Garden State Parkway

[ixnay]

What about this bulge just before you get to Exit 135 nb?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6100331,-74.3117908,1186m/data=!3m1!1e3

Was it once a picnic area?  It's guardailed off now.

ixnay

[roadman65]

What about this bulge just before you get to Exit 135 nb?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6100331,-74.3117908,1186m/data=!3m1!1e3

Was it once a picnic area?  It's guardailed off now.

ixnay

That was the old Madison Hill Rest Area that was closed off years ago.  The Parkway used to have picnic areas in a lot more places.  Growing up in Clark, I can say this area was closed due to party and sex activities as well as Glenside (on the SB side near US 1 in Iselin) where concerned parents did not like stuff going on near the elementary schools their children are in.  Then in Cranford near NJ 28 Tall Oaks was shut down due to burglaries in nearby neighborhoods using the parking facility to harbor their transport vehicles.

Dont know why the shore area picnic areas closed, but Telegraph Hill in Holmdel is still maybe open, but that is part of a regional park though.

[MisterSG1]

Is there similar VMSs on the Garden State Parkway in that stretch like here on the 401 that read something like:

EXPRESS MOVING WELL
LOCAL MOVING SLOWLY
BEYOND CROSSOVER

(that's how the MTO would do it)

Only then could I ever see the crossover being useful....taking the 401 as a daily commuting road is a constant game of chance of choosing when to move to express/collectors or to stay in the set of lanes you are in.

[bzakharin]

Exit 38 is now officially 38B.
This and other signs now have the B and the "Formerly Exit 38" uncovered  https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4101315,-74.5550061,3a,75y,20.63h,112.39t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sYMFfJvShqkYkJWRED0v6MQ!2e0!5s20151101T000000!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1

[NJRoadfan]

They must have just renumbered the ACE exits. Everything was still covered two weeks ago when I went thru there. Isn't the old Exit 38 supposed to be 38A and old 38A changed to Exit 38B? If its reversed, someone screwed up as that isn't following the MUTCD...... after all, they just flipped Exit 4A/B to be in the correct order!

[storm2k]

What about this bulge just before you get to Exit 135 nb?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6100331,-74.3117908,1186m/data=!3m1!1e3

Was it once a picnic area?  It's guardailed off now.

ixnay

That was the old Madison Hill Rest Area that was closed off years ago.  The Parkway used to have picnic areas in a lot more places.  Growing up in Clark, I can say this area was closed due to party and sex activities as well as Glenside (on the SB side near US 1 in Iselin) where concerned parents did not like stuff going on near the elementary schools their children are in.  Then in Cranford near NJ 28 Tall Oaks was shut down due to burglaries in nearby neighborhoods using the parking facility to harbor their transport vehicles.

Dont know why the shore area picnic areas closed, but Telegraph Hill in Holmdel is still maybe open, but that is part of a regional park though.

When did the one in Iselin close? I don't remember that in my lifetime. I do remember Madison Hill. That closed in the early 90s. IIRC, it was a big gay sex pickup area since it was secluded but there were crime issues arising from that. I might be remembering incorrectly. After it closed, it became the site of an early cell phone antenna tower, which they laughably tried to put fake branches on to make it look like a surrounding tree.

There are still a couple of the picnic areas on the southern stretch open, like past Southern Ocean into Atlantic Counties.

[Alps]

Is there similar VMSs on the Garden State Parkway in that stretch like here on the 401 that read something like:

EXPRESS MOVING WELL
LOCAL MOVING SLOWLY
BEYOND CROSSOVER

(that's how the MTO would do it)

Only then could I ever see the crossover being useful....taking the 401 as a daily commuting road is a constant game of chance of choosing when to move to express/collectors or to stay in the set of lanes you are in.

No, but it's not needed. There is a solid pattern in place. People off of exits 105-114 will use the southern crossovers for the northern Express Lanes. The other set of crossovers I would bet are more lightly used, since there's relatively little traffic to/from the south using exits 117-124.

[bzakharin]

They must have just renumbered the ACE exits. Everything was still covered two weeks ago when I went thru there. Isn't the old Exit 38 supposed to be 38A and old 38A changed to Exit 38B? If its reversed, someone screwed up as that isn't following the MUTCD...... after all, they just flipped Exit 4A/B to be in the correct order!

That may be. I'll check again the next time I'm there, which should be Monday.

[roadman65]

What about this bulge just before you get to Exit 135 nb?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6100331,-74.3117908,1186m/data=!3m1!1e3

Was it once a picnic area?  It's guardailed off now.

ixnay

That was the old Madison Hill Rest Area that was closed off years ago.  The Parkway used to have picnic areas in a lot more places.  Growing up in Clark, I can say this area was closed due to party and sex activities as well as Glenside (on the SB side near US 1 in Iselin) where concerned parents did not like stuff going on near the elementary schools their children are in.  Then in Cranford near NJ 28 Tall Oaks was shut down due to burglaries in nearby neighborhoods using the parking facility to harbor their transport vehicles.

Dont know why the shore area picnic areas closed, but Telegraph Hill in Holmdel is still maybe open, but that is part of a regional park though.

When did the one in Iselin close? I don't remember that in my lifetime. I do remember Madison Hill. That closed in the early 90s. IIRC, it was a big gay sex pickup area since it was secluded but there were crime issues arising from that. I might be remembering incorrectly. After it closed, it became the site of an early cell phone antenna tower, which they laughably tried to put fake branches on to make it look like a surrounding tree.

There are still a couple of the picnic areas on the southern stretch open, like past Southern Ocean into Atlantic Counties.

