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Politics & Government

Slow Down Washington Ave. Traffic, Says Committeeman

Ken Hermann suggests decreasing speed limit to bring road in line with others in Green Brook.

Green Brook Township Committeeman Ken Hermann wants to change the speed limit of Washington Avenue, noting at the Oct. 15 meeting that doing so would bring the road's speed limit closer to other similar roads in the area. 

“We have Rock Road West and East that are both 25 mph and then Washington Avenue is 40 mph, until you hit Dunellen—which is 25 again,” Hermann said. “I think that as we did with Warrenville, where we reduced the speed limit, would be a proper thing to do for Washington Avenue. It would help with the businesses.

"You know people zoom at 40 mph, maybe even 50 mph," he added. "It would be nice if they slowed down and saw what kind of businesses we had.”

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Deputy Mayor Patrick Boccio added that in the morning there is an officer present for school children crossing the road, another reason to consider the move. 

Police Chief Martin Rasmussen was in attendance and weighed in on Hermann’s idea.

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“With your proposal we would have to refer to the county for them to do a traffic count,” Chief Rasmussen said. “We could argue that to make it unified that the county roads outside of Washington Avenue are all 35 in town, except for Warrenville which is 25."

Chief Rasmussen added that the 40 mph speed limit may have been set because of Washington Avenue's four lanes make the faster speed appropriate.

"I think we have a good argument that north of 22 is residential," he said. "Our best argument is north of the highway; south is going to be left to the county engineers.”

Hermann added that he would really like to see the speed limit set consistently at 35 mph, rather than 35 and then 40 again before hitting Dunellen's 25 mph.

He asked for a resolution to be added to the agenda for a future meeting, and for discussions with County Engineer Matthew Loper about changing the speed limit.

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