Freddie Boynton (far right) at the intersection of River Street and Leighton Avenue, where he is asking the town to create a four-way stop. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Freddie Boynton watched as the Borough of Red Bank created a four-way stop at the intersection of Bridge Avenue Chestnut Street in 2009. And again when the borough added four way stops at Spring Street and Tower Hill and Chestnut and Pearl Streets in 2022.
Then there were the new four-way stops created in recent years to stem accidents at East Bergen Place and South Street and Drs. James Parker Boulevard and Leighton Avenue.
So as he stood at the corner of Leighton Avenue and River Street Tuesday watching a crossing guard help kids across a busy intersection residents have long raised alarms about, he wondered why his months long campaign to get two more stop signs there still hasn’t come to fruition.
“Why won’t they put a four way stop here?” asked Boynton. “Look how they zoom through here.”
Boynton, whose likeness adorns a plaque in nearby Johnny Jazz Park honoring his years of community activism, says until he sees four stop signs there: “We not going to back down.”
River Street and Leighton Avenue. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
Boynton’s comments came a week after a meeting he organized on the issue and other neighborhood concerns drew about 50 residents, the borough manager, chief of police, members of the borough council and other officials to Celestial Lodge 36.
Residents voiced a host of concerns about parking, traffic overcrowding and zoning issues. Slowing traffic at River and Leighton was at the top of the list. Currently, traffic heading east/west on River Street is required to stop. Leighton Avenue is a through street.
At the end of the community meeting, Mayor Billy Portman told attendees: “If I don’t know about the problem I can’t do anything about it, so this is very helpful to hear what the issues are. I am not promising I can fix all of them. I just want to assure you are heard and that’s why we brought the brain trust here.”
Watch video of the meeting here.
Public officials at last week’s community meeting, from left to right RBPD Sgt. Heather Kovar, Borough Manager Jim Gant, Mayor Billy Portman, Councilwoman Nancy Facey-Blackwood and Police Chief Mike Frazee (video screen grab courtesy of Suzanne Viscomi)
At the meeting of the Mayor Borough Council two days later, Councilwoman Nancy Facey-Blackwood, who attended the community meeting, said the four way stop “is something we are looking into.”
But officials said they weren’t quite sure the main concern – speeding – would be fixed by forcing traffic to stop in all directions at River and Leighton.
Town officials have previously stated the federal government’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways “specifically prohibits” the use of four-way stops as speed control devices.
Sgt. Heather Kovar of the RBPD traffic safety division told the crowd at the meeting a four-way stop may not be the best solution for that particular spot.
“Four way stops are not really encouraged to reduce speed, as far as the guidance is concerned. And often times they create other problems,’’ she said. At Bridge and Chestnut, for example, accidents are occurring when drivers heading across each other’s paths “both stop, then both go.”
“We want to make sure we have a sustained way to fix what’s happening out there,” she said of River and Leighton.
The problems at River and Leighton are both local and national.
The borough continues to struggle with the local effects of a nationwide post-pandemic increase in speeding, traffic and pedestrian fatalities, inattentive driving, and reckless driving.
Meanwhile, New Jersey law also limits the options local officials have.
Red Bank is criss crossed by state and county roads (including Newman Springs Road, the main feeder for northbound traffic turning onto Leighton Avenue) over which the town has no jurisdiction. And while 19 states use speed cameras and 22 have red light cameras, New Jersey law bans towns from deploying either.
And Leighton Avenue —increasingly used by GPS-guided drivers as an alternative north-south route to Shrewsbury Avenue — has had several traffic calming features put in place by the borough in recent years.
The town has added speed humps near the corner of West Westside Avenue and another several blocks north of River Street near Leonard Street. A new four-way stop at the corner of Leighton and Drs. James Parker Boulevard, just two blocks south of River, was installed last year. This year officials also installed a speed-radar equipped display sign near Sunset Avenue.
But Boynton and others say traffic tends to pick up speed in the gap between those features, which includes the River Street intersection. 
“They’re gonna wait until somebody gets killed here,” said Chuck Goodrich who lives near the intersection on River Street.
In 2011, former Mayor Pasquale Menna proposed four-way stops at River Street where it intersects with Bridge Avenue, with Leighton Avenue, and with Tilton Avenue, just up the hill from Red Bank Primary School. But the those signs were never erected.
Last year, the borough applied for a grant under the state’s Safe Routes to School program to install bump outs on all four corners and lighted pedestrian crossing signs at River and Leighton, but Gant said the state denied the borough’s application.
In the meantime, Boyton says it escapes him why the Borough can’t simply put up two new stop signs like they did in other places.
“We’re trying to ask you all for what we need over here, and it seems like we have to fight to get it on this side of town,” Boynton told the officials on the dais. “It shouldn’t be like that.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
