Mayor promotes traffic-calming aids
Seeks lower speed limit, yield signs to help keep kids safe
BY SHARON LEFF Staff Writer

"We want people to visit Red Bank, but we want them to go slow." — Mayor Pasquale Menna

RED BANK — To slow traffic and to protect children who walk to school, Mayor Pasquale Menna wants to increase traffic-calming measures and pedestrian crossings on busy access streets in the borough.

In July Menna said four-way stop signs would be installed at the intersection of Bridge Avenue and Chestnut Street, and now the mayor is focusing on River Road and Pinckney Road.

"I think we have to start looking at a couple of major thoroughfares throughout the town. I think it's a common approach to try and increase traffic calming in Red Bank," Menna said. "We want people to visit Red Bank, but we want them to go slow."

Menna said one of the major problems in terms of access roads like Bridge Avenue is Front Street, which is a county road.

"However a study has shown, and a bunch of residents and I actually did the computation, if you go through Fair Haven on River Road, the speed limit on River Road through Fair Haven is 30 miles per hour until you get to Hance Road," Menna said. "If you're going through Fair Haven from Rumson, it's a very respectable 30 miles per hour, and I have to tell you, Fair Haven cops enforce it religiously."

He said once drivers get to Hance Road, the speed limit increases to 35 miles per hour.

"So, the sign changes, you get the extra bump, and invariably people start speeding. And so it remains 35 miles per hour from Hance Road all the way to Spring Street. And then at Spring Street it becomes 25 miles per hour," Menna said.

He said he thinks there should be a uniform 25 mph speed limit from the downtown all the way to the Fair Haven boarder.

"I really think we ought to do a conciseness petition to the county, and notwithstanding the fact that there's a speed limit of 35 [mph] and 25 or 30 makes no sense for me at all," he said.

Menna said he is reasonably confident that if the speed limit is lowered to 25 mph to the Fair Haven boarder, the parents in Fair Haven will say they want the street to have the same speed limit.

"I think we should make an effort to make it uniform. It will slow people down. It will give the kids a chance to cross the streets," he said. "The other thing I notice is we have the 'yield to pedestrian' signs up to Spring Street, and then where the kids live from Spring Street all the way to Fair Haven, there are no 'yield to pedestrian' signs or painted crosswalks to get to East Side Park from Harrison Avenue."

The mayor said he wants to look into putting "yield to pedestrian" signs in that part of town.

"I know some people are going to say it's a county road and you can't do it. Well, Fair Haven has done it, and I don't see anybody taking them down, so I really think we ought to look seriously into reducing it and making it a uniform speed of 25 all the way to the Fair Haven border," he said. "I think we owe it to our kids to do that." Menna said another problematic access road is Pinckney Road.

"I think the council will shortly be receiving requests from the residents of Pinckney Road, hopefully even from Little Silver, to reduce that speed to 25 miles per hour because of the presence of so many little kids," he said.

Borough Council meetings are held at 90 Monmouth St. The next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m.

Contact Sharon Leff at sleff@gmnews.com.