We, the undersigned residents of South Orange and users of the South Orange train station and parking lot want to register our overwhelming support for the Church Street traffic reformatting design “Option 1 –‬ Shared Route” and our unanimous strenuous opposition to the Church Street traffic‬ reformatting design “Option 2 – Dedicated Route” as posted  on the‬ Village’s website August 28, for one or more of the following reasons:‬

1)‬ One-way vehicular traffic (North) on Church street means that all existing traffic  as well as vehicles exiting the train station lot onto Church Street  will be forced onto already congested South Orange Avenue, regardless of whether their eventual destination is South of 3rd Street.

2)‬ One-way (North) on Church Street during afternoon/evening rush hour with no left turn permitted‬ onto South Orange AVenue means adding 9-10 minutes and almost one extra mile in traffic to destinations such as South‬ Mountain Reservation, the Cooperman Barnabas ER, or anywhere South ; and will funnel additional traffic into the already congested center of South Orange.

3)‬ A single, narrow lane of one-way moving traffic bordered by double bike lanes on‬ one side of the street and parked cars on the other side makes it  difficult for numerous delivery and service vehicles to visit this extremely populated‬ neighborhood. The inability for delivery and service vehicles to park will cause even greater congestion and inconvenience.

4)‬ Option 2 increases congestion which will cause an increase in air pollution from the waiting vehicles.‬

5)‬ Option 2 increases traffic and thus the danger to pedestrians.

For these reasons we strongly support Option 1 and strongly urge the leadership of South Orange to keep Church Street two way.