1. 1. State should widen route 9. ( Not probable to happen but have to say it.)
   2. Township should look into requesting or purchasing first few feet of property olong the 9 to lower cost of widening from the state so state is more agreeable to it.
   3. Widen alternative streets like Vine, MLK and Cross.
   4. Put in Place and enforce zoning laws that don’t allow building so close to the property line on the so that it can theoretically be widened.
   5. Require an impact fee from builders to cover traffic signals and additional turning lanes by busy developments.
   6. Require and enforce smart building in the future. No driveways, parking lots and small roads should intersect with the 9. Only major intersections with traffic signals and turning lanes.
   7. ENFORCE THE EXISTING ZONING LAWS AND DON’T GIVE FREE VARIANCES TO EVERY BUILDER. Laws are only useful if they are enforced.

2. 1. Start limiting new developments that can show, by traffic modeling, that they can mitigate their additional traffic generation.
   2. Since it is WAY too costly to really expand Route 9, start upgrading parallel roads to handle heavier volumes. It would be a lot cheaper.

3. Divert some traffic from chestnut to cross street, rather than travelling the Rt 9 corridor. Allow only Rt turns out of congested developments during peak hours.

4. Put a freeze on all new construction immediately for all areas near Route 9.
   If possible even on construction that was approved already (I’m sure there are ways to do it, just like it was all approved without any brains, worst case they won’t get the kickbacks they were promised)

   Add long turning Lanes (currently they don’t allow more than 5 cars to fit, slowing everything down)at every intersection.

   Some more crossing guards for the busy hours.

5. Stop building

6. 1. Left turning lane from Route 9 onto Pine street and from Pine onto Route 9 South. It’s a no brainer.
   2. The turning light from Central Ave onto Route 9 is SHORTER on Sundays. Ever notice that? So Central backs up like crazy. Just make all days, except for Saturday, the same.

7. putting a second lane on Clifton going south from first street to hurley. That would only take out around seven parking spots and would help south traffic flow on Clifton which gets very backed up during the afternoon hours.. You would then be able to have two left turning lanes when coming west on 88 to cedarbridge. That would help that line of cars waiting to make a left turn which at times extends past Monmouth. You could then shorten the time the light is green for traffic on 88 and would allow more time for northbound traffic from hurley to Clifton.

8. I would make a turning lane from 88 all the way until toms river. I don’t think this will solve everything, but it will definitely help the flow of traffic. There have been countless times where I have thought that I was in traffic only to realize that someone was turning and Noone wanted to go around that car causing an unnecessary traffic backup

9. Instead of participating in this meeting giving the impression that we’re happy that finally they’re addressing the route 9 problem, maybe we should boycott to send a message to Trenton that until they seriously discuss widening the road, nothing is going to help. We don’t need studies to figure out the problem & solution, the problem is obvious & so is the only viable solution.

10. Widen Rt 9 , a wider rd will get traffic moving faster , also enhance public transportation . I love Lakewood

11. I think some green lights in this town need to be made longer example route 88 and Clifton , New Hampshire and pine, pine and route 9!!! Traffic would move a lot better in these areas…..

12. while i agree that the lack of zoning laws compliance/enforcement lead do the problem of traffic all over lakewood, the roads were not made for therefore not adequate for such population congestion, I think its to forgone and its too late to help the problem enough to make a huge difference.

13. somebody explain to me how turning lanes at pine or some other streets will help!! traffic on nine is at a standstill due to the volume of cars and has nothing to do with cars waiting to make left turns. I travel on this road from 70 to 88 around six times a day and the problem is NEVER that I am stuck behind a left turning vehicle. In front of the left turning car are more cars going straight that are stuck.

14. Maybe not allow trucks during peak hours? They take up a lot of the road and often drive slowly due to cargo. Perhaps trucks should not be allowed on these roads during the heavy traffic patterns (morning carpool, afternoon school dismissal)

15. Why do people keep saying it is “too costly” to widen rt 9? People, nothing is too costly for politicians! They just need to want to do it. If they can spend a billion $ on their election campaign, and billions subsidizing their pet projects… they can spend money on widening the 9

16. Close rt 9 for a month so that people discover there are alternate routes to get from Toms river to Howell

17. Switch rt 9 to one way!

18. make route 9 a carpool only road between 9-10 am

19. there is room for 3 lanes all together on rt 9 there should be 2 on one side and one on the other depending on what the traffic study says is more traffic
    now if you want to be very creative we can have a movable barrier like the tunnels and other bridges that the extra lane moves back and forth depending on time of day

20. Stop building perioud

21. I would first freeze all future building until issue resolved. Anyone agree??

22. build an upper bridge on parts of route 9

23. I believe the following solution would ease the backup extensively:
    Lengthen the amount of time the light by central and the 9 stays green,thus allowing more cars to get through.Right now that light turns red as soon as cars start putting their feet on the pedal. Ten-twenty more seconds would make a huge difference.

