Hi, we are all aware of the traffic situation in this town. Instead of us all complaining (including myself), let’s try to think of some ideas to improve.
Being someone who drives alot around town, I have some ideas which can help – which may involve the state or county a bit but should not be too costly.
Why is there no turning arrows on the light at James and Route 9?
Why are the lights at Princeton and County and Princeton and Kennedy not synced?
Why are the lights at Clifton and Kennedy and Clifton and County not synced?
And the same for forest and Kennedy and Forest and County.
Driving on cross street coming up to Route 9, the left lane is for making a left and for going straight, while the right lane is only for making a right. The problem with that is that anyone wanting to go straight over Route 9 has to wait behind the people wanting to make the left. If the left lane would be for left turns only and the right lane would be for rights turn and for going straight, that would help traffic.
Ever waited on Hurley to make the left onto Clifton?? Well good luck. You could wait there sometimes for 8 min literally.
The light at Clifton and Route 88 has to be a bit longer, otherwise the cars backup all the way to 3rd and Clifton.
Central and 9 light used to be longer green for the Central Ave people trying to make the left onto Route 9, now it is half the length of what is used to be. Why? Lets try to focus on small easy traffic fixes instead of figuring how to widen Route 9 which costs millions of dollars and will take years and years to complete.
I know some people will say “Oh here’s another guy trying to fix the Lakewood issues – he will get nowhere” But the truth is that every single one of my issues are easily fixable with the changing of the lights. I understand it may need the State or County to get involved a bit, but it is definitely not a money issue to fix these issues. I hope this letter can be forwarded to the mayor and township as well. I would like to hear feedback from others too.
Thank you very much TLS for posting.
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected])
Right on! This guy knows the town
Wow!! I thought I knew Lakewood!! This guy is good! I would add that county line westbound between Clifton and route 9 gets really bad between 3-7pm. If only the light at route 9 and county would be a drop longer.
A turning arrow for left turns from cedarbridge onto clover would also help
On Hurley you have to move all the way up. Than the light changes. I think there may be a seeing eye.
Extend the no parking zone on clover st before cedarbridge so cars can make a right on red to cedarbridge.
Because no one cares
Very very well said! Hope this guy gets his name on the ballot next time we go to vote. Don’t the people in this town that make these decisions also drive around Lakewood?!? Where are they? Someone fill me in, please! Why do we need to bring these issues and fixes up to them? Aren’t they getting paid (by us) to take care of these road blocks? (Literally)
Thank you to the author of this article! I hope your writing wasn’t in vain!
Give a Shmeichel Reb Yid!!
Well, I believe it would be best to lengthen the left turning line from Rt. 9 onto Rt. 88 (no left turn on 1st street from the 9), and make 2 lanes on the 9 just until Central, where the right line should become a right turn lane only- there is room for a 2nd lane there. Additionally, perhaps the light cycle by some intersections can be a green for each side of the same street separately. For example; Oberlin and Cedarbridge, most of the intersections with Rt 9- 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 9th. Countyline onto Rt 9 needs a left turn arrow, or you could wait there forever.
Hi Great points
The Intersection of New Hampshire and Ridge is forever clogged because there is no normal Right turning lane on New Hampshire feeding Ridge. and that light is longer than a yom kippur shemoneh Esrei
We need a traffic light on rt 9 turning onto oak st
my two cents:
on route 9 and kennedy intersection traveling on route 9 south bound there is a left turn signal to turn towards clifton which works good during the day but maybe at night between the hours of 11pm and 6am when there is no traffic maybe you should be allowed to make that left turn throughout the the whole green light and shouldn’t have to wait two minutes to make a left turn on a empty highway
Coming northbound on south Clifton from Hurley to rt 88, during the turning light for 88, Clifton should be allowed to make a right on red. That would greatly ease the backup on south Clifton.
The reason why Clifton is such a mess during the day is ONLY because of the problem that you mentioned. It gets backed up only southbound because the light for the people on 88 is very long and for Clifton very short. One great solution witch was mentioned a few times is to have 2 left turning lanes onto S Clifton from 88 ( only eliminating 2 or 3 parking spots on S Clifton ) and this way shortening the light for 88.
Wow! This guy is good! I can relate the issues he pointed out.
He would make a great candidate for township committee.
On to the issues – i strongly agree that the suggestions he listed, are inexpensive, and will relieve traffic congestion.
Another point I’d like to add – I’ve seen this in other towns – during the hours of 12AM – 5:30AM, traffic lights on County line,Kennedy Blvd, Cedarbridge, etc, should turn into blinking yellow/red lights.
Thank you.
