New Jersey

[jeffandnicole]

I really wish I knew who was the most influential person responsible for approving design choices in New Jersey so I could invest significant time and money swaying their opinion and exerting much more effort and energy then they have in order to project my will onto them and the DOT.  I will call people and yell at then daily just for fun. 

Here are things I disagree with NJDOT on and would have no problem punching someone in the face over:

1.  disappearing black backgrounds on bgs shields
2. destroying the turnpike arrows I grew up with
3. you still haven't bulilt 95
4. why are there still toll booths
5. why does it take you longer than a president's term to build *anything* with the technology we have today?  Look at any other state .. Tx is a great example.
6. why do we pay so much for so little?
7. why do you keep outsourcing construction with dirty bidding when most states have state employees on the clock doing road building?

Bonus anger for the PANYNJ:

6. why do 2 toll gates (from local roads no less) being closed cause such congestion at the gwb that it was able to become a sociopolitical scandal?  what if they were closed simply because of an accident or malfunction? People died in ambulances.





SM-G955U

6 again: No toll gates were closed. 3 lanes from a local area narrowed down to one lane, going thru 1 toll lane. The 2 toll lanes were still open for motorists coming via I-95. And a person died, not people. Still not acceptable.

I didn't know somebody died as a direct result of that.  What exact lanes were closed?

Somebody died in an accident because of Christie closing down streets?  Yes, what *were* the details?

ixnay

It wasn't a car accident.  Both of these were widely reported, but here's a quick synopsis of what happened: Using this aerial view: https://goo.gl/maps/ijf1c3X1KYx, you see 3 lanes coming in off of Bruce Reynolds Blvd in Fort Lee towards the toll plaza.  During the morning rush hour, they use cones to allow those 3 lanes to go straight into the right 3 toll booths.  You can see the cones here set up on the shoulder and between the 3rd & 4th toll lane: https://goo.gl/maps/wQU5Qf55SCx  .  Since it's not during the morning rush the lanes are open to those already on 95 as well. 

In this incident, the cones were rearranged to force traffic from all 3 lanes to merge into only 1 toll lane.  Because of that, it severely congested traffic throughout the city.  And within that congestion, an ambulance was trying to get someone to a hospital.  The ambulance was stuck in traffic, and ultimately the person died either on the way to the hospital or just after arriving.  Now, to be fair, the congestion was never the cause of the person dying - it was simply reported that way by the media, but no one was ever held responsible for the death (because, after all, congestion exists everyday anyway). 

But, the issue with the traffic is that people are set in their ways, and people expect certain conditions.  Also, the GWB has had this traffic pattern in place during the morning rush for years, because it makes the best of a bad situation.  It was widely believed that by changing the traffic pattern unexpectedly and without warning to restrict traffic coming in from Fort Lee to the bridge, it would serve as a 'punishment' to Fort Lee for not supporting the Governor.

Technically, the 2 other toll lanes were never closed - they were simply reallocated to traffic already on I-95.

[roadman65]

I really wish I knew who was the most influential person responsible for approving design choices in New Jersey so I could invest significant time and money swaying their opinion and exerting much more effort and energy then they have in order to project my will onto them and the DOT.  I will call people and yell at then daily just for fun. 

Here are things I disagree with NJDOT on and would have no problem punching someone in the face over:

1.  disappearing black backgrounds on bgs shields
2. destroying the turnpike arrows I grew up with
3. you still haven't bulilt 95
4. why are there still toll booths
5. why does it take you longer than a president's term to build *anything* with the technology we have today?  Look at any other state .. Tx is a great example.
6. why do we pay so much for so little?
7. why do you keep outsourcing construction with dirty bidding when most states have state employees on the clock doing road building?

Bonus anger for the PANYNJ:

6. why do 2 toll gates (from local roads no less) being closed cause such congestion at the gwb that it was able to become a sociopolitical scandal?  what if they were closed simply because of an accident or malfunction? People died in ambulances.





SM-G955U

6 again: No toll gates were closed. 3 lanes from a local area narrowed down to one lane, going thru 1 toll lane. The 2 toll lanes were still open for motorists coming via I-95. And a person died, not people. Still not acceptable.

I didn't know somebody died as a direct result of that.  What exact lanes were closed?

Somebody died in an accident because of Christie closing down streets?  Yes, what *were* the details?

ixnay

Christie is gone, so no more worries about him as you now have a new governor lol! 

