Bad Traffic Flow on Maplewood Ave

I travel on Maplewood Avenue a couple times every day - usually once in the morning around 8AM and again in the evening around 6PM.  The area near the Post Office always appears to be congested with double-parked cars and trucks and requires extreme caution.  This seems to be due to the new location of the Post Office (PO trucks loading and unloading) as well as the surge in popularity of Able Baker (happy for them!).  I wonder if any parking/traffic enhancements can be suggested to the town to alleviate some of this?  Any thoughts?  

Continue with, as you say, "extreme caution".  

seems like the obvious solution is for the township to start ticketing double parked cars.

The fine people of Maplewood could just stop being knuckleheads with their cars. The location mentioned here is bad, as well as around the corner heading up Baker St. Double parked or just plain blocking a lane of traffic waiting for prince/princess to e,merge from dance class or whatever ... pedestrians busting out from between parked cars expecting drivers to brake for they and their scones u-turns into parking spaces ... driving up the wrong side of the road no matter the cars coming toward them.

I mean ... these issues are fairly typical all over Maplewood, but especially bad here.

Stopping to do business at the post office is a problem as there is no convenient way to turn around and go back again unless you go out of your way and proceed all the way up to Ridgewood Ave, then over to Baker and back down again.  There should be an easy alternative, but I can't think of it.

mrmaplewood said:

Stopping to do business at the post office is a problem as there is no convenient way to turn around and go back again unless you go out of your way and proceed all the way up to Ridgewood Ave, then over to Baker and back down again.  There should be an easy alternative, but I can't think of it.

You go up Maplewood about 15 yards, turn left into the top end of the NJ Transit parking lot, then make a right at the parking lot's exit. Takes less than a minute.

Today I saw someone on Maplewood Ave back out of one of the diagonal spaces in front of Kings and then block traffic flow both ways while doing some sort of contorted K-turn just to go back in the direction from which they had originally arrived. -Apparently too lazy to just drive around the block like a sane person. That's a new one that I've never seen before during 30 years of living here. WTF?

By the post office --- maybe change the one-way flow of direction at the west end of the NJ trans parking lot. Then, position the parking strips to accommodate that direction of traffic. Also take two or three parking spaces and make them metered spaces with 15 min. or 1/2 hour max parking time.

steel said:
Today I saw someone on Maplewood Ave back out of one of the diagonal spaces in front of Kings and then block traffic flow both ways while doing some sort of contorted K-turn just to go back in the direction from which they had originally arrived. -Apparently too lazy to just drive around the block like a sane person. That's a new one that I've never seen before during 30 years of living here. WTF?

I've seen that one several times.  I've seen all kinds of stuff I never thought I'd see.  Drivers going the wrong way through the Ricalton parking lot.  Going the wrong way on Inwood. One person literally left his car running with no one in it right in the middle of Maplewood Ave in front of Jerry Rose one Saturday afternoon.  I kid you not.

And remember, there is a second post office on Springfield Avenue... it has almost no parking problems.

it's been said and written a gajillion times already -- but it's not that hard to park further away and get this -- walk a couple of blocks to the post office.  And yes, I know some people have little kids, and others are injured.  But 95% of the people who just HAVE to park right next to where they're going are able-bodied and alone.  Unless you're mailing an anvil, it's not a tremendous hardship to walk 500 yards.

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

ml1 said:

Unless you're mailing an anvil, it's not a tremendous hardship to walk 500 yards.

The Village smithy does not drive or walk. Under a spreading chestnut tree, the Village smithy stands.

I spent way too much time figuring out that 500 yards would put you at the country club entrance. 

so a parking space in the village would actually be a lot closer than 500 yards to the post office.

Not clear on what this might accomplish. Can you explain? (Vehicles entering the lot at Baker Street now move westward; in the part of the lot closer to the dance studio, they travel eastward.)

Formerlyjerseyjack said:
By the post office --- maybe change the one-way flow of direction at the west end of the NJ trans parking lot. 