24. Install an overhead roadway over the present Route 9, like in Seattle Washington, to completely bypass Lakewood for the drivers on Route 9 that will not be stopping in Lakewood. This would probably eliminate 50% of the traffic.

25. the reason why they need to have these ‘meetings’ every few months is to spend the money that was allocated for a ‘study’.

26. Make another bridge across the lake

    Pave vine street!

27. take away all the shoulders they’re is no need for a shoulder in the middle of a urban city is not a highway

28. Move out of Lakewood

29. raise awareness all over town for cars making a left turn to be allowed in to turn so don’t have back up of cars.. for example by the light of Clover and Rt 88, gets backed up majorly cuz no one lets a single car make a left onto Clover from Rt 88. i’m sure similar all around town.

    also lengthen turning lane on Central to Rt 9.

    make left turning light from Rt 9 onto North Lake Drive

30. BMG should build a bm in the. Bestbuy area. All yungelite on south of the lake will have to learn there.

31. All good ideas. The state should listen to them

32. I wish I had a solution.

    All I can say is that *until* there is a reasonable working solution in place, ALL new building projects need to come to a halt.

    The quality of life in Lakewood is declining by the second and it’s clear that we do not stand a chance to salvage the already deteriorating situation without unifying as a single voice against ALL new building projects. Period.

33. Route 9 is an old and vital artery for the state’s economy. However it must be seriously upgraded. Widening, dedicating truck lanes, dividers, multiple levels where needed and more spacious intersections throughout the entire length of the Route are very important steps for the future demgraphic and commercial growth and success of both the route and the state.

34. workon the traffic all together not only the 9 figure it out bc they are all terrible

35. Drain the lake and make streets!!!!

36. Horse and Buggy

37. @tls why is my first comment awaiting moderation since this morning???

38. At the very least a traffic queue should be required for entrance to the developments and shopping plazas that were so readily approved on major roadways. With out these traffic queues, the flow of traffic on these roads which were once great, are greatly impeded everytime someone wishes to turn.

39. Build a overhead train from route 70 to county line

40. traffic comes from crazy amount of volume and stopping and starting again!
    therefore an officer should stand at intersection of rt 9 and central and also at james and let cars go and go, when one has a clogged artery you free it up everything else will flow normally
    only catch is the side streets will be backed up, i am asking just try it, many smart people think this will work, thanks

41. There have been a lot of comments on here, some seem to be well intended, but none of them offer solutions.

    1)Township purchasing property along route 9 – Even if they did, there is no reason to assume the state will widen route 9.

    2)” Widen Vine MLK and Cross”. Cross is a mess, with a bigger mess coming soon, it is also a County Road and the Township can’t do anything to it. It would be nice if the County wouldn’t allow any more building along Cross, they do have that authority .

    Opening Vine would be nice, untill the next wave of developments come online. However, even widening these streets won’t do much, unless your objective is to have a larger parking lot. Cedarbridge Southbound is always backed up.

    3) Limit development unless they can show…mitigate traffic” well anyone who pays an engineer can get him to show whatever they want. The fact is that developments in Raintree impact traffic on Oak Street, because of all the schools there, just one example. The point is, there are very few thru streets in town, so building anywhere effects the whole town.

    4) “I think its to forgone and its too late to help the problem enough to make a huge difference.” While Lakewood will never be what it once was, if nothing is done it is going to get a whole lot worse.

    First step is to stop contributing to the problem with a building and variance moratorium, then work on incrementally solving the problem.

    Lakewood politicians plan on growing this town from the current 120k people to 220k people. If the state would widen route 9 now, the problem would be right back where it started in another 5-10 years. To be honest, if I was the State, I probably wouldn’t widen route 9 either. they stress that state roads are meant to be through ways, they are not intended to be the main roads for intercity traffic.

    Perhaps if the local politicians showed they cared about the problem, by not re-zoning via variance, and by adopting new, less dense zoning, the State would be more inclined to help.

42. LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM. no charge it just goes from chesnut street till countyline and back and stops every few blocks!!

43. Stop building.

44. I agree with Steve Walker’s comment about unifying in one voice against new construction.

    But how do we unify and send a clear message?

