Photo Courtesy of Sheena Collum
South Orange Police Sgt. Michael Corrigan visits the South Orange Country Day School to show its students pedestrian safety tips. This is just one aspect of the work being done by the village and the police department to increase traffic and pedestrian safety in South Orange.
SOUTH ORANGE The South Orange Board of Trustees voted unanimously Oct. 27 to request that the county lower the speed limit on South Orange Avenue from 30 mph to 25 mph in another recent effort by the village to increase traffic and pedestrian safety.
Ordinance No. 2014-21, which passed on first reading with a vote of 6-0, requests that the speed limit on South Orange Avenue from Ward Place to North Ridgewood Road be lowered from 30 mph to 25 mph, to make the busy street’s speed limit more consistent with other village roadways. As South Orange Avenue is a county-owned roadway, the county will ultimately have the final decision regarding the road’s speed limit.
This proposed change came about after a trustee questioned South Orange Avenue’s speed limit, noting that it was inconsistent with the speed limits on many surrounding roadways.
“A couple weeks ago, Trustee Howard Levison noticed a new sign on South Orange Avenue that had the speed limit posted at 30 mph going east past Ridgewood Road and requested the Board of Trustees look into this,” Trustee Sheena Collum, who also chairs the Public Safety Committee, told the News-Record earlier this week via email. “The overwhelming majority of our streets throughout town are 25 mph and we all agreed to make this stretch more consistent with other areas, which is why we introduced the ordinance.”
Additionally, Collum and the board have expressed that 25 mph is more appropriate for South Orange Avenue’s atmosphere.
“Our central business district gets a lot of vehicular and pedestrian traffic and we felt 25 mph is better suited for a downtown speed at which all drivers should be traveling,” Collum said.
This is not the first time in recent memory that the village has gone this route with a county-owned road.
“As another example, last year, we passed an ordinance requesting the county to change the speed limit on Valley Street to 25 mph shortly after Maplewood requested a similar change,” Collum reminded.
The speed limit on Valley Street had been 35 mph, which both towns’ governments felt was too high. In order to request the county to lower the speed limit, the Maplewood Township Committee passed Ordinance No. 2730-13 on second reading with a 4-1 vote Oct. 1, 2013, and the South Orange Board of Trustees followed suit by passing Ordinance No. 2013-22 on second reading with a 5-0 vote on Dec. 23, 2013. Following the towns’ suggestion, the county complied in 2014, lowering the speed limit.
These changes are only one component of South Orange’s work to protect its drivers and pedestrians.
“Traffic calming and pedestrian safety have been a priority for the village and particularly the village’s Public Safety Committee,” Collum said. “Over the summer we posted lawn signs and banners all throughout the community reminding residents and guests to ‘stop for pedestrians within crosswalks.’ Shortly after the education campaign began, our police department under the leadership of Sgt. Michael Corrigan in our Traffic Bureau began aggressive enforcement.”
Collum told the News-Record that, since April, South Orange police have completed 16 pedestrian safety details in problem areas. Police have also issued 385 summonses to drivers for failing to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks and 438 summonses for other traffic violations, including speeding, talking on a cell phone while driving, and texting while driving.
“Additionally, the Board of Trustees has undertaken a series of additional initiatives to address this problem,” Collum continued. “We’ve installed solar-powered speed boxes on North Ridgewood and Scotland; we designated various new crosswalks; we authorized a contract for crosswalk restriping all throughout the town, which was completed last month, allowing better visibility for drivers; we’ve begun the process of working more closely on education in schools, having attended the South Orange Middle School orientation and showing the real young ones at the Country Day School the importance of crosswalk safety.”
And there’s more. The village has additional plans for future initiatives.
“Lastly, within the next couple weeks, the Public Safety Committee will be introducing a new traffic calming policy to the BOT in order to make it easier for residents to bring speeding/traffic related issues to our attention,” Collum said. “This policy will provide us with a criteria and process by which the BOT can prioritize and implement more traffic calming measures throughout the community ranging from increased enforcement to engineering alternatives in neighborhoods.
“Collectively, we hope these efforts are making a difference in the community.”
A second reading of the ordinance and public hearing will be at the Monday, Nov. 24, Board of Trustees meeting at 8 p.m. at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.