Editor's Notebook: To Ticket or Not to Ticket

It's a no win situation for Millburn police. If they don't ticket people turning left from Millburn Avenue onto Main Street, people complain. If they ticket them, people complain.

The no left turn was put into place in late July because of the downtown construction project. Two lanes on Millburn Avenue are to go straight at Main Street, and the right lane is to turn right.

And the complaint from many people around town was police officers weren't enforcing the no left turn. People frequently were turning left at the intersection. But the reason no one was ticketed was because police wanted people to get used to the change. There was an officer at one point directing traffic at the intersection, pointing for people not to turn left.

But at some point enforcement was going to become a factor.

Last Thursday and Friday, two police officers were frequently on a special detail issuing tickets at the intersection for people turning left. Over the course of those two days, officers issued 224 tickets to people turning left. Each ticket carries an $85 fine and two points on a license.

And then the complaints came from people about the tickets. I heard people say officers shouldn't be handing out tickets. Instead they should have been issuing warnings. But police believe they already gave people a sufficient grace period. It was a month before they started issuing tickets.

And there were the complaints about the signs. Most people say there aren't enough signs in the area. I counted five, including one posted on the pole outside Gito and one between the two traffic signals above the intersection. In fact, signs were added after the first few weeks because of complaints there weren't enough.

So why the no left turn? Why the enforcement?

The no left turn was put into place because of the back-up that could happen on Millburn Avenue. I've sat in the back-up that happens in the left lane when there's no construction. But if there's an allowed left turn, it would mean only one lane was free to move straight on Millburn Avenue.

Meanwhile, school opens on Tuesday. During the summer people are vacation or out of town, which means there has been less traffic downtown, including pedestrians.

Traffic after this weekend is going to increase downtown before and after school. School officials have planned to divert buses around the construction zone, which will help with some of the problem. But making sure everyone complies with the traffic patterns will help ease some of those traffic burdens. It also will help keep pedestrians safe, who will be traversing the intersection in a different way because of closed sidewalks.

No one likes getting a traffic ticket, but Millburn police are doing their job. They need to make sure traffic is moving through the downtown area while keeping everyone safe. That could mean issuing tickets to make sure everyone complies with the law.