By Jai Agnish, Staff Writer
Suburban Trends
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Residents tackled the issue of what to do about clogged intersections along Skyline Drive at Mayor Joanne’ Atlas’ town forum Wednesday night at the MJ Ryerson Middle School. Nearly 110 residents brainstormed in small groups, suggesting everything from converting Skyline Drive to a toll road to putting up traffic lights or three way stops at the Skyline Drive and Erskine Road intersection.
According to a traffic study conducted by Atlas and volunteers at the site recently, 3000 vehicles drive through the intersection during the evening weekday rush hour. Traffic stacks up before the dangerous intersection, where at least three police officers have been clipped while directing traffic in recent years, according to Police Chief Bernard Lombardo.
“I don’t want it to take one of my officers getting killed for a decision to be made about that intersection,” Lombardo said after the meeting. “Something has to be done now. There have been too many close, close calls.”
The county is willing to fund roundabouts at Erskine Drive intersection and at Skyline Drive and Cannici Drive where the park-and-ride and library are located. County officials have said they will not put up the estimated $250,000 needed to install a traffic signal at that location.
“I’m looking to see if there is any consensus,” the mayor said of the forum afterwards. “Right now there isn’t and it seems like people need more information before making a decision.”
Charles Carmalt, a traffic expert formerly with the New Jersey Department of Transportation, who was hired by the borough as a consultant, reviewed the impact of installing a roundabout at the intersection of Erskine Road and Skyline Drive.
According to Carmalt, roundabout substantially improve traffic flow while reducing accidents and improving pedestrian crossings. According to a study, there was a 40 percent overall reduction in all accidents and an 80 percent reduction in accidents involving injuries at 23 intersections converted to roundabout around the country since 2001.
Carmalt said that if a roundabout were constructed at the Erskine Road and Skyline Drive intersection, the wait time for vehicles traveling down Skyline Drive in the morning would reduced from 258 seconds to 6.1 seconds and from 344 to 13 seconds in the evening, according to a study Carmalt conducted at the site.
“A roundabout will fit in the existing space with some minor cut-outs,” he said of the intersection, which is constructed by a church, and state regulated streams and wetlands. “Roundabouts are not Columbus Circle in New York City or the circles in Washington DC or Cheshire Lane in Ringwood.”
A roundabout, Carmalt said, forces traffic to yield upon entrance and enter into a one-way circulation around a splitter island that separates incoming and outgoing traffic. Vehicles would travel between 15 and 25 miles per hour on a slightly curved – negative super-elevation – surface that encourages slower speeds because drivers feel as though they are going faster than they actually are.
“Highway and safety planners are very supportive of roundabouts,” he said, adding that the New York State Department of Transportation required roundabouts to be considered whenever new intersections are built in the state. Kansas, Vermont, Maryland, Colorado, and Portland are leaders in installing roundabouts, he added.
Residents expressed mixed reactions during a question and answer session with Carmalt and small group discussions. Concerns included drivers “running” the roundabout like a red light or not yielding to other vehicles. Residents pointed out that traffic also snarls at the greenwood Lake Turnpike and Skyline Drive intersection and questioned whether improvements at one intersection would be negated by other troublesome intersections.
Still other residents feared that a major accident inside the roundabout would back up traffic or prevent emergency vehicles from getting through.
“Unless a truck jack-knifed or there was a multi-car pile up, you’re not going to have the roundabout cluttered to prevent cars from getting around,” Carmalt said. “Roundabouts are a demonstrated improvement to safety.
Dorothy Ayers, a senior who lives on Cupsaw Avenue, questioned whether people would drive responsibly in a roundabout.
‘As it is now, drivers see people with gray hair and they think they can go sneak in right before you,” she said during a small group discussion. “There is this understanding if they see you have gray hair.”
Residents did not get answers to the questions of how long construction on a roundabout would last or how traffic would be managed during the construction phase.
Overall, little consensus was reached on a solution for the intersection and whether residents support the idea of roundabouts. Of the five groups that participated in discussions, one informal survey found that eight people preferred a traffic signal be built and five supported a roundabout.
Four people had not established an opinion because they said they needed more information or were in support of one roundabout, not two, being construction along Skyline Drive. Another group was largely in favor of a traffic light, one group leader reporter.
The general consensus, several group leaders said, was that more information is needed on all of the alternatives available. Several people suggested a referendum question be put before voters on the issue.
“This is not the last you’re going to hear about this,” the mayor said afterwards. “I’m sure it will come up again and I’m sure people will reach out with their opinions. I think we should improve the intersection right now to make it safer while we’re waiting on a decision. I will ask the county to do that.”