Traffic in our two towns

Traffic has gotten worse over the years.

I think apps like Waze and Google Maps are sending more traffic through residential towns to avoid congestion, which then creates more congestion. Roads like Valley, Prospect, Springfield Ave, and South Orange Ave are a mess during rush hour. Anecdotally, it feels worse than it used to be.

Regarding new developments, imho it affects traffic. Our local leaders say there is no impact, but I think they are trying to sell the idea that more development is good for our area.

Maplewood's population in 2000 was 23,868. In 2020, it was 25,684.  South Orange went from 16,964 to 18,484 over the same period.  SOMA added ~3500 people from 2000 to 2020. I'm not sure how many cars that translates to but it's probably at least 1000 cars. In the meantime, local infrastructure for cars has not changed significantly.

jamie said:

Is it me or is traffic just getting worse and worse?  I'm curious to know with all of the new developments - is there any stats that show the # of registered vehicles for a particular town?

I remember at one of the mayor forums Sheena and Dean said that the new developments had no real impact - and that you'd have more traffic at a Wawa.  The flaw with this logic is that Wawa would be driving traffic that is already in the area, not necessarily be increasing the local #.

The vast majority of traffic is through-traffic, with origins and destinations outside SOM.  

They did surveys of this as part of the master plan processes in both towns if anyone cares to look it up.

Is there also a sense of traffic increasing after a quiet period in 2020-2021?  Or didn't SOM experience a lull then?

Here in Milwaukee-ish, there was much less traffic for a while.  Now the volume is back, plus the "big new thing":  a practice of one more car per lane going through the light *after* it turns red.  arghh.

jimmurphy said:

The vast majority of traffic is through-traffic, with origins and destinations outside SOM.  

They did surveys of this as part of the master plan processes in both towns if anyone cares to look it up.

Here's the plan: https://www.maplewoodnj.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/1175/638283824305730000

I breezed through it and didn't come across any traffic studies.  Maybe @TomC may have an idea.

jamie said:

Here's the plan: https://www.maplewoodnj.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/1175/638283824305730000

I breezed through it and didn't come across any traffic studies.  Maybe @TomC may have an idea.

Maybe I’m blowin’ smoke re “both towns.” 

I know that S.O. did the study and results are in the Master Plan, Appendix B, page 308.

https://www.southorange.org/DocumentCenter/View/6498/Master-Plan-with-appendix-

There’s been quite a few occasions when posters on this site have commented that traffic is indeed worse over the last two decades. If you’ve been here for more than twenty years you will have noticed that it is true. Not only the volume of traffic, but the speeding, the rudeness and impatience…. Reminds me of when I lived in Brooklyn.. they all moved to jersey and brought their driving skills with them. 

mjc said:

Is there also a sense of traffic increasing after a quiet period in 2020-2021?  Or didn't SOM experience a lull then?

Here in Milwaukee-ish, there was much less traffic for a while.  Now the volume is back, plus the "big new thing":  a practice of one more car per lane going through the light *after* it turns red.  arghh.

Police powers have been stripped and that’s probity something they no longer enforce. The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels now have people changing lanes multiple times and no one gets ticketed for it anymore. 

the_18th_letter said:

The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels now have people changing lanes multiple times and no one gets ticketed for it anymore. 

I always thought the ticket would come in the mail. The cameras don’t work anymore?

I live on Irvington Avenue. It can sometimes take as long as 15 minutes to get 2 1/2 miles from my house to the intersection of Millburn and Valley.

And it will get worse.

There is no easy answer to reducing thru traffic on our roadways.  We have few county roads and no highways going through town.  We have little in the way of mass transit, with very little of that being accessible.  

We could take some steps to reduce within town traffic by encouraging more walking and more biking by those who are physically able to do so.  Even that will require adding sidewalks where they do not exist, improving the condition of the ones we have, and finding ways to make it safer for bicycle riders on our narrow streets.  We also need to include consideration of existing and structurally-possible improvements to existing roadways as part of the development approval process.  

There are other factors to consider which are the result of sociological shifts post lock down.  With the III program being in effect, there is a lot more traffic on our roadways during school arrival and departure time. Reduction in those working from home since lock down has resulted in more traffic congestion during major commuting hours.  Increase in shop from home practices has resulted in more delivery vehicles traveling on and sometimes blocking our residential streets.   These and other traffic-impacting changes need to be considered and addressed if we are to reduce the presence of traffic congestion on our roadways.

I find it easier to drive Springfield avenue, Parker avenue or elmwood avenue, than prospect or valley or Boyden. 
I think people are exiting 78 and using valley and Ridgewood to get to the oranges, instead of paying the tolls on the parkway. It’s definitely more than the usual school traffic that was noticeable from Tuscan to valley and Parker. The worst left turn to make is from elmwood to prospect in rush hour. A light might be necessary in the future right there. 

