DISPATCHES by Hank Kalet: Enforcement slows speeders

Child-designed signs put up in hopes to educate drivers of speeding dangers

By: Hank Kalet
   Local and county officials want to remind drivers to ease off the gas in residential neighborhoods.
   To that end, they have unveiled a new program designed to educate drivers about the rules. The county will be posting about 375 signs in residential neighborhoods throughout Middlesex County with the first ones being posted on Kory Drive near Brunswick Acres School in South Brunswick.
   The signs, designed by 15-year-old Destiny Griggs of Monroe, depict two children and a dog playing with a ball, a car visible in the background, with "slow" in all capital letters across the top and "residential zone" across the bottom.
   They are, according to South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka, an important component in battling speeding — one of the three "E’s" (education) of traffic control.
   "We’re hoping that this education and awareness program, with our local law enforcement efforts for our community, as well, will make Middlesex County a safer place for all our residents," he said during last week’s ceremony unveiling the signs.
   The new signs, however, might seem a rather meek and ineffectual response to a real problem — drivers who treat local roads like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And I’m not just talking about major thoroughfares like New Road through Kendall Park or East Railroad Avenue in Jamesburg or Plainsboro Road in Cranbury. I’m thinking of Kory Drive in Brunswick Acres and Gatzmer Avenue in Jamesburg; I’m thinking of Cranbury Neck Road in Cranbury and Monmouth Drive in Monroe— roads that are not, or should not be, major cut-throughs.
   Dotting these roads with small yellow, temporary signs that are no taller than fire hydrants just seems absurd. After all, why would we expect speeding drivers to pay attention to temporary signs when they have spent much of their driving life ignoring more permanent and important postings, i.e., the signs telling them how fast they are allowed to go.
   That’s not to say, however, that the signs might not have their impact. As with the state’s crackdown on drunken driving and seat belt use, education must be a component of any effort and it can’t hurt to reinforce to drivers that they need to slow down, that there may be families with children and pets in the neighborhood.
   I remember the ads that started running in the early 1980s. They were a mix of information (drunken drivers take lives, seat belts save lives) and threats (it’s the law, etc.). I also remember the police stepping up their presence, making a very public show or writing tickets and taking drunken drivers off to jail. The ads heightened awareness, but it was the enforcement, the proof that the threat was real that made the public realize just how wrong and dangerous it was to get behind the wheel after downing a few beers.
   The new signs should be considered in this light. They will only work if they are combined with a serious crackdown on speeding, one that alters the reputations of the communities in the area.
   Steve Masticola, of Kingston, makes just this point in an item on the South Brunswick Post’s The Blog of South Brunswick (www.south-brunswick.blogspot.com):
   "There are certain towns around New Jersey where everyone drives nice, obeys the speed limits, and gives pedestrians plenty of leeway," he writes. Drivers know that, should they exceed the speed limit, they will get a ticket.
   While traffic enforcement is up in Cranbury, Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick (where Chief Raymond Hayducka has made it one of his priorities), local roads have not yet attained the mythical status of Plainsboro, where it is said that police materialize out of the mists to write tickets to lead-footed drivers.
   OK, so I’m making this part up. But ask most any driver from the region and they will tell you to be careful not to speed along Scudders Mill Road.
   Let’s hope that, in the not-too-distant future, the roads in Cranbury, Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick will have earned the same reputation.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. He can be reached via e-mail, or through his weblog, Channel Surfing.