While walking on Park Avenue, our neighbor's teenage son was recently struck by a car that veered off the road and onto the sidewalk, sending him to the hospital’s trauma unit in critical condition. This tragic incident has highlighted an urgent need for traffic calming measures on Park Avenue in Berkeley Heights, NJ.

Park Avenue is primarily a residential area with frequent pedestrian and cyclist activity, and serves as the entrance to one of our town’s elementary schools. However, the current speed limit of 40 mph along much of its length poses significant risks to these vulnerable road users. We can dramatically increase the safety of our children, our pets and ourselves by:

1. reducing the speed limit to 30 mph for the length of Park Avenue

2. installing permanent automated speed monitoring signs at both ends on Park Avenue, facing both directions 

3. posting a prominent speed limit sign on Park Avenue right after the turnoff from Mountain Avenue.

In addition, we would like the town to study the safety and feasibility of adding speed bumps just before the school zone, before Windsor Way and before Fairfax Drive.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data from 2018, speed-related crashes accounted for more than one-quarter of all traffic fatalities in America. The rate of speed is strongly linked to the risks of fatality and serious injury, with older people and smaller children facing even greater risks and larger vehicles such as delivery vans causing higher fatality rates.

An analysis of NHTSA data from 2015 to 2020 found that over 70,000 pedestrians are hit by vehicles annually in the U.S. And it doesn’t take high speeds to severely injure — or kill — pedestrians. 1 in 10 pedestrians hit at 35 mph die. The pedestrian mortality rate is 4 times greater for those hit somewhere other than at an intersection, and increases by 54% (at only 25 mph) for those hit by a vehicle larger than a sedan.

According to earlier research from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the average risk of death for a pedestrian is 10% at an impact speed of 23 mph, but increases to 25% at 32 mph, 50% at 42 mph and 75% at 50 mph—a speed often reached by vehicles using Park Avenue to rush from one side of town to the other. The wide, largely straight, recently paved roadway entices drivers to speed. 

For bicyclists, an analysis of NHTSA data found that 62% of deaths were on roads where the legal speed was 40 mph or more. The most common speed limit in car crashes that killed a person biking was 45 mph.

This is why we are asking for 30 mph on Park Avenue. Other major roadways in town have lower speed limits, such as Plainfield Avenue and Snyder Avenue, which also are largely residential and have schools on them. Most of Snyder Avenue is 30 mph and most of Plainfield is 35 mph.

By lowering the speed limit on Park Avenue, and providing clearer speed limit indicators, we can reduce these risks and make our neighborhood safer for everyone who lives here or visits us—whether they are walking, cycling or driving.

Please join this effort by signing this petition today. Your signature could help save lives and prevent other families from experiencing such heart-wrenching tragedies in our community.