    Maybe an online petition (sponsored by TLS)?

    Would love to hear actionable ideas!!

    We can’t push the can down the street any longer!!

45. @JustWondering
    How do we get a moratorium on the ballot? Does the will of the people count for anything against the developers. Other towns have put a stop to new development. How can we get it done here?

46. This is by far the biggest issue effecting this route town.

    Can TLS please pin this post to the top till a solution is reached?

47. alternate routes need to be encouraged. If there were more through streets to parallel rt 9 cars would use it.
    In Baltimore a road was made parallel to the railroad right of way which helped alleviate traffic on a major street
    left turn lanes don’t help unless there is a left turn light also.

48. Although some may claim that a moratorium is an illegal taking of land, the Supreme Court has allowed a 3 year moratorium on construction, in the case that came before it.

    It would be difficult for a developer to claim the land is “taken” if the land was recently rezoned, while they owned it, to allow more density.

    As far as 45, this is a democracy, vote with what you see with your own eyes, not by what you are told.

49. All u people saying stop building ur wrong bec eveni f u stop building its still going to be traffic, the only way to fix the traffic is widening RT 9 2 LANES EACH WAY there is no other way

50. its the states problem, snarl up Trenton for a few days they will solve lakewoods problem

51. How about we turn Lakewood into one large retirement community?
    Say, from 45 years and up. Anyone below that age, au revoir!

52. TRAFFIC CIRCLES SOLVE THIS PROBLEM IN MAJOR CITIES SUCH AS JERUSALEM! Just came from a visit there and they avoid traffic and lights by having lots of traffic circles in many neighborhoods….

53. at Main street Clifton intersection allow right turning lane on Clifton northbound to turn right while there is turning signal for rt 88 westbound traffic turning left.

54. Hey jerusalemgirl if we had room for traffic circles we would have room to drive. How big a diameter are the circles in Jerusalem, then show me the area in Lakewood that has that much room.
    Then please explain to me how going in a circle is going to solve traveling in a strait line from Toms River to Howell along a 2 lane road.

55. Train / Monorail going from route 9 at Howell all the way down to Toms River

56. The town must open all through roads like Arlington. Though the immediate neighbors don’t want it, someone on the township has to stand up and put the benefit of the town first.
    For example, last week the planning board proposed to open Netherwood from Finchley to Cross WITH A BUFFER IN THE MIDDLE TO PREVENT THRU TRAFFIC. The township must put the needs of the town before the needs of the immediate neighbors. Tue town needs thru streets, not a bunch of cul de sacs opening onto the few thru streets we have.
    There are many examples, like Vine st. by spruce, and many more.

57. Yes traffic circles

    Every 25 feet on route 9

    So we may be going nowhere fast but at least we will be going in circles

    And then the school buses can enter the circles the wrong way into oncoming traffic to speed up their left turns

58. 1. Better timing on traffic lights. If the green lights were longer and coordinated, cars could actually move, instead of being stuck 1 block after the next. an extra 30 seconds to all greens and having the lights IN SYNC will go a long way.
    2. a central turning lane. Rt 9 is wide enough in most of it to add a central turning lane though a lot of it.
    3. NO LEFT TURNS onto small side streets during certain daytime hours unless a designated turning lane exists (UPS saves millions of $$$ by not making left turns, so it really works!)
    4. pedestrian bridges over certain intersections (and getting rid of some of the crosswalks that stop traffic, extreme idea, but will help where lots of people walk such as near any shul or Yeshiva)

59. I love the idea of the bridge! !!
    Let’s go for it.
    Good Luck!

60. The Planning/zoning boards should STOP allowing new developments to be built along Rt 9 !
    They are creating this mess.

61. wait it out. The next governor will be a democrat who wants to build roads & bridges!

62. Any alternate route comes with a hefty tax & just transfers the gridlock to Clifton Ave/Cedarbridge. Its already backed up & will not solve the problem.

    I do like the idea of two lanes one way & I’ll add that the other direction should have sinquenized lights

63. I thing STOP ALL BUILDING the builders and developers are very smart and powerful and if you stop them THEY will come up with a traffic solution very fast!!!

64. Build an overpass express highway above rt 9 from Howell into Toms River that bypasses all Lakewood trsffic

65. No more variances through the zoning board where developers can bully the zoning board to give in to them. And everyone else finds out what they lost 6 months later. From now on we should have public voting on all construction. If someone is opposed they’ll distribute fliers against the variances. And not only variances. Some things are legal because of old laws that aren’t in touch with the current reality. The public should have the right to protest to change the law.

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