Description
Today I saw for the millionth time a pedestrian who waited until a break in cars, crossed into the marked crosswalk, but had fast-moving cars speed up dangerously and attempt to mow the walker down! This has also happened to me personally. This crosswalk has signs but no lights. It is not adequate for safety. Drivers do not stop! Drivers do not seem to understand how crosswalks work.
Here's information about a study that shows cars need to be moving slower than 20mph to reliably stop for a pedestrian as required in a crosswalk, regardless of signage or laws: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/01/11/want-drivers-to-stop-at-crosswalks-slow-them-down-first/
Please consider:
-lowering speed limit for stretch of Bergen between Communipaw and Montgomery
-marking crosswalks in this section with lights (currently only the ones in front of the school a few blocks down have flashing lights)
-ticketing more for crosswalk or speeding violations in this area
Thank you very much
also asked...
A. 3. Traffic: Speed Management Request ( For requests to conduct a speed study along roadways where vehicular speeding is a concern.)
28 Comments
Jersey City, NJ (Verified Official)
Jason (Registered User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
Display Name Blocked (1409464) (Registered User)
BeTheChange (Registered User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
Just letting you know we are still very much interested in this pedestrian safety study.
Thank you!
BeTheChange (Registered User)
JCPal (Registered User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
Jason (Registered User)
L (Registered User)
Submitted a request for speed humps to be installed. Please sign. Thank you
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
seeclickfix just sent me this message:
"Your issue has been outstanding for 90 days. If your issue hasn't been fixed yet, please click below to comment or share. Otherwise, you can close the issue."
My issue hasn't been fixed and I still care about it.
Victor Owusu, please respond.
Display Name Blocked (1409464) (Registered User)
Display Name Blocked (1409464) (Registered User)
Earlier I emailed the Mayor & copied CC Myra. They both responded!
<< Looping in Director Jen Wong. Director, I’d like to request rfbs for this intersection. Please let me know the timeline for study and implementation.
Thanks – Mira >>
We'll see what comes of this.... But I suggest others also contact the Mayor & CC Mira.
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
aaaand seeclickfix helpfully pointed out, "Your issue has been outstanding for 120 days. If your issue hasn't been fixed yet, please click below to comment or share. Otherwise, you can close the issue."
NOT RESOLVED.
Victor Owusu, please respond. Or....anyone in the traffic dept or any JC seeclickfix worker.
...please?
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
good job, jersey city
/sarcasm
it's been 6 months. could you please address this?
RRC - Samantha (Verified Official)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
It's now been 240 days since this request was made and still no action has been taken by RRC here except to mark another issue a duplicate (there's a lot of demand for this issue! still no action though??)
is anyone assigned to this and working on it? are there any updates? has any action been taken? is there a timeline you can share?
Acknowledged Infrastructure - Althea (Verified Official)
Acknowledging now. Jeez 2 years and now 3 years.
Well I am creating the list of all issues for the engineers to review for 2024.
This is not an excuse, but just me explaining the situation. We have over 1,000 open tickets and 600 of those are requests for a pedestrian safety review.
Our engineers have never stopped working in all of these years, but now I am making sure that everything in SCF gets in front of their faces and I have it pulled together all of the thoughts and suggestions not only in the original request, but in the follow up comments as well.
Infrastructure - Althea (Verified Official)
Your issues:
1) Drivers speeding/going too fast on the stretch of Bergen between Communipaw and Montgomery
2) The current crosswalks are not enough for a pedestrian to cross the street safely.
3) Lack of enforcement of the existing laws.
This one we cannot fix. My advice is to attend the monthly police captain's meetings.
The RRC, which I can see has been hounding us to provide you all an update, is really good at also passing enforcement issues on to Public Safety, but nothing beats a face to face with the police.
Have I captured the general over lying issues?
Is the school near by MS 17?
Infrastructure - Althea (Verified Official)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
thank you. I hope something comes of this, finally. it keeps getting worse. the main issue/main request which isn't in your bullet points, is really to lower the speed limit here, I think.
a secondary solution would be lights and/or concrete bollards, but per the study linked in this post, unless you lower speed limits, no other interventions do anything.
I don't know the names of the schools.
with construction right by this crosswalk for some time now, the issue is even worse (i didn't think that possible). it's extremely dangerous and hazardous to be a pedestrian on bergen, especially between montgomery and communipaw.
Infrastructure - Althea (Verified Official)
Jason (Registered User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
thank you very much for the information, Althea.
I'm just following what's in the article cited at the top of this request. A lot of studies support that - that if you don't get drivers' speeds down, you have a very low chance of getting them to stop no matter what else happens.
But I'll try to hold out hope that the traffic engineers can find a workable solution.
I guess another option would be to add more lights. Crosswalks aren't super safe at red lights, but they're better than crosswalks in the middle of stretches without lights, like the one highlighted in this request, which is right by Carvao bbq and Ital pizza.
Infrastructure - Althea (Verified Official)
I do not have time to read the article, but I am so grateful that you are doing this for the neighborhood and the larger community of Jersey City. It is very meaningful. The article really helps us lay people know the options. I am learning a lot!
However, the bottom line is that the engineers need to hear from the community directly affected, what they are witnessing and experiencing, so this is great. Otherwise, the engineers would be coming up with solutions they think are right and it might not address the needs of the community. This has been invaluable, especially since drivers across the country are so angry and it feels like the wild west for us drivers and pedestrians in Jersey City.
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Registered User)
Thank you Althea. Awaiting next steps and/or news from engineering team.
Drivers honestly seem gleeful about speeding up to defy pedestrian protections. It's nuts.