Ridgewood Seeks Traffic Light Upgrades

A few Ridgewood intersections could be getting a little smoother and safer, according to village officials.

The Ridgewood council last Wednesday approved a resolution authorizing the village to execute agreements with Bergen County to fund improvements at four proposed intersections. 

Upgrades would be funded to the lights at Maple Avenue’s intersections with Franklin and Ridgewood Avenues, the intersection of North Pleasant and Ridgewood Avenues, and Godwin Avenue near South Monroe Street.

Though neither the proposed intersections nor the funding are finalized, Chris Rutishauser, the village engineer, told the council earlier this month that the county expressed a willingness to finance the bulk of the cost of at least three intersection upgrades.

According to Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh, the chairwoman of the Citizen Safety Committee, which worked on the proposals, the county would fund the $150,000 cost per intersection of the upgrades, leaving the village with an estimated remaining cost of $60,000 in engineering and legal fees for each.

The improvements would include, but are not limited to, pedestrian countdown crossing lights, vehicle sensors and variable timing to improve traffic flow, Rutishauser said.

A detailed engineering study would need to determine if a suggested additional light, requested by several area residents at the Nov. 6 council meeting, is feasible on the Godwin Avenue corridor, where the street intersects with Monroe and Ackerman, according to Rutishauser.

“We also do not know how the county would regard such a light,” he said.

Officials hope that the improvements would improve pedestrian and vehicular safety at the intersections, all proposed in part due to their rate of accidents, along with traffic flow - especially where Maple Avenue runs through the central business district.

“Any design done has to coordinate the lights between those intersections otherwise we’re not really doing much in the way of alleviating bottlenecks and traffic frustration,” Rutishauser said earlier this month.

According to officials, the village has long gone without county funding for traffic safety work, and the citizen safety committee has long sought it.

“The topic of conversations is always, ‘When is the county going to give us money?’” Walsh said. She noted that the village could seek additional grant funding for its share of the expense.

Rutishauser told the council earlier this month that the upgrades, which would put operation of the signals in the hands of the county, would help update some long outdated traffic signals at the intersections.

“Many of them belong, literally, in the Smithsonian,” he said.