I read with amazement and disbelief the front page headline in the Jan. 31 edition of the Criterion Sentinel, “Safety for bicyclists, pedestrians remains a priority in Metuchen.”
It is hard to accept this assertion as credible and sincere, as the borough has chronically and blatantly neglected road and sidewalk issues that have severely imperiled these users.
Some examples include the recent paving fiasco with the borough failing to coordinate with the county’s repaving of Amboy Avenue at its intersections with side streets (wrap-arounds); the then-borough administrator suddenly resigned and there are hazardous pavement conditions at the intersections; and the failure of the borough to repair the crumbled sidewalk at the northeast corner of Amboy/Eggert avenues due to the chronic curb-jumping by illegal big trucks as a result of deficient signage and non-existent police enforcement.
To me, it is laughable that sharrows, designated bike lanes, orange flags, etc. constitute an honest effort to protect borough bikers and walkers. Instead, I believe it to be a smokescreen for the borough’s deficient safety performance. In the interests of professionalism, I ask the present borough administrator to remediate these bonafide hard issues forthwith and not distract us with secondary fluff.
RG Douglas
Metuchen
