Politics & Government

Lower Speed Limit Coming Soon to Cross Keys Road

Also, several residents questioned the township's red-light cameras.

The speed limit along the township's stretch of Berlin-Cross Keys Road will soon be reduced from 50 mph to 45 mph after the Township Council unanimously approved an ordinance approving the slight change Monday night.

Council had approved the measure on first reading at its Dec. 28 meeting.

Gloucester Township Police Chief W. Harry Earle expects the speed-limit reduction will be implemented by the end of winter.

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Police will announce the reduction and its effective date through a variety of means, including media releases, social media postings and signage along Berlin-Cross Keys Road.

Earle noted following Monday's Council meeting that Camden County has already approved the speed-limit reduction along the county roadway. The state Department of Transportation must still sign off on the reduction, but Earle said that is a mere formality at this point.

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Winslow Township officials are considering the same 50-to-45-mph reduction for their stretch of Berlin-Cross Keys Road.

In terms of the border between the two townships that runs along the roadway, the portion of Berlin-Cross Keys Road that heads toward the White Horse Pike falls in Winslow Township, while the portion that heads toward the Black Horse Pike falls in Gloucester Township.

The speed-limit reduction was adopted due to heavy development along the roadway in recent years.

Two Gloucester County municipalities—Monroe and Washington townships—already made the move to reduce the speed limit to 45 mph along their stretches of Cross Keys Road.

"Having an appropriate speed limit matching with the development that's been out there and then also matching up with the two other towns that took the same effort—it's all prefaced behind that," Earle said of his decision to approach Council about the reduction.

In another traffic safety-related discussion during Monday's Council meeting, several residents questioned elements of the township's red-light camera pilot program along Blackwood Clementon Road.

Four Blackwood Clementon Road intersections—at Cherrywood Drive and Erial, Little Gloucester, and Millbridge roads—are monitored by red-light cameras under the pilot program.

In asking Council about documentation that those intersections' traffic signals have been properly calibrated, Blackwood resident Paul DiBartolo asserted the yellow light for northbound traffic on Little Gloucester Road turns to red in less than two seconds—far less than the three-plus seconds state law would require for the 35 mph roadway.

Township engineering consultant John Cantwell, of Remington & Vernick, countered that the most recent analysis showed the yellow-to-red time at that intersection met the state requirement. To participate in the pilot program, the timing must be tested every six months, he said.

"It was over three seconds, I know that," Cantwell said. "It was probably closer to four seconds."

DiBartolo, who noted he timed the traffic signal's green-to-yellow-to-red cycle with a video, does not believe the township should be using the red-light cameras.

"I know for a fact that red-light cameras do not stop accidents. Extended yellow lights do," he said.

Blackwood resident Darren Gladden, an independent candidate for Council in 2011, also suggested the township get rid of the enforcement cameras.

"I don't believe in Robocop. I believe in real human beings," he said.

Sicklerville resident Jim Williams asked that township officials consider relaxing enforcement against motorists making right turns on red. He did note his wife received a ticket when she came to a stop beyond the solid white line of a camera-monitored intersection before she made a right turn.

"I think maybe a lot of discretion, or more discretion, could be put on people making right-hand turns as opposed to flying through the intersection," he said.

A state assemblyman is probing the usefulness of red-light cameras after he viewed a YouTube video showing accidents at intersections monitored by the cameras, the Star-Ledger reported last Friday.

Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth County) told the Newark paper red-light cameras are "automatic taxing machines."


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