November 21, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 9 Ridgewood Consultant recommends public-private partnership by John Koster The traffic consultant hired by the Ridgewood Planning Board has proposed a public-private partnership to address the problems at the intersections in the village’s downtown area. Last week, John Jahr told the board the intersections had received an F rating, but the problem could be remedied by a $1.5 million traffic light replacement project. “In their existing conditions, the intersection systems fail; they rate an F,” John Jahr told the board last week. “You have existing, long-standing traffic issues.” Jahr said the 300 new cars anticipated if two or three residential developments were constructed at some future date would make the traffic conditions even more unacceptable than they are now. However, he said that installing state-of-the-art traffic lights would vastly improve Ridgewood’s downtown traffic and make the developments acceptable. Optimistically, he said, a coalition between Ridgewood and the prospective developers of The Dayton, Chestnut Village, and The Enclave, now in the early application stages, could relieve Ridgewood of some of the financial burden of spending an estimated $1.5 million on upgraded traffic lights. “I recommend a public-private partnership,” Jahr said. “We identify the locations where town is going to get the best bang for the developer’s buck.” As things now stand, Jahr said, the traffic remains congested all day. He noted, “Franklin Avenue is the worst place. The police told me that.” Jahr said that motorists who speed all the way up Oak Street past the Ridgewood YMCA/YWCA and then attempt to turn onto Franklin Avenue pose a particular problem, as do the pair of traffic lights on Franklin Avenue at North Maple Avenue on the approach to Ridgewood Village Hall and the Ridgewood Public Library. He identified other trouble spots well known to local motorists and planners alike: Franklin Avenue, followed by East Ridgewood Avenue and South Broad Street, then Ridgewood Avenue and Maple Avenue. The traffic consultant said Ridgewood’s traffic lights are outmoded and that this condition contributes heavily to the problem. “All your traffic lights are really very old,” he said. “They’ve given you good service, but it’s the end of their service.” He recommended state-of-the-art lights with push-buttons and sensors at $300,000 each. But the planners invited Jahr to return and speak at another meeting. Mayor Paul Aronsohn and Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli had stated, even (continued on page 11)