Politics & Government

Cinnaminson Seeks Safety Improvements to Bus Stops

Deputy Mayor John McCarthy says he wrote a state-contracted engineer explaining the issues with the stops, some of which are 'an accident waiting to happen.'

After struggling for years to have improvements made to the bus stops along Route 130, Cinnaminson may finally be making headway with the state.

Deputy Mayor John McCarthy said the township recently received a letter from an engineering firm hired by the Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to survey and/or inspect bus stops in South Jersey and confirm if they’ve been approved by the municipalities they’re located in.

He said the township is still investigating whether committee passed resolutions approving all the Route 130 stops. In the meantime, McCarthy responded to the engineer explaining the township would like to keep the stops, but expects improvements to be made for the sake of pedestrian safety.

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McCarthy pointed to the stop on the northbound side of 130 at Andover Road as a particularly glaring example of a stop that is unsafe for riders. There’s no sidewalk leading up to the stop and no concrete pad for pedestrians to stand on while they wait, just a grassy slope. McCarthy referred to it as a “serious accident waiting to happen.”

A number of other stops—there are 10 in all along 130, five each on the north- and southbound sides—have similar issues, he said.

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“How can we encourage people to not drive and take public transportation, when you can’t give them a way to get to it safely?” McCarthy said.

In his response to the engineer, the deputy mayor stressed the township wants to keep all the stops, as they all seem to be active, but said it expects NJDOT to make improvements to the ones that need it. At minimum, he said, the stops must be handicap accessible, have a pad for riders to stand on, and preferably a cover with a bench—much like the stops at Cinnaminson Avenue and the southbound stop at Taylors Lane.

McCarthy said it’s not clear when NJDOT will respond, or what kind of response the township will get, but that the engineer said it was good the township made it clear it expected the state to make the improvements. He said it’s unlikely the township will hear back from the state until mid-summer as it’s evaluating stops throughout the state.

Do you think the bus stops along Route 130 need to be safer? Tell us in the comments below.


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