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Members of the Complete Streets Coalition applauded the Asbury Park City Council’s vote to move forward with the Main Street Road Diet pilot.

The traffic-calming measure is used reduce congestion and make roadways safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. In the city’s case, the state-owned corridor will be reduced to a one lane travel lane in each direction with bi-directional center turns and bicycle travel lanes.

The Coalition, which formed last year, advocates for a unified city road plan that provides safer streets for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

Member Pam Lamberton of Sunset Avenue was the first to speak saying she knows there are about three people in the city who think the plan is not such a good idea.

“I get it, they want to get from Allenhurst to Ocean Grove as fast as they possibly can,” Lamberton said. “They will love it in the end. We are going to slow traffic down.”

Lamberton said the slower pace will give motorists and others the opportunity to discover what currently exists along one of the city’s primary thoroughfares.

“People are going to enjoy what is there,” she said. “There are businesses, there are restaurants, a coffee shop, [and] a chocolate shop. It’s going to wonderful for the city, it’s going to be uniting. It’s going to make the east side and the west side more connected. It’s not all about the bike lanes as some people may thing. It is about safety for everybody who uses that street.”

But Lester Corbo, whose restaurant equipment business [shown in featured photo] has prominently sat at the corner of Main Street and Cookman Avenue for 25 years, disagreed.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Corbo said. “With the amount of cars that we have, it puts a lot of people in jeopardy. It’s dangerous.”

City officials have said the Main Street Road Diet will be implemented as a pilot, meaning if it does not prove effective within the two-year evaluation period, they will return to current road design.

Initially proposed by the state, the City Council formally rejected the Road Diet last year. Through a collaborative effort with the state Department of Transportation [DOT], city officials were able to strike a compromise that thwarted the governing body’s safety concerns. This included traffic light preemption to allow for emergency responder vehicles to have the right of way, outlining public transportation stops, and bumpouts [extensions of a sidewalk].

The narrowing will occur from Cookman Avenue north to the Deal Lake border, leaving the current layout in place south of Cookman to Neptune’s border.

Transportation Manager Michael Manzella has said the plan is a vital part of the city’s overall Bicycle/Pedestrian plan. Working in conjunction with the city’s five-year road repair program, Manzella said safer street designs will be introduced across the city.

The road diet changes are expected to begin after Labor Day and wrap up with the repaving of the state-owned corridor in 2019.

“There’s quite a bit of work that has to be done before paving can begin,” Manzella said. “They will begin with the traffic signals, sewer work for Springwood Avenue, concrete, and utility work – JCP&L poles need to be replaced because you want to take care of what’s under the ground first.”

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