Essex County to help limit high pedestrian road fatalities with safer street initiative
Tricky and dangerous are just some of the ways pedestrians described Watchung Plaza in Montclair.
More Stories
Essex county is attempting to tackle its high pedestrian road fatalities, which is part of the county’s initiative for safer streets.
Tricky and dangerous are just some of the ways pedestrians described Watchung Plaza in Montclair. It's an intersection Commissioner President Carlos Pomares called historic and not designed for today’s traffic.
Mark Salamon has lived in Montclair for over a decade and says, the intersection at Watchung Avenue and Park Street is unsafe.
"This has always been a very dangerous intersection. It just has a weird traffic pattern, and I bike through here a lot," Salamon said.
A brand-new traffic signal was unveiled on Monday. It was a welcome change for pedestrians crossing there Tuesday night because of some of the close calls.
Tina Leake, who lives in Newark and is in Montclair every three weeks, saw the new traffic like for the first time Tuesday afternoon.
"It’s a welcome sight to see that there are traffic lights here because, yeah, hit or miss," Leake said.
The improvements are part of the county’s ongoing initiative to enhance pedestrian and motor vehicle safety.
Of our 21 counties, Essex County ranks high in pedestrian road fatalities.
The New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition says this makes it one of the most dangerous counties in the nation for pedestrians.
County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Jr. said in part, “Updating our infrastructure and making sure our roads are safe for our pedestrians and motorists has been one of our ongoing priorities.”
"It was long overdue, I think. All over town it seems like they’re putting up more traffic lights, and they’re putting up more four way stop signs," Salamon said
The plan calls for the introduction of traffic signals and enhanced roadway striping to regulate the flow of motor vehicles traveling through the area and provide safe crossing for pedestrians. Essex County was awarded grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop its Safe Streets and Roads for All Action Plan.
Rosario Barbalace owns Rosario’s Butcher Shop and has been in business near the intersection for over 20 years. He's hopeful that the new traffic light will work. "It’s a busy area with bikes and kids with bikes so we’ll see, hopefully, this will fix a little bit," Babalace said.
Besides modern traffic signals, some of the improvements include high visibility crosswalks and pedestrian signals with countdown timers and push buttons with feedback.
