Brookdale has grown tremendously from its founding in 1967 to a current student population of 11,876 students in 2001. Brookdale, with its all-commuting student population, is expected to increase its student enrollment by 8-12 percent this fall. Brookdale’s answer to its growing number of students has been to pave more parking lots. Yet Brookdale students still have difficulty finding a parking place. Has Brookdale done anything to encourage car pooling or public transportation? No. A NJ Transit bus stops at Brookdale once an hour — far from a convenient schedule — and ridership is low. Parking is free at Brookdale.
The county has recognized the traffic problems on Route 520, the primary road leading to Brookdale, and commissioned a traffic study of Route 520 in Lincroft and Red Bank. The study’s recommendation was to widen Route 520 as well as Route 50 (Lincroft-Middletown Road-Swimming River Road). It also plans to create a center turning lane in Route 520 in Red Bank.
Widening the roads in an area with many stores and pedestrians is not the answer as is tragically demonstrated by the recent death of a teenage girl in Holmdel crossing five-lane Laurel Avenue. The county has acknowledged the problems of pedestrians crossing Route 520 in Lincroft by creating a pedestrian-only phase at the light at Hurley’s Lane and Route 520.
However, a pedestrian-only phase does not stop motorists from running red lights at 50 mph (in a 35-mph zone and 25-mph school zone) or motorists making illegal right turns at a "no turn on red" intersection. Pedestrians continue to cross 520 between the pharmacy lot and Dunkin’ Donuts lot rather than walking an extra half mile to the Hurley’s Lane light and back to cross the street.
Residents have recommended a landscaped center island in Route 520 at the pharmacy entrance that would also serve to direct left turns. The county’s response has been that a center island would encourage people to cross at a dangerous location. What about the people who already do? The county’s own pedestrian count was that 16 people crossed at that location from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on a weekday. That’s 832 people per year, not including weekends, early morning and evening hours. Any one of those pedestrians could have been killed. A center island with crosswalk would make the location less dangerous for both pedestrians and motorists making left turns.
Widening 520 at the Lincroft School is nothing short of ludicrous. Not only will children have to cross a dangerous five-lane highway to go to the public library or ballfields, but motorists will also be put in jeopardy by moving the present two- to one-lane merger of Route 520 westbound to an area with six driveways. Presently the merger is between Route 50 and Phalanx Road where there is only one driveway. The proposed widening will force drivers to navigate a lane merger while school buses, soccer parents, library patrons and assisted-living visitors are turning into and out of driveways.
Lincroft’s traffic problems are a direct result of Brookdale’s expanding population. The county’s response should not be to spend taxpayers’ money to make dangerous expansions of the roads, but rather to have its county college implement a plan to reduce the number of one-passenger vehicles that clog our roads on their way to and from Brookdale.
Brookdale should charge a substantial fee for parking and then use the revenues from both parking permits and fines to violators to pay for free busing from major areas such as Asbury Park, Neptune, Red Bank, Hazlet and Freehold. In addition, Brookdale should supply a free shuttle bus from the commuter parking lot at parkway exit 109 as well as the train station in Red Bank.
Carol Baker
Lincroft Task Force
Lincroft section of Middletown