NJ - Berkeley installs chokers to stop speeders

[StlouisX50]

Berkeley installs chokers to stop speeders

Traffic calming devices almost ready in Berkeley

By Bonnie Delaney • TOMS RIVER BUREAU • June 25, 2009

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BERKELEY — Efforts are under way to make Maryland Avenue, which township officials have labeled as one of the most dangerous roads in the 41.9-square-mile township, safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.



The installation of traffic calming devices known as chokers is 85 percent complete, and the Township Council authorized the township's administrator and engineer to seek bids for the construction of sidewalks on one side of the roadway, which is surrounded by single-family homes.
"This (speeders) has been an ongoing issue, and it is definitely a danger to our children in our town," Mayor Jason J. Varano said Tuesday.
Varano reported the installation of the chokers, a $150,000 project, is 85 percent complete with only the raised, brick-colored crosswalks left to be installed along three intersections on Maryland Avenue at McKinley, Coolidge and Eastern.
The township will seek bids for sidewalks along Maryland from Western Boulevard to Wheaton Avenue, a project estimated to cost an additional $80,000 and $100,000, he said.
"Some people think the chokers are working, and some think they are a nuisance," Councilman Carmen Amato said. "I think the sidewalks will be key to improving safety in the area."
Varano said that if the traffic calming device is successful, it could be installed along other roads, including Red Bank and Moorage avenues, which are near the township Little League complex.
Meanwhile, crosswalks, striping, sidewalks near Route 9 and other improvements might be considered for Harbor Inn Road, another area where residents have complained about speeding cars, he said.
Some residents of that neighborhood had asked for chokers, but a majority of those who attended a meeting last year were not in favor.

[Cips]

Those things look terrible. (Just did a Google Image search.)

[hockey005]

Those things look terrible. (Just did a Google Image search.)

x2!

[Stealth Stalker]

LOL! Welcome to Iraq!

Those things are everywhere there.

[lugnuts]

this isn't going to slow people down, its just going to cause aggravated drivers to swerve/ weave around/through them.

[supercowpowers]

Do these things just block the shoulder so it's less "comfortable" to speed through them or do they physically restrict two vehicles from passing the same point at the same time?

[lugnuts]

[lugnuts]

[MEM-TEK]

Those chokers are UGLY!

[supercowpowers]

Some of those are really stupid.

If someone is truly going too fast through this curve, they have two choices - hit the tree or go into the yard of the people who whined to get the thing installed.


Who wants to play chicken...


I'm trying to picture a fire truck navigating this..


I wonder if the people who cry to get these things put in are the same sort of people who live down the street here who let their kids play in the street all afternoon. Just half an hour ago I had to dodge a ramp for their RC cars that the little turds left in the middle of the road.