Traffic eyed on Clayton Ave.

HOWELL

HOWELL — Clayton Avenue, which is a short street that runs between Wyckoff Mills Road and Adelphia Road (Road 524), has been a source of contention for a long time because of traffic.

Initially, through a Howell ordinance, Clayton Avenue was designated as a oneway street with traffic only permitted to travel northbound.

Subsequently, officials rescinded the original ordinance and readopted it to only permit traffic to travel southbound on Clayton Avenue.

"The New Jersey Department of Transportation disapproved the 2001 ordinance which provided for one-way traffic, southbound traffic only, effectively continuing Clayton Avenue as a two-way traffic street, but the DOT did approve an earlier ordinance, which the township later rescinded, for one-way traffic northbound," according to information provided by Howell.

The primary intent of the ordinance was to address a problem of motorists using Clayton Avenue as a way to avoid a backup at the traffic light at Wyckoff Mills Road and Road 524, and to balance the interests of the residents on Clayton Avenue with that of the community in the need to keep the street open to public traffic, according to information provided by the township.

Clayton Avenue resident Joe Civitano expressed his displeasure with the current two-way traffic situation during the Dec. 16 Township Council meeting. Civitano said he sees cars travel on the street at high speed in both directions. He urged the council members to once again make Clayton Avenue

a one-way thoroughfare. An Aug. 25 letter from the DOT to Howell said that before the DOT acts, it must be provided with a traffic report. "A search of our file records determined that a traffic investigation needs to be conducted before consideration can be given to recommending approval of the submitted ordinance to the Commissioner of Transportation.

"Since current budgetary constraints have affected our ability to respond to requests of this type in as timely a manner as we would prefer, additional information will be needed before the Bureau of Traffic Engineering and Investigations staff can initiate their investigation," the DOT states.

In the meantime, DOT representatives offered Howell officials suggestions on how they can better mitigate the problems. The DOT has suggested that municipal officials implement traffic controls such as peakhour turn prohibitions.

— Toynett Hall