How will the Margate Mayor and Commissioners inform residents about the Atlantic Ave ‘road diet’ project? Not just full-timers, but 2nd homeowners too.
A so-called ‘road diet’ would reduce the current four lanes of traffic, down to two. That means one lane in each direction.
A virtual, public town hall presentation is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 8 & 10, 2020.
How will all Margate Taxpayers be informed? Sounds like Margate administration not yet confident in plan to effectively inform residents of this important public meeting.
Listen: Nov 19 Margate Commissioner Meeting.
Benefits of a Margate Road Diet:
- Slow traffic. Squeeze 4 lanes of traffic into 2, creating one lane of traffic in each direction
- Create center turn lane
- Create bicycle lanes on both outer sides of street.
- Provide dedicated, buffered lane for bicyclists
- ‘Bump outs’ at intersections for ez street crossing by pedestrians
What are potential problems?
Margate Commissioner John Amodeo: Maybe use a phone blast / robo-call? Margate’s robo-call list has about 12,000 phone numbers. Postcard mailing too?
Facebook is not enough. Neither are local blogs and press release services.
Amodeo suggested flyers be placed in local businesses like Casel’s Market.
Concerns over current, Margate City email list. Is it up-to-date? Is there enough time to inform the public? Administration fast tracking the public meeting.
- Construction contract must be awarded no later than Nov 2021.
- RVE, Remington Vernick Engineers authorized to proceed with traffic study, concept design & public presentations.
- Traffic report has been completed and sent to City.
NJ DOT says $273,642.00 has been awarded for Atlantic Avenue Road Diet in Margate.
Atlantic City will also reduce their Atlantic Ave lanes from Maine to Albany Ave. Four lanes down to 2.
No word from Ventnor if they’ll follow suit any time soon.
Public Safety Commissioner Tim Kriebel has yet to make announcement on this pedestrian safety issue.
As reported previously, Ventnor was last town on Absecon Island to reduce it’s speed limit on Atlantic Ave. from 35 to 25 mph.
who agreed to this nonsense?
Agreed , the boardwalk was voted down , now this is the most recent waste of taxpayer citizen time . I am a seasonal 6-9 resident , time to canvas all the property owners , let the people speak
I can not agree with this. It’s about the money. Imagine what it will be like on a busy summer weekend. Locals will flood the back roads.
You could have installed traffic lights and crosswalks. And set them up based on the traffic. This is ridiculous just more restrictions. I bet you will need a mask too.
The place is shrinking. No trees, no yards. Just put in as many condos, monster homes and restrictions. Where can the kids play?
You are 100% right; the entire plan is absurd!
Road diets promote safety, equity, and property values. Who wants to live where cars speed by their home? The answer is nobody. Road diets make road equitable for drivers, bikers, and pedestrians. Remember, not everyone wants or can afford a car so biking may be their only option. Look at other towns that do this and you will find more vibrant neighborhood. The road diet in Ocean City is a great example. People fought the idea early but it works. Plain and simple. The key is removing the I unnecessary traffic lights at the same time. Traffic lights can lead to speeding, people racing a light change. Slower traffic is a win fir everyone. Let’s embrace positive change, safer neighborhoods, and more attractive communities. Thank you public officials for updating the current dreadful situation!
I have no problem with the New Road Diet change on Atlantic Ave. This is good when you are crossing the street to go to and from the beach. Hard to cross now with young children with 4 lanes of traffic. The bike paths will be wider. It looks like a good plan for all.
This is age discrimination start off with. I don’t use Facebook or any type of communication other then in person or a phone call.
I am not living in Atlantic City where multiple corrupt councilmanic folks have went to prison. I plan to retire in my house at 213 n Belmont drive in five more years my home will be paid giving my wife and I the luxury of traveling to see family members.
Commissioner Amodeo plz make these people aware that bike lanes lead to casualties as in Philadelphia.
We are entering a bleak period where people will loose there homes due to coronavirus. This agenda should be shelved to spring time when weather worms the vaccines are available or our senior population may weaken.
My number is +16092266885 thank you Joe Hoffman
Great idea it’s important for safety …people try to fly down the street dangerous,impossible to cross Atlantic ave in summer My three year grandsons were almost run over twice in July
Also ….Need the small middle of the road “pedestrian have right of way” signs reminders like those found in Strathmere .
This is ridiculous. It is going to take people longer to get to work. And why are they doing this now. The year-round residents do not want this.
IS 5 MINUTES TAKE BIG OF A DEAL? MAYBE YOU SHOULD RIDE A BIKE BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY COMMENTS
I hate this idea. It’s going to take me so much longer to get to work. The way we have a route right now should stay
Looks like a good idea especially since Margate wasted all that money making 25 MHP speed limit signs that NO ONE observes.
