Petition to Moorestown Township requesting action taken

to stop the through-traffic on Browning and Cottage Avenues.

September 6, 2007

Mayor and Town Council

Moorestown Town Hall

111 West Second Street

Moorestown, NJ 08057

Dear Town Council,

We respectfully request this petition be heard at the earliest possible date.

We, the residents of Moorestown's Browning and Cottage Avenues, wish to bring to your attention and request your help with a problem of increasing concern: the traffic on our street. All residents (signatures attached) agree that the volume of traffic and the speed at which it travels devalues our properties, and even more importantly, causes a significant safety threat.

Our primary concern is for the many children here. About 20 children live on Browning and Cottage Avenues, 16 of them under age 11. Also, three school bus stops are provided on Browning and Cottage Avenue, servicing approximately 25 neighborhood children.

A number of factors contribute to the problem:

1. The root of the problem is that more and more drivers are using our streets as a cut through to avoid the Lenola Rd/ Camden Ave intersection. In the morning the bulk of the traffic is rushing toward Lenola Road and in the evening it is rushing toward Camden Ave. At lunchtime the traffic is heavy in both directions and includes many commercial vehicles such as large Mack trucks, 3-axle tractor trailers, and delivery trucks. Cars race down the street, usually exceeding the 25 mph speed limit. Vehicles round the bend at Cottage Avenue and aggressively accelerate in their effort to quickly reach the corner of Browning Ave and Lenola Rd. Likewise, cars fly down Cottage Avenue in their effort to beat the traffic light at Camden Ave.

2. As the street was not built with the intention of accommodating this high volume of traffic, additional issues arise from its inability to support it. We residents depend on the use of the street to park our vehicles. Since the street is not wide enough for opposing traffic to flow simultaneously between our parked cars, traffic daily backs up waiting for the road to clear. This generally clogs our street and makes it difficult to get in and out of our driveways. Some drivers don't wait to pass through and damage has been done to our vehicles. One resident is on her third drivers-side mirror.

3. A particularly troublesome spot occurs at the bend in the road (where Browning Avenue changes to Cottage Avenue). Many of us have narrowly missed a head-on collision with drivers racing around the bend in the opposite direction. Combine the speeding traffic with the tight curve and you have a recipe for disaster. The families who live right on that bend have had their property damaged by motorists who were going way too fast to successfully make their way around the curve.

4. Another dangerous spot is at the corner of Lenola Road and Browning Avenue. The nature of this corner (a long curved corner followed by a downward sloping road) causes drivers turning onto Browning to make a wide turn and swing toward the other "lane." Many of us have narrowly missed car accidents here. Also, at this corner a hedgerow grows almost to the curb on Browning Avenue, blocking your view when turning off Lenola Road. (You can't see if there is an oncoming or parked vehicle or a person on the other side of the hedge until you have already turned.) For this reason approaching the corner on foot or a bike is very dangerous.

5. The street becomes even more impossible when people attending functions at the Lenola Firehouse or Jeff Young Memorial Park use our street to park their vehicles. At those times there are cars parked well up to the middle of Browning Ave, often on both sides of the street. This makes it practically impossible to get on or off the street since the parked cars block your view of oncoming traffic and only one vehicle can fit between the parked cars.

6. Finally, we are concerned that the "West Moorestown Revitalization Project" will increase the problem on this street. As businesses are added to the area even more vehicles will cut through our neighborhood, looking to avoid the Lenola Road traffic lights at New Albany Road and Camden Avenue. We believe this will dramatically increase our two biggest problems with the traffic -- the safety threat and the adverse affects on our property values. Devaluing the properties of our homes would be in direct conflict with our shared goal of revitalizing Lenola. We all want to see our area thrive, but not at the expense of our neighborhood.

Town council, we really need your help. We all enjoy living here and care about our community. Right now, our community is being sacrificed for the convenience of those passing through. Many hours of the day we cannot even safely venture outside to walk to the park or visit our neighbors. Instead of being an asset our street is now a danger. We watch the traffic put us, our property, and our children at risk on a daily basis. One family's cat was recently killed by a speeding motorist on Browning Ave, and we recall the little girl who was recently hit by a car on Second Street while using the school bus. We all fear that a child from Browning or Cottage Ave will be next. Each one of us wishes to see our street returned to a safe, happy place to call home and for our children to grow up. We want to see our street an asset to our community!

Please keep in mind our goal is to stop the traffic cutting through, not merely slow it down. We residents all have solutions we would like to propose, which include but are not limited to the following:

• Set a speed trap with radar and police officers waiting to hand out tickets - do this daily for an extended time period.

• Post signs "DO NOT ENTER - Local Traffic Only"/"No Commercial Vehicles"/"Slow, Children at Play"

• Lower the speed limit

• Install speed bumps

• Place STOP signs on Cottage Avenue at the entrance to Claypoole Avenue

• Post "No Parking Here to Corner" signs a safe distance from the corner of Lenola Road on both sides of the street.

• Remove the end of the hedgerow on Browning Ave

• Make the street One-Way toward Lenola Road

• This was recently done on Delwood Road (a popular cut-through between Maple Shade and the Cherry Hill Mall.)

• Make the street a dead-end by building a sidewalk across Cottage Avenue at the intersection of Cottage and Camden Avenue.

• This would solve the problem of through traffic in both directions - from Lenola Road and from Camden Avenue.

• This would only negatively affect the people causing the problem.

Thank you for your consideration and help with this matter,

The residents of Browning Avenue and Cottage Avenue (signatures below)

Petition drafted by Sarah Cannavo and Sue Treseder