Ridgewood passed and is implementing a plan to remove two lanes of traffic at the Franklin Ave underpass.  No one was given advance notice, no public input was sought, no comprehensive traffic study was done and the plan is very flawed with serious potential safety and traffic consequences.

This area is already a known bottleneck and removing lanes stands to:

1. Create major traffic backups on Godwin, West Ridgewood, Franklin Aves and Broad Street;

2. Cause drivers to divert onto residential side streets, filled with kids, to avoid the underpass.  They are already diverting onto Doremus, Ackerman, Heights & Crest;

3. Hurt downtown businesses, by pushing West Side residents to shop in Midland Park instead of Ridgewood to avoid the underpass traffic;

4. Plus, the plans include an ill-conceived bike lane, which is also to be used by Emergency Vehicles (Police, Ambulances and Fire) to bypass the single-lane traffic.  This is a blind curve and children riding here will be hit!  Drivers entering the plan's very limited turn lanes will also have to cross this bike lane.  It makes no sense, yet the Village is going ahead with this dangerous plan.

Village Residents want the Council to stop work until a comprehensive traffic study is done (ASAP!) and input from Residents is heard.  While we support changes that improve traffic and safety, this one does neither and has the potential to make both situations worse.

We believe there is still time for the Village to modify the ill-conceived parts of the project to make it much safer.  At the very least, the median should be narrowed from its planned with, so that the lost vehicle lanes can be eastily restored - at safe and usable widths - if the design doesn't work.  Given the issues at hand, contingencies for safety and traffic flow are more important than a few trees in the median.

Ridgewood must not proceed with this flawed plan. The risks and dangers of completing the project as-is far outweigh the benefits.