How about giving out some speeding tickets?
If you give speeding tickets, people won’t go to the restaurants and we all know those owners line the pockets of the corrupt 3 Amigos!
Great idea, it will push more traffic to other cross streets that have zero traffic control.
Is it possible for this city to be any dumber? Don’t answer that, the answer is YES!
This is not good. there be major traffic problems which will push traffic to us: Winchester ave, Monmouth Ave and Amherst to avid traffic jams.
We don’t need our back street filled with traffic because they want a wide bike lane. Terrible plan
If you rode a bike, you would understand. LESS CARS mean less traffic
Hope Ventnor has more sense than Margate, Atlantic City, & Longport and does not reduce 4 lanes of traffic to 2 lanes of traffic. HORRIBLE CONCEPT!
Wonder who the original brilliant mind was that thought this concept up. Remember when Atlantic City added to city COST ( wasted tax dollars ) to put in all the planters in on Atlantic Avenue between Albany & Jackson. Then a few years later spend more taxpayers dollars removing the planters.
Sort of like the moving NJ TRANSIT BUS STATION. After having renovated the old train station on Artic between Missouri and Arkansas Aves. Then tore it down & moved the NJ TRANSIT STATION to Michigan & Atlantic Aves and later moved NJ TRTANSIT for a 3 time to Atlantic & Ohio Aves . I guess government is in the business of wasting tax paper dollars. What do you think ?
Comrades …… the do as I say not as I do have spoken .. LOL. “ you can’t fix stupid” why not make it one way with a guy at each end of margate with signs STOP. And GO. Kind of not wanting to post. They will pick up on the idea. Of course they will need to raise taxes!,,,,,,
Your wrong. the 3 amigos that make all of the lousy choices are supposed to be bipartisan.
I’m 78. I’m a beach bum type. I love hanging at local watering holes. And I really can’t wait until it takes me an hour to get from my home in Ventnor Heights to the Greenhouse or Maynards.
If we were really prescient, we’d ban all vehicular traffic Downbeach and create two bike lanes each way for all the geniuses who don’t think traffic laws apply to them. What red light? What stop sign? Whaddya mean I’m going the wrong way? On second thought, we don’t even need lanes. Peddlers, do your thing.
Absolutely! I avoid Ventnor if possible and take Atlantic because it’s been faster. After that change I’ll go on Ventnor or one of the parallel streets that run through neighborhoods.
Have we not learned from Ventnor Ave and how bad traffic is on that ONE lane in each direction road.
Atlantic Ave. is fine the way it is. The traffic moves well. No changes please.
Yeah, I don’t even live there anymore and I know that. Atlantic Ave is wide so it can support 4 lanes easily. The center turning lane only confuses people. My parents still live there and hate the idea. I know this is an old article, so I hope it’s been scrapped.
Dumbest idea I ever heard of. emissions from autos. you want to create traffic jams to keep the autos running. dumb as dirty.
This is a great idea don’t listen to the naysayers! (Year round resident)
In what way is this a great idea? More traffic to the other cross streets that have zero traffic control.
Maybe if this project was combined with changing traffic flows on all streets combined with actual law enforcement of speeding, running stop signs and lights, this would have a chance of making some sense.
Imagine on a busy summer weekend a freaking road diet. Who the hell thinks this up ? Squeeze everything into 2 lanes really.
Not everybody is retired and goes to the beach. Some of us work and now we have to play road games at 10 miles an hour so you can ride your bike or cross the street to sit your ass in a beach chair.
Some of us live paycheck to paycheck or have to work to live in Margate. now we have games to play just to drive down the street. wow.
They do this just to get grant money that’s the only reason and spend it foolishly
I think it’s a terrible idea. During the busy months, automobile traffic will come to a “stand still”. Don’t fix “what ain’t broken”.
Why not enforce speed limits like Longport does. I am a full time Margate resident and I when driving through Longport where all speed limits are 25 MPH I go no more than 30MPH. On Atlantic Avenue I maintain safe speed until I hit the border I go to 35MPH or 40 MPH or more. Never been stopped.
Driving through Longport it is a common occurrence to see their police pulling cars over for traffic violations. Margate rarely.
If Margate police enforced 25MPH we could keep 4 lanes and problem over.
Also, lets stop contractors from parking their trucks for weeks to get free advertising. Cheapens our image. Ever see the trucks in Longport?
Traffic isn’t the problem in Margate , parking is. Get rid of those ridiculous yellow curbs at every intersection that take up at least 12 to 14 parking spots . Like a lot of things in margate they make absolutely no sense.