In all seriousness though, its like a train crossing an arterial when an ambulance needs to cross the RR Tracks, if a patient dies in transport then,the train then becomes the regular day to day elements and cannot blame the fact the rails are there for the death.  The same in regular traffic even in Florida here where greedy developers created 90 percent of today's jams where years ago one could get to the hospital in a few minutes now could take fifteen or twenty.

[ixnay]

In this incident, the cones were rearranged to force traffic from all 3 lanes to merge into only 1 toll lane.  Because of that, it severely congested traffic throughout the city.  And within that congestion, an ambulance was trying to get someone to a hospital.  The ambulance was stuck in traffic, and ultimately the person died either on the way to the hospital or just after arriving.  Now, to be fair, the congestion was never the cause of the person dying - it was simply reported that way by the media, but no one was ever held responsible for the death (because, after all, congestion exists everyday anyway). 

Yeah, *now* I remember, jeffandnicole.  I'd forgotten about that inconvenienced ambulance.  Thanks for jogging my brain.

ixnay

[jeffandnicole]

Work on the final portion of the US 206 bypass near Hillsborough will start this weekend.  Two other projects to widen another 2.5 mile of 206 north of the bypass are in the pipeline as well.

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2018/041318.shtm

[storm2k]

Work on the final portion of the US 206 bypass near Hillsborough will start this weekend.  Two other projects to widen another 2.5 mile of 206 north of the bypass are in the pipeline as well.

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2018/041318.shtm

Great, I guess, but until they fix the bottlenecks north of there (especially the Conrail overpass, which is allegedly being addressed in the Valley Rd to Brown Ave segment) and have four divided lanes from the circle to the bypass, it won't do a whole heck of a lot to make traffic better in that area.

[Alps]

Work on the final portion of the US 206 bypass near Hillsborough will start this weekend.  Two other projects to widen another 2.5 mile of 206 north of the bypass are in the pipeline as well.

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2018/041318.shtm

Great, I guess, but until they fix the bottlenecks north of there (especially the Conrail overpass, which is allegedly being addressed in the Valley Rd to Brown Ave segment) and have four divided lanes from the circle to the bypass, it won't do a whole heck of a lot to make traffic better in that area.

For that matter, they need to extend the four-lane from the south end of the bypass to Great Rd.

[storm2k]

Work on the final portion of the US 206 bypass near Hillsborough will start this weekend.  Two other projects to widen another 2.5 mile of 206 north of the bypass are in the pipeline as well.

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2018/041318.shtm

Great, I guess, but until they fix the bottlenecks north of there (especially the Conrail overpass, which is allegedly being addressed in the Valley Rd to Brown Ave segment) and have four divided lanes from the circle to the bypass, it won't do a whole heck of a lot to make traffic better in that area.

For that matter, they need to extend the four-lane from the south end of the bypass to Great Rd.

Where is Great Rd?

[Alps]

Work on the final portion of the US 206 bypass near Hillsborough will start this weekend.  Two other projects to widen another 2.5 mile of 206 north of the bypass are in the pipeline as well.

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2018/041318.shtm

Great, I guess, but until they fix the bottlenecks north of there (especially the Conrail overpass, which is allegedly being addressed in the Valley Rd to Brown Ave segment) and have four divided lanes from the circle to the bypass, it won't do a whole heck of a lot to make traffic better in that area.

For that matter, they need to extend the four-lane from the south end of the bypass to Great Rd.

Where is Great Rd?

CR 601 up there. It's the western bypass of Princeton.

[roadman65]

I drove US 206 in 09, it was horrible between Raritan and Princeton.  Even in the 80's it was bad and talk about that widening was present then as well as the never built NJ 92 where it was suggested to widen US 206 to where the freeway to the turnpike would have departed.

I heard also that Doris Duke was a key player in holding up US 206 from being widened from a coworker of mine who lived off of US 206 back then.  I do not know how valid that rumor was as The Star Ledger stated how broke NJ was back then as why it took till early 2000's to replace the US 1 & 9 viaduct in Elizabeth and took this long to replace NJ 72 over Little Egg Harbor and of course NJ 31 never getting its proper widening it should really have to this day.

[storm2k]

I drove US 206 in 09, it was horrible between Raritan and Princeton.  Even in the 80's it was bad and talk about that widening was present then as well as the never built NJ 92 where it was suggested to widen US 206 to where the freeway to the turnpike would have departed.

