| Author |
Message |
    
letters016
Citizen
Username: Letters016
Post Number: 74
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 10:32 pm: |     |
hch,
Let me guess. He was probably going so fast in the first place that he would have had to jam on his brakes to stop for you, right? So in his (feeble) mind, it would have been too dangerous to yield. Yet it never occured to him that he put himself in this situation to begin with. |
hch
Citizen
Username: Hch
Post Number: 109
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 11:13 pm: | |
Actually, his speed was reasonable, definitely slow enough to stop for me (and he had plenty of time to do so). And he certainly had no problem stopping after I yelled at him which would seem to throw his theory out the window.
|
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 5659
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 4:31 pm: | |
The walk/don't walk signals on the traffic lights at the intersection of Oakview and Valley are now working. 
It was well worth the wait. |
letters016
Citizen
Username: Letters016
Post Number: 77
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 4:36 pm: | |
Haven't been by there today. Are the lights still blinking? |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 5661
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 4:50 pm: | |
No. |
letters016
Citizen
Username: Letters016
Post Number: 78
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 4:57 pm: | |
That's great news. Check off one more daily pain. Now that the pedestrians are taken care of, we'll now start to hear the car horns blow from the impatient drivers who have to wait while they cross. Morons. |
Just The Aunt
Supporter
Username: Auntof13
Post Number: 1217
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 8:37 pm: | |
Guess we'll be seeing more of these due to the increase in rearend accidents at that intersection. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 7123
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 9:22 pm: | |
Huh? letters016, I don't hear motorists honking because they have to wait for a light. Just the Aunt, I don't see rear-end accidents occur as vehicles approach a red light. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 7124
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 9:32 pm: | |
I think it's a state-wide problem, and this can only be solved by the state. I realize I'm wishing grandly for unlikely things. As I hope there is a constitutional convention to shift tax burdens from property taxes to income taxes, I also hope the civil engineers in NJ realize that painted lines are not adequate for crosswalks. We need dramatic markings, like the zebra crossings like they have in England. Motorists can see them from a long way off. They stop when someone is waiting to cross.
Then we need to train people how to use crosswalks.
Here is a picture.
I got it from this web page:
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/arrivealive/crossingusing.htm
|
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 758
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 12:41 pm: | |
I had to wonder yesterday, as I sat at this new light, waiting to cross Valley and go up Oakview:
"why is there a camera on top of the traffic light and why is it pionted directly at me?" |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 2021
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 12:54 pm: | |
Rick, remember the old adage:
 Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!
Cathy |
yabbadabbadoo
Citizen
Username: Yabbadabbadoo
Post Number: 236
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 1:22 pm: | |
According the the town engineer, the light stays green longer for the valley traffic. if traffic backs up too far on oakview (in either direction; there are two cameras) the green time on valley will shorten.
(wt)FF |
Richard Kessler
Citizen
Username: Richiekess
Post Number: 16
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:15 am: | |
On one hand I am heartened to read others with feelings the same as me and my wife. We moved here in December, from Manhattan, and have been fairly depressed, frustrated, and angry about drivers in Maplewood. We live on Tuscan Road, near the school, and it's disturbing how fast people drive. I've had a fantasy of installing a series of speed bumps in the middle of the night. Funny thing too, that often the speeders are heading straight for a red light. And, yes, we've noticed the tremendous impatience, people encroaching into the crosswalk as you are in it crossing to the train, and the tailgating. When I tell my friends in Manhattan about it, they laugh and say: didn't you know, the worst drivers are from New Jersey! What's the big hurry--I don't get it. |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 2037
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:39 pm: | |
Here's my theory on us NJ drivers (and yes, I admit that sometimes I am one of the many impatient ones.)
NJ has long been the most densely populated state in the nation. Look at our geographic size and population stats. When animals (and that we all are) are placed in crowded conditions they become more aggressive and territorial (defensive of whatever amount of territory they can scrounge.) I think we're just unconsciously giving in to our animal instincts. It takes conscious effort to change that which is why in places like NYC there are signs that say "Don't Block the Box" at intersections. Where else but in a highly congested area would you actually have to remind people of that bit of common sense? So I actually like these reminders from you out-of-staters that I need to slow down, plan for a little more travel time, and really think about the other animals who may travel through these intersections without their steel carapaces. Thanks for the reminder.
