Megan Olson
Guest Column
Freeholders should seize opportunity to add sidewalks on Sycamore Avenue
(Open letter to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders)

Thank you for your notice about the up-and-coming work to be done on Sycamore Avenue.

You mentioned your concern about public safety. Yet if you really have a concern about public safety, you would seriously consider putting sidewalks/bike paths on Sycamore Avenue.

Right now we have sporadic placements of sidewalks which sometimes just stop in inconvenient, unsafe spots. Then they may or may not start up again. But if they do, it’s across the street.

There is an elementary school (K-3) on Sycamore Avenue in Tinton Falls with approximately a 150-yard strip of tar in front of it as its sidewalk, and that’s all. (Isn’t there a law stating a school needs at least a mile of sidewalks/bike paths around it?)

As you know, Sycamore Avenue is a county road and is shared by Tinton Falls, Shrewsbury and Little Silver. These towns have many residential homes on the road, as well as businesses, restaurants, doctor’s offices, banks, schools, a borough hall, and churches. This all generates lots of pedestrian traffic, bicycle traffic and automobile traffic. The speed limit on Sycamore Avenue is 40 mph.

As a resident of Tinton Falls for 33 years, I have seen many vehicles – including big Mack trucks and commercial buses – speed around corners and people at 50-plus mph way too many times.

My neighbors who live on Sycamore Avenue put their lives in jeopardy every time they go to their mailboxes or try to use their driveways. Also, when the lawn maintenance workers or the delivery trucks park in front of the homes and businesses, there is nowhere for people or cyclists to go except around them. The same goes for when the garbage cans, recycling cans, leaves and sticks are put at the curb – especially since there is no curb. In the fall, the leaf situation is especially dangerous.

When I am walking on Sycamore Avenue, I am always hoping the cars see me and don’t hit me. And when I am driving down Sycamore Avenue, I am always moving out of the way of walkers, joggers and cyclists. I am also always wondering why the Little Silver part of Sycamore Avenue has nice, even, continuously connected sidewalks on both sides of the street while Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury do not.

I know I am not the only person who feels this way about the need for sidewalks/bike paths on Sycamore Avenue.

With the rate of in Tinton Falls, and the already 14,000-plus voting residents who live here, and the new ones coming – especially with the development the Laurino farm, which is right on Sycamore Avenue – now would be an excellent and thrifty time to put sidewalks/bike paths on the rest of Sycamore Avenue. Even though there have not been any pedestrian tragedies, thankfully, there have been numerous automobile accidents on Sycamore Avenue, especially where it intersects with Hance Avenue (where a traffic light is desperately needed).

Please take this problem into consideration and put in sidewalks/bike paths since you are already planning to do milling and paving. The Board of Chosen Freeholders most definitely needs to ensure the safety of the traveling public now.

Megan Olson is a resident of Tinton Falls.