I heard also that Doris Duke was a key player in holding up US 206 from being widened from a coworker of mine who lived off of US 206 back then.  I do not know how valid that rumor was as The Star Ledger stated how broke NJ was back then as why it took till early 2000's to replace the US 1 & 9 viaduct in Elizabeth and took this long to replace NJ 72 over Little Egg Harbor and of course NJ 31 never getting its proper widening it should really have to this day.

It was way worse prior to the work between Brown Ave and the Somerville Circle in the late 90s. There was very frequently one long line of standstill traffic starting as far north as S Bridge St or Orlando Dr through Amwell Rd on many days.

[roadman65]

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.2455557,-74.7434165,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxthOoAjNgpVxRijgdMhl4g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Is NJDOT ever going to tell motorists the truth and let them know that US 1 Business does not go right here with US 206?   Its been years since US 1 Business went  into Downtown Trenton (and I believe it was US 1 Alternate when it did) and yet this sign still exists.

Also US 206 does not really enter the circle except the NB lanes from Brunswick Avenue.  Yet, NJDOT has no signs either to direct motorists onto Princeton Avenue before the circle!  Google maps shows both US 206 North and South on MLK (Princeton Avenue) where it really should be.  No need for NB US 206 either to use Brunswick Avenue so it all should be on MLK.   

If it were my suggestion, I would eliminate US 206 to travel south of  I-295 and just sign it on 295 down to I-195 and then on 195 for that short one exit stretch onto itself from Whitehorse.  Just have a 3 digit NJ route number for state maintained portions of US 206 and no number where Trenton maintains it.  Being its not a through route anymore and that locals use the street names instead, just let it be a bypass on the interstate.

[AMLNet49]

Is New Jersey's only 800-series county route signed at all? Middlesex County Route 807. From GSV I can't see any but that doesn't mean they dont exist or have never existed.

[Alps]

Is New Jersey's only 800-series county route signed at all? Middlesex County Route 807. From GSV I can't see any but that doesn't mean they dont exist or have never existed.

It is not, I've driven the length of it.

[NJRoadfan]

Middlesex County's own documents don't note CR-807's existence. NJDOT's SLDs for county 600/700 routes should be taken with a grain of salt since most of them are outdated or otherwise incorrect.

[Alps]

Middlesex County's own documents don't note CR-807's existence. NJDOT's SLDs for county 600/700 routes should be taken with a grain of salt since most of them are outdated or otherwise incorrect.

It is a county maintained road though since it goes through the park. I'll also note that all of Middlesex's roads still have an archaic internal numbering system, so I wouldn't necessary go by the county either on this one.

[Mr. Matté]

Middlesex County's own documents don't note CR-807's existence. NJDOT's SLDs for county 600/700 routes should be taken with a grain of salt since most of them are outdated or otherwise incorrect.

Most of them seem fine, though some nitpicky details might need to be verified. Middlesex County's, though, does have a lot of inaccuracies due to a lot of additions, deletions, and renumberings on their county routes (i.e. no CR 625 in the correct location in the SLD at Perrineville Road in Monroe though 33's signal blade does have it).

[swiftdo]

I noticed on Thursday that on 9/35 SB in Sayreville, a new overhead sign for the Raritan St exit was installed at the Andrejewski Dr overpass marking the right lane as an Exit Only lane. The only thing they should do now is restripe the lanes with dotted marks instead of normal stripes so people don't clog up that area with more traffic by merging left at the last second to continue on 9/35.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4904735,-74.2981865,3a,75y,174.88h,80.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_qOwW_FifCb8IyB-YeaOsg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Looking at the GSV link, it replaces the white "LANE FOR RIGHT TURN" sign.

[jeffandnicole]

I noticed on Thursday that on 9/35 SB in Sayreville, a new overhead sign for the Raritan St exit was installed at the Andrejewski Dr overpass marking the right lane as an Exit Only lane. The only thing they should do now is restripe the lanes with dotted marks instead of normal stripes so people don't clog up that area with more traffic by merging left at the last second to continue on 9/35.

Regardless of the striping, they'll still do that.

[roadman65]

I noticed on Thursday that on 9/35 SB in Sayreville, a new overhead sign for the Raritan St exit was installed at the Andrejewski Dr overpass marking the right lane as an Exit Only lane. The only thing they should do now is restripe the lanes with dotted marks instead of normal stripes so people don't clog up that area with more traffic by merging left at the last second to continue on 9/35.

Regardless of the striping, they'll still do that.

