next letter “Help our rabbeim!! With congestion pricing out rabbeim and klei kodesh are getting hurt more than ever, please give generously to help them”
Hello sir nyc has trains boats busses and other various commuting options Lakewood does not
yeah, and the subways are super cool and safe 🙂
Wow it’s only January and we already have a contender for dumbest opinion of the year.
It’s much easier to do that early on when there isn’t much competition, the trick would be to do that in December when so many dumb things have already been opined.
lol
HELL no!! If you’re jealous of New York traffic then by all means move there and enjoy their liberal garbage. Bye.
Really?!? Is this called a standstill? go to boro park, go to williamsburg, go to Manhattan its a standstill! Lakewood is not a standstill it’s maybe heavy traffic.
Traffic is moving, But slow.
No. It’s also a standstill. Just nothing to be done about it.
Time for congestion pricing on new construction
Once again we post ridiculous things on here to get attention. Well done.
Get trains and buses running on our streets and then come back with your idea of congestion pricing. You would essentially be taxing people to simply drive to the store in their own town. There is practically zero public transportation in Lakewood right now.
How are you gonna compare NYC the biggest capital in America to Lakewood nj
FYI NYC is not New Yorks capital
Early purim submission?
OK. If u are in kollel or Klei Kodesh it’s free. If u are in oak in vine it’s 15 dollars a shot. If your in klei kadosh and ur wife works half price. If u live on 14street and have money 30. If u are a praver with no money from 14th street double. Dont prav.
NO WAY!!!!!!!!!
I think there’s an untapped market for a ferry service across the lake every 15 minutes, but I just do what everyone else does – take my massive drone (only after dark of course) to get to BMG and skip the traffic. My aim is to solve the school bussing crisis by offering drone flights once the government lets me, and the people stop shining lasers at me in the air.
Of course there’s no buses or subways in Lakewood but yet another person wants to grab money….
I believe the only thing that can actually help today is putting crossing guards in every possible area. There focus should be to move cars along
What a stupid idea. Why are you publishing such stupid letters, aren’t there a few from people with an ounce of intelligence writing something intelligent.
You would think so, wouldn’t you
A complete idiot wrote this. I believe it’s a shame that Lakewood Scoop could even print such a woke idea. The person that wrote this must be completely lost and we should Daven for his mental health.
This person obviously needs attention, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would ever actually think this could work. Guess they just needed to get people worked up because that hasn’t happened in a while.
And it worked. How about that.
Perhaps we can use the proceeds to pay back the state all the money we borrowed?
How about the builders pay for the roads, they are making a killing on our backs
This is common and usual in most cities. Why not Lkwd?
Looking at the picture in the post, there is a UPS, Fedex and USPS truck. Wouldn’t it be smart if they (and Amazon!) just consolidate!! That would get a percentage of vehicles off the road…
Those trucks are usually full. If they consolidate you’ll have the same amount of trucks just with the same name on them.
No way and look how congested kill business and family income. I think the Governor of NY is stealing people’s freedom and hurting their families and businesses which is disgraceful.
Like we don’t pay enough taxes!
This is just another tax. We need a giant zip line across the lake. That will solve 85% of the problems
Your nuts mamesh meshigah get a life
How about the the township doing something did u ever think of that
How about widening the the roads so we have more lanes where r your tax dollars going
I was thinking to have congestion pricing only on the G’Virim (we know who you are, or at least pretend to be:-).
We can put everything on a central database that triggers “G’Vir” status. For example anyone spending over $8.50 on a donut is automatically added to the list.
They will be charged $100 for driving in Lakewood (they can well afford it).
This money will go to resolving a much talked about issue. Tuition? No! Camp? No!
Winter vacation!!!
A photographer will be hired that has backdrops of places like Mexico, Florida, Italy, etc. Tanning beds will be available for those pretending they went to a warm, sunny place.
All the “Nebachs” that didn’t go away will be able to go back to school with pics of their own “Vacations” just like the rich kids
I hope both sides of your pillow are warm tonight
I hope your charger gets pulled out.
