Downbeach Pedestrian Perils: Crossing 4 Lanes of Atlantic Ave. Traffic


Found this while scanning the inter-tubes for interesting social chatter: Isaac Brumer says: Those of us who live in Margate year-round and who choose to walk around have to deal with a crossing a treacherous Atlantic Avenue in the off season.

Drivers go faster than the posted 25 MPH (and then get ticketed for it) because Atlantic “looks” like it’s meant for going faster (and it is). And they rarely stop for people in the crosswalks, even given enough time.

Crossing Atlantic in the off-season can be a challenge, even for people with good vision and reflexes.

The Margate business community should be concerned about the “bad vibe” that potential customers feel from being ticketed. At the same time – as smart towns realize – it’s more important for a town to be a good place to visit (i.e., get out, walk, shop and eat) than to make it easy to drive through quickly.

As Margate’s population ages, a smart way to maintain their quality of life (and for Margate to be an viable, attractive place for them to continue living and shopping), it would be good to consider year-round traffic lights.

Complete the work laid out in the 2016 Ventnor-Margate Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan. That plan proposed that the city stripe Atlantic Avenue similar to how Longport did, “calming” the road, cueing drivers that it’s meant for 25 and reducing the number of lanes people crossing (on foot or in cars) need to contend with.

Added benefit of making Atlantic less of a high-speed bypass: likelihood of more drivers choosing Ventnor…and visiting a store or restaurant.

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