SCHELLENGER’S LANDING – Lower Township officials have been trying for years to make the Schellenger’s Landing area outside of Cape May a safe place for pedestrians.
The area where popular restaurants such as Lucky Bones and The Lobster House are located, as well as South Jersey Marina and other well-known businesses, is near the foot of the bridge where vehicles come off the Garden State Parkway driving 70 mph.
Cars tend to arrive at Schellenger’s Landing traveling 45 to 60 mph, Lower Township Manager Mike Laffey said.
Laffey said the area is one where traffic slows down to a crawl and backs up over the bridge, but also where enforcing traffic regulations is difficult. About a decade ago, Lower Township Police Department stationed officers there and were ticketing drivers for not wearing seatbelts as they were headed into Cape May for Memorial Day weekend.
Some drivers showed up at the next Cape May City Council meeting to complain that Cape May was welcoming tourists to town with a traffic ticket.
Laffey, who has been on the job for more than two years, said the township has been making headway on pedestrian safety issues, including the installation of sidewalks. He said this all started before he was named manager.
“They did traffic calming measures – put in crosswalks, did some landscaping. They did some more things that had to happen to slow traffic down,” he said.
Laffey said speed coming off the bridge is a big problem except when the traffic is bumper to bumper.
The township is now looking at installing double-sided flashing radar signs to give drivers another visual warning about their speed. Laffey said the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is allowing the township to install these signs at its own expense.
“It’s a necessary evil to do that,” Laffey said.
Something else the township is considering is putting center-of-the-road markers on this already narrow strip of road. Laffey said they would have to position them where vehicles could make turns without hitting the markers, which are called “IRDs,” or impact recovery devices.
Laffey said the township would like to see the speed limit reduced on the section of Route 109.
“On the downside of the bridge, it changes to 30 mph, but people are doing 40, 45, even 50 mph. We want to slow it to 25, and maybe people will back off,” he said.
Laffey said the township was interested in erecting an arched sign over the roadway, reading, “Welcome to Schellenger’s Landing – Lower Township,” but the DOT denied the request.
The proposal was to erect an arched sign similar to the one reading “Fish Alley” in Sea Isle City. Laffey said the township would continue to seek approval for the sign.
He said a “Welcome to Lower Township” sign was going to be erected at Douglass Park where the ferries come into the terminal. The pavilions there are currently being reconstructed.
“We will dress up the whole park area,” Laffey said.
Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
