Improved sidewalks, wider shoulders and better signage and striping are among proposed cost-effective recommendations to make Point Pleasant Borough safer for pedestrians.

Route 88 bridge in Point Pleasant
Route 88 bridge in Point Pleasant (YouTube)
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A study by the Philadelphia-based engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff suggests making several improvements to benefit walkers and bicyclists, including reducing the speed limit on all roads. "One of the other major kind of over-arching recommendations was that the Borough should consider going to a 25 mph speed limit on all of its roads, with the exception of (Route) 88 and Bridge (Avenue)," lead transportation planner Stephen Chiaramonte said.

With the borough being a dense community, Chiaramonte said it should be somewhere people can walk and bike pretty easily, "but with higher speed traffic and kind of that disconnected network it just makes it a little bit more challenging."

Lovelandtown Bridge, Point Pleasant
Lovelandtown Bridge, Point Pleasant (NJDOT)
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The study was based on input from police, the public works department, the school district and the state Department of Transportation. Chiaramonte said Parsons Brinckerhoff spent a couple of months walking, driving and riding bicycles throughout Point Pleasant to get the "lay of the land" and a sense of what was going on.

 

He said they took into account the recreation center and the parks. "The skate park that's across from the Quick Chek, that was a big area where the locals had said somewhere where we need to figure out better conditions than what's out there today."

Additional recommendations include studying further whether one lane of traffic on each of the Borough's two bridges could be designated for pedestrians. "And our analysis kind of said it could work, but it certainly would need a full blown traffic study before that could become something implementable," said Chiaramonte.

Chiaramonte said they tried to keep many of the proposed changes low-cost, but highly impactful, adding that some of the measures could be implemented for under $10,000 to $25,000 and could be performed by the Borough's Public Works Department.

 

 

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