Cathy |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 5734
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:52 pm: | |
Now we have to do something about the drivers anxious to turn on red at the Oakview/Valley intersection. Yesterday, when the light turned green, two of us tried to make it safely across the intersection. We just happened to be walking one behind the other since we weren't traveling together. A motorist trying to make a turn at the intersection slowed down to let the first person cross in the crosswalk and then yelled at me because I wasn't yielding the intersection to him so he could make his turn. He took the turn fast too. If I hadn't been able to stop for him, in the middle of the crosswalk, he would have plowed right into me!
We don't need no turn on red signs at that intersection -- do we? |
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 768
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 9:21 pm: | |
Joan,
Its not clear what you are describing. Personally, I wasn't all that "for" this light, but I do understand the safety concerns of pedestrians in the area. However, now as I sit at the light daily (which truly is not thaaat bad), I wonder if pedestrians will now follow the signs of the walk/dont' walk flashers. |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 5740
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, June 5, 2005 - 6:45 am: | |
The pedestrians I have observed, myself included, are waiting for the light to turn to green in the direction they wish to go before they cross the street.
However, motorists looking to make a turn at the intersection are not always yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk when they should.
In the situation I tried to describe above, a motorist traveling south on Valley Street with the green light favoring north/south traffic wanted to make a right hand turn on to Oakview Avenue heading west. Two pedestrians were trying to cross in the north/south crosswalk at the western end of the intersection. The motorist noticed the first pedestrian and slowed down sufficiently so that pedestrian could cross safely and then (I assume failing to notice the second pedestrian -- me) sped into his turn with such speed that he found himself yelling at me to get out of the way because he could not possibly have stopped his car in order to avoid hitting me.
Fortunately, I was able to get out of his way in time. |
letters016
Citizen
Username: Letters016
Post Number: 100
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, June 5, 2005 - 2:19 pm: | |
At the risk of repeating myself.....
"Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 4:57 pm:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's great news. Check off one more daily pain. Now that the pedestrians are taken care of, we'll now start to hear the car horns blow from the impatient drivers who have to wait while they cross. Morons." |
xavier67
Citizen
Username: Xavier67
Post Number: 535
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 6, 2005 - 1:11 pm: | |
Regarding NJ drivers, in today's Times there was an article about how NJ drivers are 3rd worst in the nation in terms of not knowing the rules of the road! What the news suggests is that this is a problem that can be remedied (somewhat) through better state-wide drivers' ed program. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 7305
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 6, 2005 - 1:46 pm: | |
It could be remedied. Will it be? Ha.
I believe Massachusetts and Rhode Island are first and second, though I don't know which the order is. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 3232
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - 10:09 am: | |
We had a child care provider who came over from Europe a few years ago and it took her three tries to pass the written exam, not because she didn't know the rules but because about 25% of the questions were about blood alcohol levels and how much you can drink and still drive. (That, and DMV's Turkish-language test was translated by someone who didn't speak Turkish.)
But I'm a driver, dammit, not a biochemist.
Maybe if they instead put some emphasis on knowing who goes first at a four-way stop, how to pass without putting on your brakes, what the fast lane is for and a hundred other things. |
sac
Supporter
Username: Sac
Post Number: 2247
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - 12:40 pm: | |
I agree 100%. When I moved here in the 1980s I almost failed my test due to all the questions about blood alcohol levels. I got all the other questions right. And there were precious few questions about the rules of the road, which matter much more!
So long as I know not to drive after drinking, what difference does it make to my ability as a driver to know the legal (biochemical) limits anyway. It's not like I can self test them.
After almost twenty years, I had hoped that they might have improved the testing, but it doesn't sound as if that is the case. |
Camnol
Citizen
Username: Camnol
Post Number: 24
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - 11:12 pm: | |
My favorite NJ driving-ism is NJ's rule for traffic circles--there is no rule.
From the manual: "There are not set rules for driving into, around and out of a traffic circle in New Jersey. Common sense and caution must prevail at all times. In most cases, the circle's historically established traffic pattern dictates which driver has the right of way."
Historically established traffic pattern--that is oh so helpful advice for the first time you approach a traffic circle! |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 7403
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - 12:34 pm: | |
I had the same response to that passage. Jeez, it would be so simple to fix. They should consider a traffic circle an intersection, like all other intersections. Because it is. Yield to those who are already in the intersection. So simple. That's why we don't do it, I guess. |
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