By Ron Leir
Observer Correspondent
HARRISON/EAST NEWARK –
Every weekday morning when the East Newark Public School is in session, some Davis St. commuters enroute to work face an early nightmare just leaving their block.
That’s because from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m., as children file into the elementary school for the start of classes, crossing guards set up barricades at the intersection of Davis and N. Third St., preventing residents of this block-long stretch of Davis – which runs one-way west – from turning onto Third during that critical rush hour period.
So, if those residents are late out of the gate, their only “option” is to make an illegal U-turn and/or try to back out along Davis – also illegally – onto the heavily-traveled Frank E. Rodgers Blvd. North, creating the possibility of an accident.
Those residents face the same situation twice in the afternoon, when the street is closed during the school lunch period, from 12:30 to 1 p.m., and again, from 2:50 to 3:30 p.m. as youngsters leave school for home.
Persistent traffic headaches notwithstanding, residents and local governments alike have put up with the situation for years … until this summer when Harrison and East Newark mobilized legislative efforts to change the status quo.
Both municipalities had to act since half of this section of Davis lies in Harrison and half is in East Newark.
A resolution passed by the Harrison mayor and Town Council on July 29 lays out the action plan: “reversing the direction of Davis St. between Third St. and F.E. Rodgers Blvd. N. from one-way going west to one-way going east.”
The traffic shift is justified, the resolution states, because it “will assist to ensure the safety of the public school children who utilize Davis St. to enter and exit the East Newark Public School.”
A similarly phrased resolution was passed by the East Newark governing body on Sept. 10.
Joint legislative action by the two communities will also bring Hudson County into the act since it has jurisdiction over F.E. Rodgers Blvd., a county roadway, and, according to county spokesman James Kennelly, Hudson will pay $10,882 to J.C. Contracting of Bloomfield for “striping, signs, police traffic directors and traffic signal head [retrofit]” to accommodate the change of direction on Davis, between N. Third and F.E. Rodgers Blvd.
Harrison’s Julie Walsh, a Davis St. resident, hopes the plan works. Now, she says, “you have to go out the wrong way — there are people on the block with children who go to other schools.”
East Newark Police Chief Anthony Monteiro said that maintaining the status quo would only continue to open the door to “a chance of a head-on collision” at the F.E. Rodgers intersection while Harrison Police Chief Derek Kearns said, “We’ve had situations where motorists who have to leave in the morning have removed barriers to go against the one-way flow,” Kearns added. “Once we get the reversal of direction in play, the situation is going to improve.”
Kearns said that several months ago, a Harrison motorist received traffic tickets for having allegedly violated the one-way restriction and “I pledged to her we’d make changes.”
Kearns said that residents will get “ample notice” of those changes with public postings on the block.
Whether residents on the block will be satisfied remains to be seen. Members of one family who live on the East Newark stretch of Davis seemed to be divided on the subject.
Maria Arias told The Observer she believes the plan to reverse direction is a good one. She said she has seen Harrison police officers ticket drivers “if you go the wrong way.” And stubborn drivers desperate to get out onto F.E. Rodgers use private driveways on the block to make U-turns, damaging curb cuts and sidewalks, she said.
But Arias’s daughter, Kristine, feels the communities are “making a mistake” by shifting the traffic flow. She said she’s adjusted to the current system by giving up driving to her morning class at Rutgers’ Newark campus. “I’d have to make illegal turns to get out and I’d almost gotten into accidents doing that,” she said. “Now, I walk. It only takes me 15 minutes.”
Kristine said the current one-way regulation is inconsistently enforced. Sometimes, she said, crossing guards let some drivers go through the barrier to Third St. and other times, “the crossing guards are not here.”
“So there are still going to be problems,” she concluded.
