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Stone Harbor Hears Options for Increased Safety at Busy Intersection

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By Vince Conti

STONE HARBOR – In 2022, Cape May County experienced 15 traffic crash fatalities. Among those 15 tragic events were eight incidents in which the fatality was a pedestrian.  

That high level of pedestrian-involved accidents represented a spike in such incidents over previous years. Safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, especially during the busy summer season, has become a high priority for many of the county’s municipalities. 

At its Feb. 7 meeting, Stone Harbor Borough Council heard a report from County Engineer Robert Church on options for improving safety at the busy intersection of 96th Street and Third Avenue in the heart of the borough’s business district. 96th Street is a county road and not under the municipality’s control. 

According to Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour, the borough has been working with the county for five years on improvements to the intersection. A study quoted during the county’s presentation to the council showed that on a busy August day in 2016, the intersection experienced over 1,000 pedestrian crossings. 

The safety concerns arise from the heavy use of the intersection in the summer months when pedestrians and vehicles often vie for the same space in the intersection. Turning vehicles must yield to pedestrians, but the encounters can get scary. 

The issue is again up for discussion, in part, because the county expects a federal grant for work on 96th Street, with most of the work occurring following the 2024 summer season. The goal would be to incorporate a project on the intersection into that overall effort. 

A traffic engineer from Stantec, a Philadelphia consulting firm, told the council that any effort to improve safety at the intersection would involve tradeoffs, which the council needs to consider as it decides on the approach it favors. The tradeoffs involve three variables: Safety, congestion, and parking. 

Two main approaches to the issue involve what are termed “leading pedestrian interval” and “pedestrian scramble.” What is at stake in the choice is the length of the queue that is likely for traffic at the intersection and the potential for the loss of as many as seven existing parking spaces, along with the relocation of the loading zone for The Reeds at Shelter Haven.  

The solutions also involve the potential loss of a left turn for southbound traffic at the intersection. 

The “leading pedestrian interval” approach provides pedestrians with a three- to seven-second interval when they may enter the crosswalk and establish their presence there before vehicles have a right to turn into the intersection.  

According to the county’s traffic engineer, studies show that this approach lowers the potential for a crash between vehicle and pedestrian by 13%.  

It was only being proposed for the north and south crosswalks at the intersection.  

The approach also has a moderate impact on car queuing, with the likelihood that the queue backing up for the light would be a block long or less. This is the option that could result in some loss of parking. 

The “pedestrian scramble,” which initially evokes images of pedestrians madly running across the crosswalk, actually ensures that pedestrians crossing the street can do so without any vehicle movement through the intersection.  

This method of control at the intersection provides a 35% to 40% pedestrian crash reduction potential but does so with longer queuing and the possibility that cars will not make it through the intersection on one light cycle. 

The scramble also requires that pedestrians wait longer for their turn to cross, potentially leading to greater noncompliance by users of the crosswalk. 

In both approaches, the tradeoff is on the degree to which safety is improved and the cost of the intersection’s vehicle capacity in cycles of the light.  

Also discussed was a southbound left turn prohibition. 

The implementation of the models presented could, depending upon options, lead to a loss of up to seven parking spaces and a need to relocate the loading zone for the Reeds. These outcomes were the ones that drew the most opposition from certain council members and the public that spoke during public comment.  

The parking problem in Stone Harbor is severe enough that the loss of spaces in the central business district must be avoided at all costs. That is what the council heard from the public that spoke at the meeting. 

The county is asking the borough to designate its preferred solution for the intersection by June, so that there is time to work the project into the larger effort scheduled for 2024 on 96th Street.  

In all cases, Church said that alterations to the pattern for pedestrians at the intersection would most likely only be in effect for the summer season before reverting to the present protocols for the offseason. 

Davies-Dunhour referred the matter to the council standing committee on public safety for initial analysis and discussion.  

Thoughts? Questions? Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com. 

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