If you asked me what street in West Orange was complained about most frequently, I’d venture to say it was Gregory Avenue.
It’s a fairly busy street, carrying traffic from South Orange and Maplewood to and from I-280. But it’s also a residential street with houses along each side. And it passes near three schools in West Orange: Gregory, Hazel, and Roosevelt.
On paper, the speed limit is 25 mph. In reality, cars often drive more quickly. And with the amount of young children crossing to get to and from school, it’s a major concern for parents.
So this week I decided to run down Gregory Avenue. I started at Northfield and headed south towards South Orange. Here’s what I noticed.
The Trouble Along the Way
The map above highlights where there are problems along the route.
Starting from Northfield Ave, the first stretch is fairly safe. The travel lane of the road is narrow and there’s a wide shoulder or parking lane on the west side. The sidewalk is continuous on the west side down through Gregory Place / Mitchell Street. The only problem here is that the sidewalk is absent along the east side, and a number of houses aren’t connected to the intersection at Northfield.
The intersection of Gregory Ave and Mitchell Street is problematic. There are crosswalks in each direction and a blinking yellow light, but cars don’t always stop. Cars turning onto Gregory also have poor visibility in some directions.
And when you pass that intersection, a) the road narrows significantly and b) there are no sidewalks. Shortly after the intersection, the road also goes into a curve. This is by far the least safe portion for pedestrians.
Once you exit the curve on Wellington, though, things improve. The sidewalk returns on the east side of the street. There’s a break in the sidewalk between Club Boulevard and Forest Hill on the west side. There’s also no crosswalk to Club Boulevard, and anyone walking up Wellington needs to go all the way down to Forest hill to cross.
The sidewalks continue through Walker Road, just past Gregory Elementary. There’s a signalized intersection there for students to get to school. After that light, the sidewalk on the west side of the street disappears. And it continues this way down through the South Orange border.
When you get to the border, though, it’s like night and day. South of Luddington, the street immediately widens into a broad boulevard with a wide shoulder or parking lane on each side. There’s a much greater distance between the sidewalk and the traffic, and it generally feels much safer.
Areas to Improve
The biggest area in need of improvement is the intersection of Gregory Ave and Mitchell Street / Gregory Place. Parents have been complaining about this for years, and they’ve been asking for a traffic light here.
This is important for two reasons. First, it provides a much safer way for students to cross from Valley to travel up to Roosevelt. But it’s also important for traffic flow coming out towards Gregory. If you live in that area, there’s no good place to make a left on to Gregory Ave towards Northfield. During rush hour, cars can get stuck here for quite a while. Combined with the poor visibility from the cross streets, a traffic light would make life better for everyone.
The area south of that is also particularly dangerous for pedestrians. The east side of the street has some areas where there simply may not be enough room for a sidewalk. But one may fit on the west side of the street. Installing one would complete the street, with a sidewalk on at least one side from Northfield all the way down to South Orange.
Another minor improvement would be to install a crosswalk at Club Boulevard, if there’s enough visibility from the end of the curve. Currently, anyone who lives along Wellington has to go out of their way to either Mitchell or Forest Hill to cross the street and travel up to Roosevelt. And Club Boulevard leads directly to Roosevelt.
Finally, the area south of Walker on the west side of Gregory needs sidewalks. Luckily, this is one of the bright spots. Thanks to a Safe Routes to School grant, a sidewalk will be installed along a portion of the road here. But that won’t happen for a couple more years.
This road is the source of many complaints. But it really all boils down to one problem: Gregory and Mitchell. If we install a traffic light there, the entire area becomes a lot less problematic. And it’ll be a benefit for both students walking to school and for adults driving through the area.
This may be costly. But it’s the only intersection in West Orange that I can think of where a) people are constantly clamoring for a traffic light and b) it would genuinely improve things. We need to find a way to work with the county to get this done.
Read more about Complete Streets in West Orange here. And if you want to see this become a reality, get in touch with me here for updates on the campaign.