I heard that story about the gay sex thing at Madison Hill.  Glenside had to close in the mid 80's when I lived in NJ and it was because people (straight people) would have sex in the bushes during school hours at an elementary school is located in the Metuchen part of Woodbridge Township adjacent to the Parkway.  Many parents though that their kids would see it and be traumatized by it and pressured the then NJHA to close it.  It was quickly landscaped over and within a month you never knew an area existed.

Tall Oaks was right next to housing in Cranford and crooks would park in the area, then hop the fence, rob a few houses, and climb back over into the area where no one would be the wiser.

Similar issues happen on I-78 in the scenic overlook near Exit 29 hence the gate that is shut at night as when I was a teen I saw beer bottles and such on the ground whenever my folks pulled in there.  In fact, I am surprised that the Bloomsbury Rest Areas are still open, especially westbound as you have the PA welcome center about 7 miles away.  I am guessing being its rural it has no real issues and really on the EB side its the only rest area on I-78 as PA has none going EB.  They did leave stubs and a ROW near Sharlesville but PennDOT never constructed them.

[NJRoadfan]

Tall Oaks is still mostly there, an empty area next Exit 137 usually for storage of equipment and signs. Where was Glenside? The only place in Clark it could have been is just north of Exit 135 on the southbound side, which is a maintenance yard today.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Glenside is right here at SB milepost 130.2. The rest area closed in October 1987 with the same problems of drugs and sex. Oyster Creek had the same problem.

[NE2]

I wonder if any of the rest areas were closed due to rock and roll.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Of course, the good one is the Double Trouble picnic area, milepost 79, which the NJHA abandoned in February 1961 to due a mosquito problem. Due to the location of the picnic area near a cranberry bog, mosquitos were attacking picnickers.

[NJRoadfan]

The Oyster Creek picnic area was also the site of a murder in 1984.

[storm2k]

Glenside is right here at SB milepost 130.2. The rest area closed in October 1987 with the same problems of drugs and sex. Oyster Creek had the same problem.

Hmmm. I was 6 in 1987, so that's probably why I don't remember it all that well. I wonder if there are some pictures of some of these areas. I've seen some of the older signs for Tall Oaks posted around here in the past.

[NJRoadfan]

I can't help but wonder if the person who named these service areas was from the New Providence/Summit NJ area. Tall Oaks is the name of a housing subdivision in New Providence, and Glenside is a name commonly associated with the Watchung Reservation area (multiple roads bear the name in the area among other things).

[roadman65]

I know Madison Hill is the name of a road that crosses the Parkway just north of the defunct Rest Area and is the name of the highest elevation in Clark.  Both sides of where Madison Hill Road intersects the Parkway is a down slope where the overpass over the Parkway is the highest spot on that particular road so I can assume that the intersection is Madison Hill proper hence the name of the street and area.

[bzakharin]

They must have just renumbered the ACE exits. Everything was still covered two weeks ago when I went thru there. Isn't the old Exit 38 supposed to be 38A and old 38A changed to Exit 38B? If its reversed, someone screwed up as that isn't following the MUTCD...... after all, they just flipped Exit 4A/B to be in the correct order!

That may be. I'll check again the next time I'm there, which should be Monday.

So yeah, 38 became 38A and 38A became 38B. The only potential issue is that going Northbound (which is the only direction from which I approach these exits on my commute) the exit tab on the 1-mile advance sign says "Exit 38 A-B" whereas the 1/2 mile advance exit tab says "Exit 38 B-A"

[jeffandnicole]

...whereas the 1/2 mile advance exit tab says "Exit 38 B-A"

I wonder what the southbound sign has?  If it's Exit 38 A-B, then they messed up which sign goes on which side of the road.

[PHLBOS]

...whereas the 1/2 mile advance exit tab says "Exit 38 B-A"

I wonder what the southbound sign has?  If it's Exit 38 A-B, then they messed up which sign goes on which side of the road.

A similar mix-up happened 26 years ago with a couple of PA 420 interchange (Exit 9A-B) BGS' along I-95.  The 1-mile advance BGS along I-95 southbound has an EXIT 9A-B tab and the northbound BGS at the beginning of the collector-distributor road/ramp has an EXIT 9B-A tab.

[roadman65]

...whereas the 1/2 mile advance exit tab says "Exit 38 B-A"

I wonder what the southbound sign has?  If it's Exit 38 A-B, then they messed up which sign goes on which side of the road.

A similar mix-up happened 26 years ago with a couple of PA 420 interchange (Exit 9A-B) BGS' along I-95.  The 1-mile advance BGS along I-95 southbound has an EXIT 9A-B tab and the northbound BGS at the beginning of the collector-distributor road/ramp has an EXIT 9B-A tab.

I am not too worried about b before a or vice versa.  I am glad that SB exit 38A (now B) has a full overhead.  As originally it had ground signs and a SECOND RIGHT sign to let people know it was a cloverleaf originally.

[NJRoadfan]

They removed the ACE shield from the new signs for no apparent reason. I'm surprised the SJTA hasn't complained about their branding going missing.

[Alps]

They removed the ACE shield from the new signs for no apparent reason. I'm surprised the SJTA hasn't complained about their branding going missing.

I'm surprised the ACE still belongs to the SJTA.

[roadman65]

I must say the red flag shield is not that catchy to the eyes.  Unlike the Parkway and Turnpike shields that are practically icons.

[bzakharin]

If I'm not mistaken, the new AC Airport supplemental sign also replaced SJTA's shield with a generic airplane icon