Officials Won't Test New Traffic Pattern for Park and Madison Avenues Now

After seeing a plan from the borough engineer and hearing concerns from the police captain, members of the Westwood governing body decided Tuesday to hold off on a new traffic pattern test for Park and Madison avenues.

at the Aug. 2 work session to see if permanent changes would be positive and warrant a cost of $354,000. At that time, council members asked Borough Engineer Stephen Boswell to draw up a plan showing where residents could park and exactly what it would look like if Park Avenue was made a two-way street and Madison Avenue was closed off to through traffic between Park and Third avenues.

During the meeting Tuesday night, Boswell explained that he had created the plans for the temporary reconfiguration and found parking spaces for library patrons, which was a concern, but there were other issues. He said his biggest concern was how the test would be evaluated, asking how officials planned to determine success.

Westwood Police Capt. Frank Durante, who serves as the department's traffic safety officer, said he believes the reconfiguration test, at this point, would be negative and would not provide a true picture of permanent changes since county improvements are not yet complete.

"If improvements surrounding that area were there, to do a temporary situation I think you'd probably get a relatively good picture of how it will work," Durante said. "But there's no improvements."

After hearing from Durante, officials agreed that a simulation now isn't a good idea.

"The police don't think it's safe. They don't think it's going to give us an indicator," Council President Robert Miller said. "There's no good reason we should do it."

Councilwoman Cynthia Waneck, who opposed the idea of a test Aug. 2, said officials should wait to see what the county improvements do to the area.

"Every action has a reaction," she said. "I want to see what happens when these lights get changed on Broadway, what effect that has."

Boswell explained to officials that if they delay a decision on the borough portion of the project, which would include Park and Madison avenues, until the county changes are made the cost would increase because the projects would go out to bid separately.

He added that the county is willing to pay for improvements to Third Avenue and any potential changes to Park and Madison avenues wouldn't affect that project.

"I think that we can segregate the county component from the town component and implement all of the county improvements at this time and then see what you want to do," Boswell said. "I think it's critical to solve the downtown traffic problem to address the intersection of Third Avenue and Washington."

The next Westwood council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 6.