Kathy Dailey and Mark Chiarolanza, Republican candidates for the Borough Council, commented this week on Madison’s traffic congestion and parking challenges and offered appealing solutions.
Quality of Life
Candidate Dailey stated “Traffic within Madison and in our entire surrounding area has been increasing steadily in recent years, and it has taken a toll on quality of life here in town. Not only are we all wasting time sitting behind the wheel as we creep through town, but we also are wasting fuel, and our emissions are increasing pollution. With our ever-growing traffic, we also face an increased risk of vehicular crashes and accidents involving pedestrians, as we know all too well. And adding to the frustration is the fact that you may have a lot of difficulty finding a place to park, especially during mid-day and afterwork hours.”
Candidate Chiarolanza added “Our increasing traffic is not all doom-and-gloom, however -- the good news is that this increased traffic is attributable to our success. Studies have shown that traffic congestion often results from economic prosperity and other types of accomplishment.”
What we need, however, is a comprehensive approach to dealing with the challenges that come with the increased traffic volume and lack of parking availability.
Impact of Neighboring Towns
Candidates Dailey and Chiarolanza are very much aware of the increase in traffic through and around town that is due to the large amount of development along Park Avenue in Florham Park. As Dailey pointed out “Consider all the recent and current development that is underway along Park Avenue in Florham Park. The new business establishments have many employees, many of whom drive our roads to get to their workplace every day. The new and planned residential developments along that corridor will undoubtedly add hundreds more cars to the Madison mix as well.” Both candidates believe that Madison’s local government must make a more concerted effort to dialog with our neighbors and, when necessary, to influence their decision-making.
Both candidates are also aware of how difficult it is to find available parking downtown whether you’re a commuter or shopper. “After 7:00am on most mornings, it is impossible to find a parking space in any of the commuter parking lots, so if you don’t have a parking permit, and you need to get on a train, you may feel pressure to park somewhere which is prohibited, and during lunchtime hours finding a parking space can be very frustrating,” stated Chiarolanza.
To tackle these challenges, Dailey and Chiarolanza have suggested that we convene a wide variety of stakeholders. Here are a few examples of stakeholders whom we should invite and encourage to participate: merchants and employers from different areas of town and different lines of business; Madison residents who commute by NJ Transit; Madison residents who commute using various regional highways; non-residents who work in Madison; NJ Transit; administrators from Drew, Fairleigh Dickinson, CSE; administrators from Madison School District and St. Vincent Martyr School; Madison Public Works Department; Borough Engineer.
According to Dailey, “As the Internet of Things becomes more pervasive, we can begin to employ more reactive technology solutions everywhere -- even in our management of local traffic. The technology exists for vehicles to be able to communicate with traffic management infrastructure. We can introduce and encourage efforts within Morris County to deploy that technology not only here in Madison, but also in Morris Township, Chatham and Florham Park. All those neighboring towns feed traffic in our direction, which can lead to annoying backups here in the center of Madison. The traffic in neighboring towns is just as frustrating for Madison residents - in order to get to or from Rts 24 or 287 we need to travel through one of those other municipalities. Just like Madison, those towns have also seen a huge increase in traffic congestion in recent years.”
Introduction of Small Scale Public Transport
In relieving our parking space challenge, picking up on one of last year’s Urbanomics Study ideas, Dailey suggests that a cross-town jitney or shuttle service be introduced. “Such services can transport Madison residents from the edges of town to the Central Business District. It will help, for instance, Drew students to get to the Staples/Stryxe complex, or our NYC commuters travel to and from the train station. A jitney service could also help bring office workers from along Park Avenue into Madison for lunch or shopping. Many of the workers are reluctant to drive into town for fear of wasting valuable time searching for a parking space.” “It's also possible that we could set aside some commuter parking areas outside the center of town at parking lots that are typically empty during the working hours - the Madison Community Pool lot during the school year, or the high school lot during the summer, for instance. In any event, introducing a shuttle service has great potential to add convenience for Madison residents and has the added benefit of reducing the number of cars on Madison's roads,” added Chiarolanza. “We may also be able to increase the number of available parking spaces in the center of town, if we are able to de-centralize commuter parking in a way that is convenient for commuters, especially for those commuters who are not Madison residents .”
Kathy Dailey and Mark Chiarolanza are committed to serving the community, and they each have a long history of doing so. They will keep our local government focused on issues that affect Madison. They will work hard to make sure that Madison remains the greatest town in the USA!
Remember to vote on November 6.