Slow Down, Township Councilwoman Says

Leadfoots, you've been warned.

Sometimes the speeding drivers in the Silver Ridge Park senior community are a little too much for Township Councilwoman Judy Noonan. That's when she grabs her cherry-red and white blowhorn and heads down Edgebrook Drive South.

"Slow down!" she'll bellow at motorists and motorcyclists who are going just a tad over the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit.

"The speeders are getting worse," she said at the April 12 Township Council meeting. "The motorcycles are getting worse. Something has to be done. We're not talking about 25 miles-per-hour. We're talking 50 to 60."

Edward McCarthy, who lives on Edinburgh Drive near the intersection with Edgebrook Drive South, agrees with Noonan. He came out to chat with her this afternoon, as they stood at the intersection and watched the cars zip by.

"I'm going to start taking pictures," McCarthy said. He pointed to a stop sign.

 "This sign right here,  you might as well take it down," he said.

Noonan told Mayor Jason J. Varano at the council meeting that she understands the police department can't keep a permanent patrol in the area.

"I know the police department can't be here every day and every night," she said. "I'm not blaming the police department."

Noonan would like to see speed bumps placed at the beginning, end and in the middle of Edgebrook Drive North and Edgebrook Drive South. That would foil drivers who use the streets as shortcuts from getting a "running start," Noonan said this afternoon.

Varano said at the meeting that township streets used as primary roadways by emergency vehicles can't have speed bumps.

"I gotta tell you, it doesn't fly anymore," Noonan said. "The speeders are getting worse."

Varano said he would readdress the matter with the police department's traffic safety bureau.

"We'll see if there are any other traffic calming devices we could do," he said.

Noonan also questioned why some sections of Berkeley Shores have speed bumps, but the senior villages have none.

The average age of the residents in the senior sections has dropped to 62, resulting in a  more active population, Noonan said.

The problems are worse early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when many residents return from work, McCarthy said.

He's not scared to drive on his neighborhood streets, McCarthy said.

"Just cautious," he said.