YOUR SO ON TARGET!!!!!!
I must say, this is the first time in a while that I agree with every word the writer has written. Many times the letters from readers contain lots of ramble with some decent points, but this person has his game on!
The sad reality is, the township is trying to push the whole responsibility (headache and cost) onto the county/state. They don’t want to be bothered with this. Sad but true. Again, I want to thank this writer for putting some common sense into words. Kudos to you. Without knowing who you are, I think we would make great friends. Perhaps TLS can set up a meeting.
here’s another suggestion. East End at County Line gets terribly backed up, some mornings I have to wait thru 6 cycles of red lights till I get thru.
An easy fix would be a left turning lane, (just some paint) and a green arrow light for left turns would be even better!
Let’s think…. If you lengthen the green light for Central by Route 9, you have to take away from the green light time for Route 9 itself. Though Central has some traffic at peak times, it doesn’t come close to the mile long constant traffic on Route 9. Also, Route 9 is Lakewood’s most vital roadway. Any idea of taking away time from the green light on Route 9 is crazy. Our committeemen worked on lengthening the green light by Central, but obviously failed to realise that by doing that they made Lakewoods biggest traffic problem – even worse.
Rabosai, let’s think before we act. Maybe we should be proposing to lengthen the green light for Route 9 traffic by Central!
The heaviest traffic in town is in the route 9 south area, so alleviating that in any way, would be the smartest thing to do. In addition, Route 9 traffic is only going to get worse with the addition of thousands of cars from the upcoming oak street area.
Is the light at Cross St and East Veterans in Lakewood borders? There are always long lineups waiting for a green light on Cross St to turn onto E Veterans, even though there is barely any traffic going down East Veterans.
Why can’t there be a left turning arrow on rt 9 turning left onto hurley and left onto central? Could be a lot of traffic is backed up because people can’t make a left until the light turns red.
Regarding the lights at the following intersections, Princeton and County and Princeton and Kennedy / Clifton and Kennedy and Clifton and County / Forest and Kennedy and Forest and County;
The reason they might not be synced is because County Line Rd. and Kennedy Blvd. are a much busier roadway (more cars traveling on them). Therefore, the focus is to sync as many lights as possible on County Line Rd. or Kennedy Blvd. alone, rather than the less busier streets that cross them.
I can tell you have a future in life in becoming an engineer!
Good Luck! Thanks for your input!
The light on Williams worked out great. It’s unthinkable that there’s still no light at pine & Martin lilither
To ocean county road engineer – why can’t count line and Kennedy which run parallel to each other have synced lights running in tandem. Then sync all the cross streets crossing over Kennedy and county line.
I agree with everything you said besides for your last point. The light at central (by rt 9) does should not be lengthened. Lengthening the light at central will make the route 9 traffic even worse.
Thank you very much! I had compiled a list like this and yet I never sent it out for the simple reason that I did not want to waste my breath or time. Why are we always hocking so much about spending billions of dollars widening highways when we can do these small things and it would alleviate SO MUCH of the pressure, frustration and delays? Yes of course the big projects need to be done one day. They are not going to happen for tomorrow though. EVERY One of these ideas could be implemented in very short order. Don’t the powers to be realize too that they could quiet down so much of the noise by just taking care of these things once and for all?
Here’s another interesting one that is on my list. Has anyone ever noticed that the turning light on Central and 9 is MUCH shorter on Sundays?? There is no difference between the weekdays and Sunday in this town. If anything, Sundays are busier because if no transportation at times. Just make Sunday a regular day! This town has different driving times and schedules. It can’t run with the same rules. And yes, you can probably shut down most of the Traffic signals on Saturdays during the day. And there are so many more of these no brainer.
So…What are the chances that anyone in the Township will give a hoot? Basically zero. Oh well.
Let’s see someone on the Township Committee even acknowledge that these ideas are being looked over. Surprise us.
Why can’t there be a turning light on Rt. 9 northbound onto North Lake Drive, there’s already a turning light on the opposite side onto Rt. 88. then Rt. 9 northbound would have less traffic.
what about my intersection New Hampshire and Rt 88 where you want to make a left onto New hampshire, it’s a turn left on green only and sometimes it skips a whole green c cycle so i have to wait for two light cycles and they are very long by that intersection.
I totally agree with the comment above regarding Ridge & New Hampshire. New Hampshire is backed up half way to Route 88. Please lengthen the light at for the drivers at New Hampshire & also the wait for a green light on New Hampshire to Ridge is really ridiculous.
I’ll add left turn from new Hampshire north to Cedarbridge west needs to be made much longer and the lane itself should be lengthened by at least 10 car lengths