Oy vay! All the doctors will be even more busy with people who have congestion issues.. Forget about charging for congestion..
If you have extra money you can zelle me
There’s no need to bash the letter writer who may be innocently trying to ask a question. There’s never anything wrong with asking even if people are apparently triggered by the question.
And the answer is NO. The congestion itself is the tax. No one wants to be sitting in the traffic. If they’re in it , it’s because they need to be. So now besides for suffering through the congestion you’re going to make them pay for it? Just no.
The real issue is we need public transportation. I believe if there would be busses going up and down the 9 it would solve a lot of traffic.
How about bus passes for older elementary and all high school students? It would subsidize a tremendous amount public transportation and allow the city to setup a hundred routes plus efficiently pick up kids in a geographic area and drop them off at their respective schools instead of the longer routes in place today going school by school. The near complete city coverage this would create on public transportation would signifcnatly ease congestion.
It’s time for you to either move to NYC or to Nebraska. All depending on what your objective might be. Nebraska has no traffic, NYC is for stupid rich people.
I AGREE!!!
Lakewood should impliment some sort of congested pricing, however the incoming and outgoing funds should be made public and the incoming moeny should fund a better public transportation system within lakewood. this will allow for smoother flow of traffic during peak hours. although this may seem crazy to most, of course the pricing should not be during hours of pick up and drop off of kids as the bussing system in the town is torn up and i hope that gets fixed with P. TRUMP.
Take this woke garbage back wherever you came.
We already pay congestion pricing with our time sitting in traffic. If someone’s driving during peak hours it’s bec they need to.
BH our town and klal yisroel is safe and growing here.
All these organizations raising money for struggling Lakewood fams various needs and you think they can afford another tax on their everyday necessity of getting from place to place?
This is so ridiculous, unreasonable and out of touch with the avg Lakewood family, it’s appalling.
What does this have to do with wokeness?
Woke tends to incorporate the belief that taxing the middle class to the breaking point will reduce human suffering. You know, for justice…
Congestion pricing is a great way to reduce car pollution in areas with high levels of congestion, in particular downtowns and other densely populated areas.
However, I do not believe Lakewood has a robust enough transit system in place to supplement the reduction in driving that a congestion priced zone would encourage. Such a step would only work if people had viable alternatives to driving.
We need to first understand why people drive in the first place, and then address the cause. Cars are the least effective way to move people to where they need to go. They take up a lot of space and we only use them for an hour or two a day. The last 60 years of city planning and engineering has focused solely on the personal automobile, placing it in the front of the general mindset and making it inconvenient and unconventional to get around any other way. We are decades behind in every other area of mobility, and we will have to play a long game of catch-up before we can think about a congestion zone.
STOP BUILDING , especially high density housing !!!!
How about this. If you lived in Lakewood prior to 2000- no tax. If you moved in after – tax
Concur, had the same idea for driving on lakewood roads during peak hours.
Lakewood Restaurant to Implement Congestion Pricing Plan
A popular eatery in Lakewood Township that is typically packed to the gills during normal business hours, announced Wednesday that it will soon be implementing a congestion pricing plan for all out-of-town customers.
“I’ve got way too many customers frequenting my restaurant,” the owner, Melvin Fleishburg, told reporters on Wednesday, “which is a tremendous headache for me.”
“Let’s face it, there isn’t enough room in my facility for both the Lakewood and out-of-town crowds,” he said. “There aren’t enough tables, chairs, spoons and forks in my restaurant to accommodate all five boroughs of NY City.”
Mr. Fleishburg said that his new congestion pricing plan will require non-Lakewood customers to pay an additional nine dollar fee for all orders, except for certain take-out orders.
“If you’re ordering take-out food,” Mr. Fleishburg said, “and you’re in and out of my restaurant in less than 5 minutes, you will not be required to pay ANY congestion fees! In fact, I’ll pay YOU a small fee if you enter and exit my restaurant in less than two minutes time.”
