Although the Township Council’s "Orange you glad you live in Brick Township" proposal may not be the answer to all the township’s traffic safety woes, it is a sensible step in the right direction.
At the Jan. 14 meeting, new council President Kimberley Casten proposed a plan to install receptacles with safety orange flags near the intersection of Chambers Bridge Road and Route 70. If successful, the plan could be implemented at other busy intersections throughout the township.
Pedestrians who wish to cross the street could grab a flag for the trip and place it in the opposite receptacle when they’re done. Although aimed primarily for senior citizens who have a tough time crossing the four-lane intersection, the flags could be used by anyone who wished.
Casten’s idea came from similar programs that were used in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics and in Middlesex County. The name for the program came to the councilwoman after she heard her daughter telling knock-knock jokes with similar punch lines.
While the name and the concept may sound silly on the surface, the idea could be an affordable way of saving lives. Since grant money could be obtained to pay for the program, there’s really no harm for taxpayers to give it a shot.
On one hand, it’s hard to imagine that the Department of Transportation will look favorably on any actions that would draw pedestrians toward one of the busiest intersections in Ocean County.
But people do, and will continue, to cross there anyway. As long as that’s the case, it’s only reasonable to try to make that trip safer.
Councilman Stephen Acropolis favored the more traditional approaches of installing pedestrian push buttons, traffic islands, crossing guards and re-timing the light to allow more crossing time.
Ultimately, the public would be served best by some combination of both council members’ ideas.
But the spot being examined is at the intersection of a county road and a state highway, so most of those changes are not the municipality’s call and could occur slowly.
Anyone who has driven the area’s major roads for long enough may have experienced a startling moment where someone riding a bicycle or walking on the road shoulder seems to appear out of nowhere in the darkness. Perhaps a bright orange flag will afford some driver that extra split second needed to avoid a nightmarish worst-case scenario.
So for township residents, the better question might be, "Orange you glad the problem is being addressed?"