This is an absolute nightmare. Especially, in the summer when the city’s population triples. It will drive all the vehicular traffic to the other streets and avenues to get around the gridlock on Atlantic Ave defeating the stated purpose of “safer” streets. The number of vehicle and pedestrian accidents will quadruple in every area not named Atlantic Ave. You want safer streets? Add a 5-10 second left hand turn signal at every light, enforce the speed limit, eliminate all parking on Atlantic Ave and allow it on the beach block, enforce pedestrian crossing only at lights and enforce all biking laws. The consequence of implementing this plan is a catastrophe in the waiting.
This is an absolute nightmare. Especially, in the summer when the city’s population triples. It will drive all the vehicular traffic to the other streets and avenues to get around the gridlock on Atlantic Ave defeating the stated purpose of “safer” streets. The number of vehicle and pedestrian accidents will quadruple in every area not named Atlantic Ave. You want safer streets? Add a 5-10 second left hand turn signal at every light, enforce the speed limit, eliminate all parking on Atlantic Ave and allow it on the beach block, enforce pedestrian crossing only at lights and enforce all biking laws. The consequence of implementing this plan is a catastrophe in the waiting.
This will force the working people to the other streets as traffic on Atlantic Ave will come to a crawl with condensed traffic and pedestrians in crosswalks. Cops on the bikes should spend some time giving warnings at the beginning of the summer and progressing to tickets to bike infractions on Atlantic Ave. Increased enforcement of speeding laws similar to Longport would all go a long way towards a safer street and would avoid changing these lanes.
The mayor is a moron and so are the planning board…..they have no knowledge and only concerned about the second home owners and their bikes
When you have to close a lane for road work what happens? What are the detour traffic plans, I’d like to see that before decisions are made.
Besides this being stupid, follow the money folks. What contractor is getting this award, how was it bid and how much are the corrupt 3 Amigos skimming off the top? Always follow the money, these clowns don’t care about public safety, your comfort on the beach, or anything else they only care about lining their own wallets.
How about doing this in concert with making Amherst a one-way street, putting in stop signs every 4 or 5 blocks on Amherst, Monmouth & Winchester, and truly managing the speed and traffic laws. Slowing traffic on Atlantic only to raise it on all other north-south roadways without a true traffic plan won’t solve a problem, it will cause many others
This works well for Ocean City on West Avenue, and that road has a lot more traffic than Atlantic Avenue. There are no traffic jams, and having a dedicated turning lane actually speeds up traffic since people are not forced to stop and wait for someone to turn from the center lane when they are taking a left. On top of that, it is safer for bikers and pedestrians. I say yes to this new plan.
This is the most absurd solution to a problem that only exists on weekends for barely 3 months a year . I have been a long seasonal resident for almost 20 years and there has to be better answer than causing a traffic jam every Friday , Saturday morning and Sunday night
Why wasn’t this voted on who is coming up with all these bright ideas ruining the character of the city a major eyesore in the middle of the shopping area bike lanes on all our streets even if they are too narrow for cars and bikes the public riding a bike obeys no rules this is a disgrace total disregard for the residents
I grew up in Margate, the second house from Atlantic Ave, may move back one day. The current layout has worked fine for all these years. My dad commuted back and forth to Atlantic City all the days of his working life. This plan is unnecessary. Unfortunate to see a problem invented where none exists.
Great idea ! The majority of traffic on Atlantic Ave is Contractors speeding to their next job or folks taking a shortcut to Ocean City to avoid freeway traffic. Bike traffic is up because tourism is up. The season is no longer 3 months but 6-7 months due to climate change and baby boomer retirement. I live on Atlantic ave and have never seen a traffic jam, even on the 4th of July. Folks complaining that they’ll be late for work are really saying that they won’t be able to drive 50 mph down Atlantic.
Completely ungrounded plan. There is simply no reason to waste resources and dollars on a non-existent problem. It can only be about the contractor awards and grant money. Wasteful. Further debris to litter the earth as well.
Great idea! Atlantic is used for contractors speeding to their jobs and PA folks taking a shortcut to OC to avoid freeway traffic. I live on Atlantic and have never seen a traffic jam, even on the 4th of July. The money generating tourist traffic, due to climate change and baby boomer retirement , is now 6-7 months, not 3 months as other readers suggest.
I saw a post by Joe who said this works well in Ocean City on West Avenue. It does not work well at all. Basically, the single lane chokes traffic, leaving motorists crawling behind ‘self-appointed’ speed regulators, who want everybody to go 5-10 MPH under the speed limit like they do. They took the south end from 34th st to 58th down to a single lane under the guise of increased safety, except there hasn’t been a death, or serious injury on that stretch due to an auto accident in the years preceding the transformation. We routinely would drive through Margate and Ventnor, on route to AC, and patronize various businesses. Not with this new configuration. Takes long enough as it is. Margate businesses will lose a tremendous amount of “pass-through” business as a result of this change. IMHO.