I personally could not see a viable reason to bike or walk to anything I currently do locally(maybe if I lived closer to town).  I'm curious to know of anyone else will opt to bike or walk instead of driving locally.  Have you made the switch?  I could only see biking to the train if I commuted, but I would probably take the Jitney.  Especially not now when leaves are in the street.

In the meantime - I would like to see any traffic studies that have been done.

jamie said:

I personally could not see a viable reason to bike or walk to anything I currently do locally(maybe if I lived closer to town).  I'm curious to know of anyone else will opt to bike or walk instead of driving locally.  Have you made the switch?  I could only see biking to the train if I commuted, but I would probably take the Jitney.  Especially not now when leaves are in the street.

In the meantime - I would like to see any traffic studies that have been done.

I remember when you lived in town with the cameras on the rooftop… we used to see you more walking around. 
I feel the same about walking all across town, not many people riding bicycles these days either. 

Jaytee said:

I remember when you lived in town with the cameras on the rooftop… we used to see you more walking around. 
I feel the same about walking all across town, not many people riding bicycles these days either. 

Yeah, it was amazing living in the heart of town.  I do miss it!  Now it's a 30 minute walk to town, maybe I'll get a pied a terre in the village. 

I do walk all over town.  It is difficult managing the steep hills, like Oakview between Valley and Prospect, in the winter when there is ice on the ground.  Otherwise, it is quite doable.  From my house, I can walk to most parts of town in under an hour.  Good exercise too.

jamie said:

I personally could not see a viable reason to bike or walk to anything I currently do locally(maybe if I lived closer to town).  I'm curious to know of anyone else will opt to bike or walk instead of driving locally.  Have you made the switch?  I could only see biking to the train if I commuted, but I would probably take the Jitney.  Especially not now when leaves are in the street.

In the meantime - I would like to see any traffic studies that have been done.

We've been living in Maplewood without a car for about thirteen years. The MAPSO downtowns and Springfield Avenue are all within a mile or so and the train connects us with NYC and friends and family. There are also several car rental options within walking distance that we take advantage of a couple times a year. I used to love driving but now dropping off that rental car and walking home feels great! 

dls said:

jamie said:

I personally could not see a viable reason to bike or walk to anything I currently do locally(maybe if I lived closer to town).  I'm curious to know of anyone else will opt to bike or walk instead of driving locally.  Have you made the switch?  I could only see biking to the train if I commuted, but I would probably take the Jitney.  Especially not now when leaves are in the street.

In the meantime - I would like to see any traffic studies that have been done.

We've been living in Maplewood without a car for about thirteen years. The MAPSO downtowns and Springfield Avenue are all within a mile or so and the train connects us with NYC and friends and family. There are also several car rental options within walking distance that we take advantage of a couple times a year. I used to love driving but now dropping off that rental car and walking home feels great! 

Are there Zip Cars in Maplewood? Or just SO?

I have used Enterprise and Hertz in Maplewood, but I'd like to try something that has faster service/no humans.

Having delivery trucks (Amazon especially) double-parked all over town doesn’t help. 

Zipcar's just South Orange. It's no longer just unlock-and-go though. You'll need to take and submit a series of photos at the start and end of the trip to document the condition of the exterior. 

they need to implement a dedicated rideshare (i.e. uber/lyft) dropoff/pickup location at the maplewood train station (preferably one or two blocks away - and on the park side) there was one day (when the geniuses redoing the neverending library construction totally blocked off egress on baker during rush hour where folks took to openly driving back the wrong way down dunnell.  that one wasnt solely attributable to ridesharers —sprinkle in the library construction combined with dbag self important mannerless ahole drivers.

Map of traffic counts: https://www.njtms.org/map/

Is there a key to geographic locations represented by the station numbers?

joan_crystal said:

Is there a key to geographic locations represented by the station numbers?

It's possible the stationID can be joined with the road segment ID that it's collecting the data from, but otherwise I don't know.

Komarovsky said:

Map of traffic counts: https://www.njtms.org/map/

It looks like SOMA is due for some updated data.

I do my best not to drive around SOMA. But if I must, never from 8:30 to 10:30AM or 3:30 to 8PM. I might be a little more flexible when school is not in session. 

fed123 said:

I do my best not to drive around SOMA. But if I must, never from 8:30 to 10:30AM or 3:30 to 8PM. I might be a little more flexible when school is not in session. 

Thank you for your service.

I drive all over NJ for work, on highways and local roads. In rural and urban areas. It’s gotten much worse everywhere. It’s not just here in SOMA. 

I do think that part of the perception is the post-pandemic return to normal traffic patterns.