“Everybody loves my matzo ball soup and my schnitzel sandwiches,” Mr. Fleishburg said, “so, I’m adding a whole separate congestion fee for matzo ball soup and schnitzel sandwich orders because, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t have enough of that good stuff to satisfy the palates of every Brooklynite that walks the face of this Earth.”
“However,” he reassured all of his customers that, “standard condiments, like ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, will still be free of charge – at least for the time being. Hence, no congestion fees will be added on to any of the condiments.”
“Name me one person out there who doesn’t love free ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise!” Mr. Fleishburg added in a tone brimming with extreme entrepreneurial pride.
Sounds yummy. I wish you would open up such a place, Biezrat Hashem.
Lakewood Congestion Pricing Proposal
To address Lakewood’s traffic challenge,a congestion pricing program can incentivize carpooling and reduce traffic flow on key roads.The plan would involve a small daily charge (e.g.$2) for vehicles traveling on high-traffic routes like Route 9 ,Cross St,Chesnut St and New Hampshire Ave.
Key features include:
1)Single daily charge:Vehicles would only be charged once per day,no matter how many trips they make.
2)Low -Income discount:Households earning under $60,000 annually would receive a 50% discount to ensure affordability.
3)Carpool Incentive:Carpooling would exempt vehicles from the charge,encouraging shared transportation.
To implement this:
A 5-member committee would be formed to negotiate with EZPass NJ for equipment installation and integration.
The committee would also explore LSTA(Lakewood Student Transportation Authority)funding options to cover initial costs and infrastructure needs.
The program aims to improve traffic conditions,promote efficient transportation,and enhance Lakewood’s overall quality of life.
Completely agree. The committee would meet virtually once a month on a comment forum on Lakewood scoop. Non members can observe but not comment.
“A camel is a horse designed by a committee”
Considering Lakewood has the highest amount of people on Government programs to help the poor that nearly is everyone earning less than 60k….You would drive out basically everyone earning more and what businesses are left in the Industrial park.Your going to have set up till booths on Route 9?On Hope chapel?Yep good luck with that …
Thank you! I haven’t laughed so hard in years.
Congestion pricing does not reduce congestion it just increases cost of living on the middle class.
I feel as though this article is just a scheme to increase engagement because noone is this dumb.
Dear Editor
Was wondering how come you didn’t post my comment from around an hour ago.
TIA
To much “congestion” on this forum
“Too”
Now people pay ‘epes’ tuition. With Congestion no one will pay any tuition. Thus the Rabbaiyim and Morahs will the ones ‘paying’ the congestion fees for us all.
Good.
You are wrong about that, plenty of people are that dumb.
Let me have this blissful delusion for a little while longer
Roads may be “free”, but not your time. How much would you pay to NOT sit in traffic while driving in Lakewood? What is your time worth? What is your child’s time and education worth not arriving to school consistently late because of excessive traffic. How much do you value it? Whay is your health worth not not breath dirty air or your mental health to be stressed out about traffic?
The money collected would be used to support public transportation. Yes, there are public busses in Lakewood, even ones operated by the Township.
Congestion pricing is not a crazy idea, but is one hard to get over with so much immediate small and rash thinking by many. In turn, those who support it do a poor job of promoting its benefits.
No one will pay a toll to get into Lakewood……maybe get out of Lakewood..even Uber drivers avoid the town
Great idea but a logistics nightmare, enforcement, driver education and common courtesy might help. If all the drivers were ticketed for pulling from a side street in tandem this would put more dollars into the township and streets like Clifton Ave. would move a little faster.
Why can’t we WIDEN WIDEN WIDEN all the streets in town to accommodate new drivers from new complexes and duplexes sprouting in everyone’s backyard? Rather than charge everyone more money that they don’t even have why not accommodate them?? We have hundreds of thousands of drivers on the road in our wonderful town, we pay enough taxes, and we NEED WIDER ROADS!!!!