State DOT Supports Lower Speed Limit on Route 206

The New Jersey Department of Transportation has agreed to a request made by the Township of Lawrence asking that the posted speed limit along a stretch of Route 206 (Lawrence Road) be lowered, Mayor Greg Puliti announced at the township council meeting held Tuesday evening (June 21).

Once all the necessary paperwork is completed and submitted, NJ DOT will reduce the speed limit from 40 mph to 35 mph on Route 206 between Brearley Avenue and Skillman Avenue. Improvements in the form of pavement markings and new signage will also be made to the intersection of Route 206 and Eggerts Crossing Road.

The township’s request that NJ DOT lower the speed limit along Route 206 and improve the intersection with Eggerts Crossing Road was a direct result of an increasing number of pleas from people concerned about the safety of children and other pedestrians who must walk along and cross Route 206.

Among those who implored the township to take action was Anthony Sebasto Jr., whose father – 83-year-old Anthony Sebasto Sr. – at the intersection of Route 206 and Eggerts Crossing Road. While the elder Sebasto survived, he suffered nine broken ribs, three fractured vertebrae in his spine, a fractured leg and a punctured lung.

“The citizens, the township crossing guards and our school children are all forced to play Russian Roulette at the hands of Lawrenceville Road and its 40 mile-per-hour speed limit,” Sebasto Jr. said when he .

Spurred by the citizens’ complaints, the township set up a meeting with NJ DOT officials. In attendance at that meeting, held April 28, were Puliti, township Police Chief Daniel Posluszny, township Manager Richard Krawczun, Councilman Bob Bostock and three township residents.

“We voiced our concerns in front of a whole room full of Department of Transportation officials and we requested if they would entertain a reduction in the speed limit on Route 206. And because of that request they went out and did a study and we got a letter back dated May 16 that they will honor a reduction, between Brearley Avenue and Skillman Avenue, to 35 mph. So I think that’s a significant reduction in speed, certainly a welcomed one,” Puliti said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

During the school year, hundreds of children walk along and/or cross Route 206 on a daily basis to get to their schools, including Lawrence Intermediate School on Eggerts Crossing Road. On Feb. 14, 2002, beloved school crossing guard Robert “Bob” Gernhart, 70, was killed when he was struck by a car at his post on Lawrence Road (Route 206) at Lawrence Avenue in front of the Church of Saint Ann.

Those facts, and others, were considered by NJ DOT in deciding to approve the lowering of the speed limit.

In the May 16 letter sent to the township, Roderick A. Gilmore, NJ DOT’s acting supervising highway engineer for traffic, said: “Representatives of this office have completed their investigation and have recommended the speed limits as set forth below. Our investigation included a review of current speed check data, accident data, the pacing of vehicles in the normal traffic stream, the roadway conditions and an evaluation of the adjacent land use. It has been determined that your request to reduce the speed limit appears reasonable for the existing conditions, and based upon our investigation, approval can be recommended to reduce a portion of the speed limit along Route US 206 between Brearley Avenue and Skillman Avenue to 35 mph in the interest of safety and the expeditious movement of traffic, upon submission of a certified adopted Resolution of Support from the Township of Lawrence.”

Improvements to be made to the intersection of Route 206 and Eggerts Crossing Road will include the installation of a “No Turn on Red” sign facing southbound traffic on Route 206; signs advising turning vehicles to stop for pedestrians; pavement markings to create “ladder” type crosswalks.

NJ DOT noted that the news signs and pavements markings will be installed “within the earliest possible timeframe.” As part of the agreement, Lawrence Township will pay 25 percent of the cost of any necessary traffic signal revisions.

“Given the accidents that we’ve had and the amount of children that use that road, I feel that this is the prudent thing to do,” Puliti said. “We’re certainly elated that the Department of Transportation has heeded our call and is going to help us out in this situation, which desperately needs to be done.”

Like the lighted pedestrian crosswalk that was installed at the intersection where Gernhart was killed, the reduction of the speed limit “will further our public safety efforts along the Route 206 corridor,” Councilman Michael Powers said.

He added that the township must “make sure that our police are out there ticketing folks who are exceeding the speed limit to make sure things stay as safe as possible in that area.”

Not everyone, however, was convinced that lowering the speed limit is the best solution.

Before Puliti, Powers and Councilwoman Pam Mount voted on a resolution in support of the lower speed limit, Drexel Avenue resident Brian Remde spoke up and suggested to council that a better options would be to have police “strictly enforce” the current 40 mph speed limit.  

 “Mr. Powers and I discussed some of the speed limits in the area and I expressed some views on the subject,” Remde told council. “One of the things I believe is that we should strictly enforce a higher limit that reflects the traffic speed rather than loosely enforce a lower limit. Apparently, from what I have read and from what I understand, more than 90 percent of speeding tickets are for more than 10 miles-an-hour over the limit. I can here, basically, to state that I believe that most of the cars on [Route] 206 are already going 40 mph and I think it would be a better use of resources to strictly enforce the 40 mph rather than reducing it.”

While council members considered Remde’s words, they still unanimously approved the resolution.

(Neither Bostock nor Councilman Jim Kownacki was present; Bostock was said to be out of town on business and Kownacki was on vacation.)

“From all the research that we’ve done, speed limits do make a difference,” Mount said.

She noted that many motorists “zoom” off Interstate 95 and “fly” along Route 206, oblivious to the fact that – despite the presence of some businesses - Route 206 “is really a residential area throughout all of Lawrenceville.”

“Pedestrians are at great risk in New Jersey. We have one of the highest death rates for pedestrians in the country… It is very dangerous to walk to school. We want to make sure our children have a safe neighborhood to live and play and walk to school in,” she said. “We just have to learn to drive more carefully and more slowly… If you’re driving [Route] 206, just drive slower, so the guy behind you will drive slower. If we each try to do it, it might work.”

Also approved during Tuesday's meeting was a resolution amending the language of a previously-adopted resolution supporting the .