RED BANK: ‘PEDESTRIAN’ COPS NAB 30
Red Bank cops posing as pedestrians issued summonses to 30 motorists for safety violations earlier this week, Captain Mike Frazee announced Thursday.
RED BANK: CONTRACT, ADMIN JOB ON AGENDA
More than three years after it was closed by a catastrophic leak, the borough Senior Center is about to get repairs. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to award a contract to repair the Senior Center, and to discuss a possible new search for a borough administrator, when it holds back-to-back workshop and regular meetings Wednesday night.
Here are some highlights from the agendas:
RED BANK: NEW CLERK ON COUNCIL AGENDA
The council wants Monmouth County to improve pedestrian safety at Broad Street and Pinckney Road. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to appoint a new borough clerk this week.
Here are some highlights from the agendas as the council holds back-to-back workshop and regular meetings Wednesday night:
RED BANK: COUNCIL WRAP
Council Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, center top row, chaired the meeting for the first time since her January 1 election as council president. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council debated several issues with less friction Wednesday night than often seen over the past two years.
RED BANK: ROAD SAFETY ON COUNCIL AGENDA
Bodman Place meets Riverside Avenue between 176 Riverside, at left, and the Colony House apartments, center. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Restarting an effort that failed four years ago, the Red Bank council is expected to again press for the installation of a traffic light at a busy intersection.
Also on the agenda for the council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night is a request that Monmouth County create new crosswalks on busy Shrewsbury Avenue.
RED BANK: SUN TO RISE AGAIN ON STREET
The intersection of Drs. James Parker Boulevard and Bridge Avenue as it appeared this week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The sun won’t go down on a “tactical urbanist” experiment undertaken to improve traffic safety at a tricky Red Bank intersection earlier this year, redbankgreen has learned.
RED BANK: STUDENTS TO SHARE CONCEPTS
Much as they did a year ago for Monmouth Street (above), student planners from Rutgers University’s Bloustein School will offer suggestions for improving Red Bank’s Shrewsbury Avenue corridor as well as the Navesink River waterfront next week.
RED BANK: RETHINKING SHREWSBURY AVENUE
Student planners from Rutgers led the information-gathering session at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. Below, a map on display at the event. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Worries about gentrification and pedestrian safety were at the fore as Red Bank residents gathered for a brainstorming session about the future of Shrewsbury Avenue Wednesday night.
RED BANK: ‘MAGIC WAND’ IDEAS SOUGHT
Student planners from Rutgers will solicit ideas for improving neighborhoods along Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Here’s a ‘magic wand’ question for you: if you could instantly transform Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank, what would it become?
Ditto for creating direct access to the Navesink River from Broad Street: what’s your dream?
Borough residents and other interested parties will get to weigh in on those questions and more Wednesday night.
RED BANK: UNUSUAL INTERSECTION EXPLAINED
Borough officials said more intersections may get the bold-paint treatment used at Drs. Parker Boulevard and Bridge Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A month after the roadway at a Red Bank intersection was painted over with a giant, vivid sun on a field of turquoise, officials gathered there this week to explain and defend it.
RED BANK: SHREWSBURY AVENUE TO GET $1M
Flashing beacons to help pedestrians cross Shrewsbury Avenue would be installed at Locust Avenue, above, and two other intersections. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank will get $1 million worth of pedestrian-safety and streetscape upgrades under a grant award announced Friday.
New streetlamps are also to be installed along the roadway, where dozens of existing fixtures have been out of commission for years.
RED BANK: INTERSECTION POPS WITH COLOR
The intersection of Drs. Parker Boulevard and Bridge Avenue in Red Bank got a new look earlier this week: an eye-popping, curb-to-curb road painting that looks something like a cross between the national flags of Brazil and Kazakhstan.
What’s Going On Here? Click ‘read more’ for the answer. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: SHEDDING LIGHT ON SHREWSBURY
Streetlamps on both ends of a crosswalk at Catherine Street are among dozens along Shrewsbury Avenue awaiting repairs. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Pedestrian safety issues rose to the fore again at the Red Bank borough council’s latest meeting.
As they have often in the past, conditions along Shrewsbury Avenue in particular sparked outrage.
LITTLE SILVER: STUDENT TO RATE WALKWAYS
Theo Cheevers at Church Street and Rumson Road, site of a recent sidewalk reconstruction. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Where exactly in Little Silver are there sidewalks, and what condition are they in? How might crosswalks be improved?
A young borough man has decided to tackle those questions this summer. And while the effort sounds, um, pedestrian, local government officials are looking forward to his findings.
SAFETY PUSH MAKES IT TO MASTER PLAN
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Red Bank’s team of two-wheeled street safety activists earned a small victory Monday night in their effort to make borough paths safer and more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians.
As anticipated, the borough planning board voted to incorporate a lengthy bike and pedestrian safety report and recommendations into Red Bank’s Master Plan, the principle guiding document for development in town.
With the addition of the “Red Bank Bicycle/Pedestrian Planning Project” report, the group’s vision of shared streets and consideration of walkers and non-vehicular riders in future planning is coming into focus.
“We’re hoping (Red Bank) is safer and more community friendly,” said Jenny Rossano, one of the founders of Safe Routes Red Bank, whose members pulled in a non-cash grant to prepare the 106-page report. “We’re hoping people will walk and bike more, and that makes a community better.”
BIKE AND PED SAFETY PLAN ROLLS ON
Jenny Rossano reviews the soon-to-be-adopted bike and pedestrian plan in Red Bank, while Jim Willis, in the background, views it on an iPad. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
When a group of residents banded together almost two years ago to make Red Bank’s streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, there were never any notions it’d be a fast-moving process. Compiling data, analyzing studies and working with local and state government simply don’t lend themselves to timeliness.
But in the long-distance course to effect change, a grassroots group made a leap forward Monday night when it all but secured adoption from the borough planning board of a 100-plus page report on bike and walker safety, including a multitude of recommendations on how to improve the way of life of those on two legs and two wheels.
SNOW ADDED TO TOP PED SAFETY CONCERNS
It doesn’t do much good if snow blocks access to a shoveled sidewalk, residents say. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The list of concerns related to pedestrian safety are well-documented. Red Bank needs more traffic lights, better signage, sidewalk improves and more, residents say.
But now, with snow packed into blocks of ice at the end of sidewalks throughout town, fears are heightened that something bad is going to happen.
That concern, along with the usual gripes, were aired at Wednesday night’s monthly West Side Community Group meeting with police and Mayor Pasquale Menna.
“It’s not that the sidewalks are not shoveled. It’s just that the curbing is blocked with snow,” said Carl Colmorgen, a school crossing guard. “The crosswalks are there, but you can’t get to them because of the snow.”
But the problem is going to take time to resolve, officials said.
NEW CROSSWALK LAW DRAWS MIXED REAX
A woman crosses Mechanic Street at the interesection of Broad in downtown Red Bank Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
A new, statewide vehicle-related law went into effect Thursday, with the aim of improving pedestrian safety. But will it?
Drivers must now completely “stop and stay stopped” when someone is in a crosswalk, according to a campaign launched by the state Attorney General’s office. Prior law said yielding would do, but officials cited increased fatality rates as the cause to tighten down on drivers. Violating the law carries a fine of $200. (Pedestrians may also be cited and fined $54 for failing to use due care when crossing.)
redbankgreen spent a good part of the sun-splashed day posing a question to folks in Red Bank and the surrounding area: Do you think this law will actually make your town safer?
We got a mixed bag of responses.