If only we lived in North Jersey we’d be used to traffic delays. Up there, roads seem to be in a continual state of being redone. Down here, we get two road projects, and life comes to a standstill. Our northern kinsmen are used to long delays going to work, getting stuck in traffic going out for a pizza after work, crawling bumper-to-bumper on the way anywhere.
Face it, we’re spoiled. People in Cape May County won’t have much to complain about after the Garden State Parkway three overpasses are done and we’re zooming along at 65 mph, and when Route 9 gets repaved. That mighty endeavor, according to reliable sources, is to take place sometime this summer at night. Yes, I can hear the Spout Off complaints now, “We’re trying to sleep and all we get is work all night long.” Frankly, I am ready for Route 9 to be repaved because it’s like riding along a railroad track. So much patching has been done in preparation for the paving, it’s jaw-jarring.
Unless you are a late-nighter who creeps home when other folks’ alarm clocks are just ringing at sunrise, it’s likely you won’t know it happened. Unless we wonder where the bumps went.
On my way to snap photos of work on Townsend’s Inlet Bridge June 24, before its grand reopening, I had occasion to travel past another road project, Sea Isle Boulevard. While it may seem nothing’s being done right now, that’s a fair assumption. Well, nothing that can easily be seen. According to County Engineer Dale Foster, the fill on the north side of the road is settling. Nothing can be done to speed settlement along. It takes its sweet time. As with the Route 9 and Garden State Parkway projects, once it’s done, although not for several years, it will be an improvement no one will remember. Traffic will fly into Sea Isle City at greater height than ever, and no one will be any the wiser.
As I think of the great leap forward that will be realized with the completion of the three overpasses, has anyone figured out how to alleviate that slight bottleneck at exit zero through the landing area into Cape May? Yes, “that” traffic stopper that happens on a regular basis. Let’s chalk it up to a minor detail.
Some things can be improved while others, well, just cannot. That is one of them.
Remember the hell that was North Wildwood Boulevard as it was being rebuilt? Remember the wooden plank bridge temporary for decades that was replaced with a smooth concrete highway? Remember the creeping traffic and the countless pilings removed from the houses there? No? Who recalls the labor demonstrations that were held because the work was being done by United Steel Workers, not by other, older craft unions? No? All we have now is a four-lane highway that transports us over the marshes at…ahem…50 miles per hour from Middle Township to North Wildwood and back.
I don’t want to mention “center-line rumble strips.” They seemed to be a life-saving idea on Route 47. It was an idea put in place to shock drunk or out-of-touch drivers from their complacency and put them back into a safe lane. Now that they are reality, some Dennis Township residents claim those strips are the cause of sleepless nights and the damnation of their lives.
I drifted over one last week and scared the living daylights out of myself, thinking the car was about to explode. I can see how they would cause a ruckus if you heard them night after night.
Wildwood folks, get ready to rumble, too. That nasty flood zone that becomes impassable every full moon, high tide or storm at Rio Grande and Susquehanna Avenue will (someday) be a thing of the past. As the entrance to the city is revamped, flooding will enter history; the road will become wider and more beautiful. That’s the end plan, getting there will be somewhat more difficult. Just remember to remind yourself, “A temporary inconvenience for a permanent solution.” Say it over and over; soon it will be history like all those other road projects.
All these projects are taking place because we love our freedom and we simply adore our private vehicles. We are not about to surrender them for public transit. Impatience comes with wanting to go where everyone else goes, but alone, on our own schedule. If we opted for more mass transit, perhaps getting around would be less of a hassle.
With vision and support, funding could be found (it is for everything else) for a light-rail system to link Cape May with Woodbine and beyond. The tracks are already in place. All we need are the rail cars and a simple little bridge over Cape May Canal. If riders can get from Camden to Trenton for a couple of bucks, why not from Woodbine to Cape May for as much or less?
Until that light rail system runs, don’t let all the traffic delays raise your blood pressure; they’re only a temporary inconvenience toward a permanent solution.
Court House – 10% to 27% of non citizens are illegally registered to vote and it is projected that 5% to 13% of them will illegally vote in Nov – it is not legal for non-citizens to vote in elections – do you hear…
