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Community Corner

Fall agro tourism traffic in Chester

 

There’s got to be a better way to have agro tourism, support Chester main street businesses, and have safe orderly traffic that flows. 

 

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This isn’t an opinion letter knocking our farmers, agro tourism, or nuisance traffic.  I am a concerned borough resident with real observations about a dangerous traffic situation that is arising with the fall season businesses.   I believe that Chester needs to solve this to keep our farmers and businesses successful and ensure public safety.

 

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The roads in Chester the weekend of Oct 12 & 13 were dangerous with excessive traffic from New York and other NJ counties.  On Sunday, the intersection at Route 206 was routinely gridlocked in all directions for the better part of the day.  Traffic exiting 206/Rt 24 were 3 abreast for a good portion of the way toward Long Valley.  There was further chaos as the lane merged to one.  This caused extreme back ups in all directions.  I witnessed people driving aggressively, cutting in line, blocking the box, and abusing their horns.   The back ups were so long that some families got out and played football on the sidewalks with their kids while mom kept the car in line.  One family got out of their car, ordered fast food at Wendy’s and still had plenty of time to return to their car, which hadn’t moved in line.  It took me 45 minutes to drive from Shop Rite to the Chester library.  The library had to open 30 minutes late because the employees couldn’t get there due to the traffic.  One car didn’t want to continue in traffic, so the occupants got out and used their bodies to stop oncoming traffic so their driver could make an illegal U-turn.  Impatient drivers took their anger to side streets speeding to maneuver around traffic to no avail.    Normally quite residential streets had a steady flow of traffic that had nowhere to go when they hit more traffic.   I witnessed an escalating verbal altercation between several drivers who were cutting through the Rite Aid parking lot.  Some drivers would not even let pedestrians pass.   If there were a real emergency in Chester, volunteer first responders would not be able to get through the streets in a timely manner to man the squad ambulances and fire equipment.  If Larison’s corner was operating as a real destination establishment, the traffic would have been an even worst mess. 

 

Chester roads appeared to be dangerously over capacity this weekend with no visual plan to handle it.  I didn’t see any police directing traffic, or signs directing people to park and walk.   I think the crowds and traffic overwhelmed the farmers, retailers, police and city officials who may not have seen it coming.

 

We need additional trained traffic police maintaining order and flow at intersections and ensuring safety at crosswalks.  Violators need to be ticketed.  Large signs need to direct people to park at the shopping centers and walk to Alstedes.  If the Alstede farm wants to pack them in, they should provide a shuttle service that uses a back entrance.   Business owners need to plan ahead so employees have places to drop their vehicles,  walk to work on time and not get trapped by traffic when they need to go home. 

 

 If Chester wants to be an agro tourism destination we need better planning to handle it much more seamlessly.  Our visitors and residents deserve better. 

 

 

 

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