Peretz Eichler Reports on Route 9 NJTPA Meeting

there's an old Chinese expression that says a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step unless you happen to be on the route nine Carter and leg loop then journey one step could seem like it's a thousand miles for a year the township has been starting traffic patterns and now they finally decided to do something like they say about the weather everybody talks about it but nobody seems to do anything about it but now it called a meeting for people to state what they feel about what the problem is their frustrations and what can be done about Frank's guarantee no I'm the ocean county engineer the purpose of this study the goal if you would is to develop an access management plan for liquid Township and also for Toms River Township each time would have their own plan and it would create a vision for what route 9 would ultimately look like and that would allow the township to shape what the Carter could become why is it taking this long for something good finally we decided to be done about it unlike previous studies that were done this actually mandates that plan that every form of development and redevelopment would have to follow looking forward without this that's never been done before there's only up to other towns in the entire state that ever did an access management plan do you think this will make a difference in the traffic pattern I think it will begin to put into place short-term improvements that will fit the long-term goal and those short-term improvements will begin to give relief to innovate traffic congestion in lightly what type of time frame you think we're looking about to actually implement something that'll make a difference I think the plan could be in place in as little as eight months and after that each development that comes to the Planning Board would have conform to the plane if they're gay actually widen it do you think what do you think the solution is for the ruling problem the best solution of course would be to widen it but if it's not possible due to funding or any other realities then we ought to do as many small fixes as possible you find it frustrating driving a rune eye yes definitely I do take that accept it that that's what we have to deal with and that's part of life that we have difficulties how much time more do you lot yourself when you're traveling with knowing when you have to get anywhere well I don't travel that much Andrew nine I don't spend that much time on the actual nine I do have to get to part of your name so I can't say it I want a specific amount of time by snows I'm gonna have to deal with it I think is the real problem what do you think what are we done well I think for the problem is that we can't move from south to the center of liquid it really takes a long time especially during busy times of the day and if they saw what they did when they made the turning lane and they made the extra lanes another probability just kind of move quickly if we could do that by us and have that extra lane or make things move so much quicker best I'll be so helpful there's a day what exactly is the problem knowing the white this juncture has the government decided to step in and what do you think can be done well nine is faced with a lot of traffic and congestion issues as I think most people the community realized and this study is looking at things that can be done quickly and at a reasonable cost to improve mobility for drivers pedestrians and really all users of the roadway when you say cost can we think those courses we passed on to the taxpayers oh well there are public funds available for certain projects and improvements one thing I will address because there's a lot of people at tonight's meeting a lot of people we know in the community who are looking to see route night widened that is a long term potential for the roadway it's not what this study is currently addressing there's a lot of funding constraints at the state level right now but we do want to try to do some things to improve the roadway in the meantime even as we even as the state keeps that a long term goal we're working some of those things there could be short-term remedy it could be improvements in traffic signal timing improvements in left turns in certain intersections those sorts of things there's a variety of things that shouldn't be a strong public outcry or demand that route 9 B why do you think the government would listen well I think that message has been clearly received as I said it's really a question of the constraints on funding for transportation at the state federal level that the entire state of New Jersey and even beyond the entire country at the federal level is facing right now what do you think the problem is on route 9 and what do you think the township really what to do about it the same old problem it's supposed to be four lanes it's supposed to be that way since I bought a property there back in the 90s it's just you know nothing happens so do you think something's going to happen this time and what do you think should be done I think it should become a four-lane highway without a me and where you can make left turns