City Plans Highway Through Downtown
Residents hoping for a freshly paved Columbus Drive may be dismayed to learn they will soon be losing a valuable parking as the city prepares to expand the roadway into a five lane highway. The city intends to realign Columbus Drive with six lanes of traffic; during rush hour, parking would be prohibited on one side of the street to create three lanes of traffic in one direction, and two in the opposite direction.
The expansion project will extend as far east as Warren Street. The current taxi cab stand on Columbus drive will displace metered parking on Grove Street and extend onto Wayne Street. Resident and meter parking along Columbus will be eliminated during rush hours. The city plans one widening the roadway during the repaving process by removing existing curb extensions, trees, and eliminating parking spaces. Parking will be prohibited on the eastbound side of the street during the mornings and the westbound side of the street in the afternoons. In effect, residents will be unable to park on Columbus during the day unless they can move their cars between the morning the evening rush. Enforcement will be coordinated by the East District police. Further expansion to full time six lane roadway will need the approval of the city council.
The expansion of the roadway will also send traffic onto local residential streets such as Jersey Avenue and Erie Street; Erie is already known to be hazardous because of high traffic volumes. The city contends improvements to signal timing, resin crosswalks, and new handicapped ramps will compensate for the wider distance pedestrians have to cross the busy street.
The city received a state grant to cover the cost of the repaving the street as far Jersey Avenue. According to Councilman Fulop, the grant does not require realigning the roadway.
Last year, the city doubled the capacity of Grand Street to the chagrin of residents who have lost parking along the street. The road is now four lanes at all times; resident contend the wider roadway presents a danger to pedestrians, particularly because city officials refuse to activate a new traffic light at Barrow Street.
The city insists adding a lane of traffic is not an expansion but merely a cosmetic streetscape project. Typically,a 1% percent increase in travel lanes results in an increase of traffic volume by .9% within 5 years.
The expansion project will extend as far east as Warren Street. The current taxi cab stand on Columbus drive will displace metered parking on Grove Street and extend onto Wayne Street. Resident and meter parking along Columbus will be eliminated during rush hours. The city plans one widening the roadway during the repaving process by removing existing curb extensions, trees, and eliminating parking spaces. Parking will be prohibited on the eastbound side of the street during the mornings and the westbound side of the street in the afternoons. In effect, residents will be unable to park on Columbus during the day unless they can move their cars between the morning the evening rush. Enforcement will be coordinated by the East District police. Further expansion to full time six lane roadway will need the approval of the city council.
The expansion of the roadway will also send traffic onto local residential streets such as Jersey Avenue and Erie Street; Erie is already known to be hazardous because of high traffic volumes. The city contends improvements to signal timing, resin crosswalks, and new handicapped ramps will compensate for the wider distance pedestrians have to cross the busy street.
The city received a state grant to cover the cost of the repaving the street as far Jersey Avenue. According to Councilman Fulop, the grant does not require realigning the roadway.
Last year, the city doubled the capacity of Grand Street to the chagrin of residents who have lost parking along the street. The road is now four lanes at all times; resident contend the wider roadway presents a danger to pedestrians, particularly because city officials refuse to activate a new traffic light at Barrow Street.
The city insists adding a lane of traffic is not an expansion but merely a cosmetic streetscape project. Typically,a 1% percent increase in travel lanes results in an increase of traffic volume by .9% within 5 years.
Labels: Transportation
5 Comments:
Won't the smoother ride on Columbus siphon traffic off of Grand, York and Montgomery? This would especially be the case if they synchronize the lights on Columbus. Could that be what they have in mind? That would be a huge benefit to the area, not a downside. I mean, presumably, the idea is not to reduce the JC quality of life, right? Also, there is no plan to increase the speed limit on Columbus, or create ramps for entries and exits, so calling this an autobahn is pure hyperbole.
Because of the way the turnpike ramp is configured, all the traffic coming off the highway already is funneled onto Columbus, and traffic coming from the west side of the city down Montgomery cannot turn left onto Columbus anyway. Also, the city expanded Grand Street last year from two lanes to four, so its unlikely the expectation is to send cars from Grand Street onto Columbus.
While the intent may not be to reduce the quality of life for Jersey City residents, the pragmatic result likely will. Five lanes of traffic makes it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the street. More traffic lanes also means more traffic-- roadway expansions lead to volume expansions. And on top of that, local residents are sacrificing 200 to 300 parking spaces along the street that current serves residents, as well as metered parking that allows parking churn to send customers to local businesses.
This is the sort of urban planning that went out of style in the 1970's. Catering to the car culture of suburbanites who do not live in the city is not a positive redevelopment.
Cars already speed down Columbus. There may not be exit ramps, but with 5 lanes of traffic, it more resembles a highway than an urban street. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, its probably a duck.
This is really sad. Big loss for local residents.
Ian - this is off-topic, but do you know whether plans to extend Jersey Ave to Phillips Drive are alive or dead?
It looks that they built a 4-lane highway which ends at the Rape Bridge to LSP...
Well, on second thought maybe this is not entirely off-topic, because Jersey does cross with Columbus and the flow of traffic will be impacted by both projects.
Ian - do you know where we, as citizens, can direct our displeasure with this idea? is there somebody specific at the town hall who we can write letters to?
i work as a civil engineer, and some of my work experience led me to an idea for this project. i'd like to suggest to JC that, "in these economic times", they consider making it a two-phase project. simply repaving columbus would be a quick, straightforward job. the utility relocation, sidewalk removal, and subsequent new road areas (which would require at least 8-12" new full-depth pavement, whereas re-paving the existing road only requires new surface course) would be the most expensive parts of the project. i think they should repave the existing roadway now, and make the widening a separate project for the future.
thanks for the warning about this terrible idea brought to us by JC...
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