NJDOT Awards Newark $500,000 for Pedestrian Safety Improvements
(Trenton) Commissioner Kris Kolluri today announced that the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) will award the City of Newark $500,000 to be used for pedestrian safety improvements. Newark will use the funding to provide pedestrian countdown timers on Ferry Street traffic signals at the Union Street, Jefferson Street, Adams Street and Jackson Street intersections.
“NJDOT’s pedestrian safety partnership with the City of Newark will improve the quality of life and provide direct property tax relief for Newark residents,” said Commissioner Kolluri. “The installation of traffic signal timers in the Ferry Street Pedestrian Safety Corridor represents a milestone in Governor Corzine’s $74 million pedestrian safety initiative and complements NJDOT’s Safe Routes to Schools, Safe Streets to Transit and Pedestrian Planning programs.”
NJDOT’s $500,000 grant is part of Governor Jon S. Corzine’s designation of the stretch of roadway that starts at the intersection of Market and Broad Street, continues onto Ferry and ends with the Ferry and Jackson intersection as a Pedestrian Safe Corridor.
“This grant for new crosswalks on Ferry Street enables us to enhance public safety at the least expense to our taxpayers,” said Mayor Cory Booker. “This program will also increase the attractiveness of the Ironbound as a destination for shoppers and the neighborhood’s desirability for development and growth. It also helps us continue to provide our motorists, pedestrians, and schoolchildren with the safest environment possible.”
The grant from NJDOT’s Pedestrian Safe Corridor Fund will be used to upgrade the signal system in order to inform pedestrians of the amount of time allotted to cross Ferry Street and its intersecting streets. Newark has already implemented NJDOT’s recommendations to improve pedestrian safety by replacing broken streetlights, increasing police presence during peak traffic hours, enforcing the yield to pedestrian law, encouraging pedestrians to cross at safe locations, lowering signs to improve visibility to pedestrians, restriping faded crosswalks and relocating “stop” bars at intersections. The Newark Police Department also has implemented a pedestrian safety educational program in all elementary schools.
The Pedestrian Safety Corridor Program designates Pedestrian Safe Corridors based on motor vehicle/pedestrian accident history and rates. NJDOT deploys Safety Impact Teams to recommend engineering improvements at designated sites. These areas are targeted for enhanced education and enforcement measures.
Governor Corzine in September 2006 announced the creation of a five-year, $74 million initiative. The initiative will improve pedestrian safety throughout New Jersey by encouraging motorists to safely share the road with pedestrians through engineering, education and enforcement.
