It starts with a historic town and streets that were constructed for a horse drawn carrage, not for 21st century traffic. And especially not for our parking needs. Its those parking needs that actually are at the center of this traffic story.
Notice the double yellow line which takes an abrupt turn from the middle of Garden Street in its 1st block. That yellow line gets erased by drivers who ignore it because it squeezes the westbound lane width into something resembling a stingy parking space.
Why, you may ask, did Alaimo Associates do this? Because the 2nd block of Garden Street must accomodate parking on its eastbound lane and so the double yellow line is moved over to split the remaining space down the middle. Drivers ignore it there too.
Are we blaming the drivers? No. Definitely not. In fact, as a resident of Garden Street, I can recount the accident of a poor driver who attempted to comply with the traffic lines and for his efforts was rewarded with an impact by a piece of dislodged curbing into his passenger side tire. The large tree to the left of the approaching white car in the photo had pushed the curb out of the ground.
What can be done? A physical reconstruction of Garden Street is essentially impossible. But reducing the speed limit from 30 MPH to 25 MPH is not impossible. It would help slow traffic which would reduce the danger of collisions if they do occur. Mount Holly could also move to get its truck ban ordinance in effect. That ordinance, which was passed in 2022, is still sitting on the books, unable to be enforeced because our Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Township Manager have not done enough to get Eastampton and Westampton to issue “Resolutions of Support”. Those resolutions are necessary to get the ordiance effective.