Heck in Orlando people do not even read the LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL and come to the plaza claiming they had no idea they were on a toll road.  Plus the dashed lines that block the entrance to the SunPass only lanes at Exit 254 on the Florida Turnpike do not discourage people from listening to their GPS and they enter the lane despite them not having Sunpass causing them to want to pay the toll at the MM 6 plaza on FL 528.  Their excuse is that the split is confusing to them that both roads are equal in nature yet the elephant tracks are there to guide them to the cash lanes.

Post a billboard about traffic patterns and people will still not see it.  Maybe the GPS needs to tell them verbally that "The Right Lane Ends, move  over to the left lane" for people to understand what they do not see with their own eyes.

[storm2k]

Got a quick glimpse of a new sign structure on the new 278 overpass over the Turnpike (the WB one that will come off the second Goethals span). 278 exits now have exit numbers. Bayway did not appear to have a NJ-439 shield. I am curious if NJDOT will actually add exit numbers to their signage on the EB (I don't think they have any signs beyond the Turnpike/Bayway exits, which are signed by the PA).

[storm2k]

Got a quick glimpse of a new sign structure on the new 278 overpass over the Turnpike (the WB one that will come off the second Goethals span). 278 exits now have exit numbers. Bayway did not appear to have a NJ-439 shield. I am curious if NJDOT will actually add exit numbers to their signage on the EB (I don't think they have any signs beyond the Turnpike/Bayway exits, which are signed by the PA).

Got another look at the signage. Did not realize there are two signs for Bayway. One just says Bayway East since I think that's past where 439 ends. The other one still shows 439 to 1/9 with Elizabeth as the control city. Signs look nice, actually.

[AMLNet49]

Got a quick glimpse of a new sign structure on the new 278 overpass over the Turnpike (the WB one that will come off the second Goethals span). 278 exits now have exit numbers. Bayway did not appear to have a NJ-439 shield. I am curious if NJDOT will actually add exit numbers to their signage on the EB (I don't think they have any signs beyond the Turnpike/Bayway exits, which are signed by the PA).

What are the exit numbers (if you saw)? 1 and 2? 2A and 2B? Bc it picks up at 3 in NY, I'm assuming because they want NJ to combine with them on "beltway style"  exit numbering.

[roadman65]

According to miles in NJ and its mileposts EB should be 2A for New Brunswick Avenue and 2B for I-95. WB it should be 2A for the 2 Bayway exits on the right and 2B for the left Turnpike exit.

That would also fit in with NY's sequential exit numbering while maintaining NJ's mile based at the same time.

[storm2k]

Got a quick glimpse of a new sign structure on the new 278 overpass over the Turnpike (the WB one that will come off the second Goethals span). 278 exits now have exit numbers. Bayway did not appear to have a NJ-439 shield. I am curious if NJDOT will actually add exit numbers to their signage on the EB (I don't think they have any signs beyond the Turnpike/Bayway exits, which are signed by the PA).

What are the exit numbers (if you saw)? 1 and 2? 2A and 2B? Bc it picks up at 3 in NY, I'm assuming because they want NJ to combine with them on "beltway style"  exit numbering.

Actually, the first exit in NY is 4.

The Bayway exits are 3A-B. Turnpike exit looks like 2. I agree with roadman that NJDOT could use 2A-B for the Elizabeth and Turnpike exits heading towards the bridge, and let 1-9 be silent Exit 1.

[AMLNet49]

Got a quick glimpse of a new sign structure on the new 278 overpass over the Turnpike (the WB one that will come off the second Goethals span). 278 exits now have exit numbers. Bayway did not appear to have a NJ-439 shield. I am curious if NJDOT will actually add exit numbers to their signage on the EB (I don't think they have any signs beyond the Turnpike/Bayway exits, which are signed by the PA).

What are the exit numbers (if you saw)? 1 and 2? 2A and 2B? Bc it picks up at 3 in NY, I’m assuming because they want NJ to combine with them on “beltway style” exit numbering.

Actually, the first exit in NY is 4.

The Bayway exits are 3A-B. Turnpike exit looks like 2. I agree with roadman that NJDOT could use 2A-B for the Elizabeth and Turnpike exits heading towards the bridge, and let 1-9 be silent Exit 1.

Only eastbound. I meant the first number in NY is exit 3.

So that means the WB exit sequence is now out of order, and goes 5 - 3 - bridge - 3AB - 2

Unless they changed that exit number to 4 since street view got there. If not, it probably should be changed so it goes 5 - 4 - 3AB - 2