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Officers sit next to road construction for safety reasons.  Also, unless something has changed, they are NOT being paid by the town while doing so, they are being paid by the company doing the road work.

For nothing, I still think of “across the street from the post office” as in front of Kings. Couldn’t figure this thread out for a little bit. 

j_r said:
Not clear on what this might accomplish. Can you explain? (Vehicles entering the lot at Baker Street now move westward; in the part of the lot closer to the dance studio, they travel eastward.)

Formerlyjerseyjack said:
By the post office --- maybe change the one-way flow of direction at the west end of the NJ trans parking lot. 

Maybe not the best solution. Taking one parking space in the street, closest to the post office and one in the lot across and making them 15 or 20 minute slots may be the best idea.

Anyone have other ideas?

spontaneous said:

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Officers sit next to road construction for safety reasons.  Also, unless something has changed, they are NOT being paid by the town while doing so, they are being paid by the company doing the road work.

I realize that, just being snide. Because I've never once seen a cop at a work site do anything useful to increase safety, even when it might have been appropriate. And yes, they are often deeply engaged with a phone.

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

fyi , those are off duty paid jobs that require an officer be on scene. they

 do not respond to calls or write tickets, that is their sole responsibility to ensure the safety of the workers. 

Factotum said:

spontaneous said:

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Officers sit next to road construction for safety reasons.  Also, unless something has changed, they are NOT being paid by the town while doing so, they are being paid by the company doing the road work.

I realize that, just being snide. Because I've never once seen a cop at a work site do anything useful to increase safety, even when it might have been appropriate. And yes, they are often deeply engaged with a phone.

The very presence of a Police Officer,  visable to motorists, tends to slow down traffic

DaveSchmidt said:

ml1 said:

Unless you're mailing an anvil, it's not a tremendous hardship to walk 500 yards.

The Village smithy does not drive or walk. Under a spreading chestnut tree, the Village smithy stands.

The Village Smithy cannot walk or drive but the Smith can.

This was explained to me a while ago by a prominent Maplewoodian. He taught me that the "smithy" was the workshop in which the "smith" worked.

That's the way Longfellow meant it.

From Wikipedia article on the poem:

Several people, both in the United States and in England, took credit for inspiring the poem with varying amounts of evidence. The Longfellow family became annoyed with the preponderance of claims. In 1922, the poet's son Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow responded to these people in his book Random Memories. In a section called "Quips and Cranks", he wrote:

DaveSchmidt said:

ml1 said:

Unless you're mailing an anvil, it's not a tremendous hardship to walk 500 yards.

lewis9961 said:

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

fyi , those are off duty paid jobs that require an officer be on scene. they  do not respond to calls or write tickets, that is their sole responsibility to ensure the safety of the workers. 

I, for one, can certainly see how sitting in the car, on a cell phone helps insure safety.

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Nonsense. The members of the Maplewood PD work hard. I've gotten a deserved parking ticket.

spontaneous said:

Factotum said:

yahooyahoo said:

NEED. MORE. ENFORCEMENT.

Not likely. Cops are too busy sitting in their cars next to roadwork, playing with their phones.

Officers sit next to road construction for safety reasons.  Also, unless something has changed, they are NOT being paid by the town while doing so, they are being paid by the company doing the road work.

Well who do you think pays the company doing the road work?  And do you believe that company is billing the same rate they are paying?

LOST said:

The Village Smithy cannot walk or drive but the Smith can. This was explained to me a while ago by a prominent Maplewoodian. He taught me that the "smithy" was the workshop in which the "smith" worked. That's the way Longfellow meant it.

Excellent. Of course you, the prominent Maplewoodian and Longfellow are correct. Thanks.

Making the traffic flow in the Baker St. commuter lot two ways seems dangerous for accidents to me.  It might solve the problem, but accidents are probable and not an appropriate solution.  Can we designate an appropriate U-turn alternative close?

"Can we designate an appropriate U-turn alternative close?" As someone up thread pointed out "You go up Maplewood about 15 yards, turn left into the top end of the NJ Transit parking lot, then make a right at the parking lot's exit." This is in effect a U-turn.