Seton Village Traffic & Safety Update - Next Steps and Report Out
Background
Seton Village is a community situated between two heavily trafficked Essex County roads and bordering Seton Hall University. It is also the gateway between South Orange, Newark and Maplewood which can all be accessed via Irvington Avenue. As such, street crossings, commuter traffic congestion, access to parking and illegal parking, street cut-through issues, emergency vehicle access and speeding are important issues for most residents and local businesses.
Traffic & Safety Meeting
Seton Village NPP held on online Traffic & Safety Forum for community members on September 14, 2022. Prior to the meeting, NPP compiled emails and past survey feedback from residents regarding several identified issues in the district. An additional survey was distributed to assess issues related to speeding, illegal parking, crosswalk safety, and traffic congestion.
NPP reached out to Essex County, South Orange’s Police Department, and South Orange’s town engineer to participate in the discussion and address survey results and questions from the public. During a recent municipal Board meeting, a presentation from the County related to work occurring on Valley Street in 2023 was discussed The County informed the public during that meeting that additional work on Irvington Avenue at Riggs Place and Ward Place would follow the Valley improvements in 2024. This is welcome news to the residents who have been advocating for this work to be completed for many years. (Link to BOT meeting here. Traffic discussion at 2:10 and 2:40 for updates about timeline for completion of Valley Street upgrades and mention of next phase for Irvington Ave at Riggs/Tichenor Ave and Irvington Ave at Ward Pl).
The goal of the September Seton Village Traffic & Safety meeting was to provide feedback to Essex County, SOPD and South Orange Village as well as identify and prioritize any actionable interventions to improve traffic and safety for the district. By soliciting feedback in advance of the meeting, the key stakeholders were able to prepare responses to frequently asked questions as well as notify the public why or why not a proposed intervention would be undertaken. For example, some of the survey feedback included a request for “Children at Play” signage to be placed around the community. During the call, the SOPD and town engineer were able to point to data that noted these types of interventions are not within best practices to effect change in driving patterns. By siting data-driven solutions, stronger enforcement of parking, speeding and police visibility during high traffic times were often the simplest and most effective strategy for improving traffic and safety.
Stay tuned for our next meeting which will seek to to prioritize actionable crosswalk and street work improvements over the next four years.
Meeting notice posting:
https://www.setonvillage.org/upcomin-events/trafficandsafetymtg
Meeting recording:
Passcode: D%u7cFai
Meeting presentation:
Community Traffic & Safety Feedback Survey:
