ROBBINSVILLE: Council gives red light, then green light to traffic signal

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLE — After hearing complaints from a Beechwood Drive resident, the Township Council initially voted to table a resolution authorizing an agreement with the county for a traffic signal on Route 526 at Pond Road and Beechwood Drive — then changed its mind less than an hour later.
   After the vote to table was taken, the resident had gone home, and the council had moved on to other business, Mayor Dave Fried arrived at the Jan. 27 meeting to make a personal appeal for the project, reminding the council that each one had signed the letter to the county asking for the traffic light in the first place.
   ”Ultimately, when you write a letter to someone asking for something I actually expect you to mean it,” Mayor Fried told the council. “I put myself out there … if I have to now go back to the county and say ah, well, the council wasn’t really serious when they wrote you this letter, I look pretty silly.”
   Council members responded that they weren’t killing the project, just postponing action until they had more data from the Police Department on the accidents that have occurred at the intersection to determine if a traffic light was the best solution. Mayor Fried replied the county could walk away from the agreement if the town didn’t accept the traffic light that it had asked for.
   ”If they decide to pull this off of our table, I don’t think we’ll have this opportunity again,” Mayor Fried said. “And the next person who has an accident there … I’m going to hold you guys accountable.”
   The council eventually approved a motion to “untable” the resolution, and then unanimously adopted it. The mayor, in turn, agreed to hold off signing the agreement with the county until the Police Department provided the council with information on the causes of the accidents that have occurred there.
   Earlier in the evening, Scott Benner, of 56 Beechwood Drive, told the council nearly all of the crashes that have happened at the intersection occurred because a vehicle traveling south on Route 526 toward Town Center attempted to make a left turn onto Beechwood Drive and couldn’t see oncoming northbound traffic because Route 526 slopes upward near the intersection.
   Mr. Benner, who lives about 100 feet from the corner, maintained that a traffic signal wouldn’t help because whenever southbound drivers on Route 526 had a green light, they could still get hit trying to make the left turn. A better solution is to forget the light and prohibit left turns at Beachwood Drive, he said.
   ”You’re going to put a traffic light up that’s not going to stop anything,” Mr. Benner said. “I’m begging you to find another way.”
   However, a Police Department report done the next day at the council’s request analyzing the causes of accidents at the intersection during the past five years determined Mr. Benner was mistaken.
   The analysis, done by Patrolman Thomas Egan, found that only one of 12 crashes since 2006 was caused by a car traveling south on Route 526, and in that case, the driver was illegally passing another vehicle, not trying to turn left onto Beechwood Drive. The report found the other 11 crashes were caused when cars pulled out of Pond Road or Beechwood Drive and were hit by cross traffic on Route 526 where the posted speed limit is 45 mph.
   On the night of the meeting, however, none of this was clear and it prompted the council’s initial decision to delay voting on the matter until police reviewed the circumstances of prior accidents at the intersection.
   Police Chief Martin Masseroni, who was at the meeting to make the case for lease-purchasing four new squad cars, said he did not have accident reports with him, but would get the information to the council for its next meeting.
   Once the traffic light had been tabled, Township Business Administrator Tim McGough stepped out of the room to make a phone call. Mayor Fried arrived a short time later in a baseball cap and sweatshirt (he said he had been out plowing snow near Meadowbrook Road in a township truck) to cajole the council.
   ”This is a really big deal and that’s why I showed up here looking this way,” Mayor Fried said upon his arrival, referring to his snowplowing attire.
   Route 526, also known as Robbinsville-Edinburg Road, is a county highway, while Pond Road and Beechwood Drive are both township roads. The township has been asking the county for a light there for nine years, Mayor Fried said.
   Under the terms of the shared services agreement, the township will purchase the traffic signal and pay for the installation of the underground wiring. County road workers will install the signal itself and the county will be responsible for future maintenance.
   Mr. McGough said at the council meeting the light and related equipment would cost about $75,000 and the underground wiring work would cost $14,300.