Yes and I work with nerds that can actually do something about this. If someone is a Somerset county resident, it was recommended to contact Paul Drake to get this on his radar.
Meeting w/park superintendent
- Thread starter jdog
- Start date
Well, nerds do run the world
ekuhn
Well-Known Member
He doesn't care about access to the park. His concern is the roadway.
For sure. Well, tell him 500+ people a week are crossing a road where cars regularly go over 60mph.
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ekuhn
Well-Known Member
He thought that was the only parking lot to the trail.
Strava | Metro
metro.strava.com
grilledcheeseking
Well-Known Member
Free service with a "partnership" ie, not free.Strava | Metro
Says free, but this language makes it seem like they're more interested in paved than natural surface trail. I don't have the time right now to go deeper than the first page.
ok, quick update on this. I communicated with Somerset County about the crossing and have a meeting later in November to review the crossing on-site with the Somerset Director of Engineering.
ekuhn
Well-Known Member
Kev - you talked to Pat Marotto? He said he would be spear heading it?
Adam Slutsky
remember that parking lot is closed/blocked off.
ekuhn
Well-Known Member
What. A. Name.
Way to grab the bull by the horns and tackling this. I just set it up, you'll be spiking it in the endzone.
christryon
Well-Known Member
And I would be careful about parking in the old farmhouse lane. I got a tow warning from NJDEP parking there about 2 weeks ago. I'd suggest you park on April Ln and take Adam's County vehicle with safety lights there to park. In a real pinch, one car can park on the 27 side in the trail entrance.
Thanks so much for tackling this!
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Not anymore...
We had a good meeting today with the superintendent.
We discussed most of the things that were suggested here that seemed reasonable to talk about.
The closure of the red trail was a big part of our conversation and unfortunately there’s not much we could do to change their opinion that ending the red trail and Canal Road is too dangerous. It turns out that this trail was never approved and although it existed for almost 20 years, it was never legitimized.
I discussed my view that the ride between jacques and the canal lot is far more dangerous than the short ride from the end of the (closed) red trail. I showed them the strava heat map data that shows the I also discussed that the closure added more user pressure to the blue trail.
Their position is that no one has to ride on Jacques and that it is a choice each user makes on their own.
We discussed the road crossing at south middlebush as well.
In the end I found it to be a successful meeting. The new super is easy to talk to and pretty funny actually.
I think this as as good as things might go and I look forward to more meetings in the future.
We discussed most of the things that were suggested here that seemed reasonable to talk about.
The closure of the red trail was a big part of our conversation and unfortunately there’s not much we could do to change their opinion that ending the red trail and Canal Road is too dangerous. It turns out that this trail was never approved and although it existed for almost 20 years, it was never legitimized.
I discussed my view that the ride between jacques and the canal lot is far more dangerous than the short ride from the end of the (closed) red trail. I showed them the strava heat map data that shows the I also discussed that the closure added more user pressure to the blue trail.
Their position is that no one has to ride on Jacques and that it is a choice each user makes on their own.
We discussed the road crossing at south middlebush as well.
In the end I found it to be a successful meeting. The new super is easy to talk to and pretty funny actually.
I think this as as good as things might go and I look forward to more meetings in the future.
Cal28
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the update Jason.
What favorable/ possible resolutions were mentioned?
As for the red trail, the only resolution that was entertained was a bridge that would cross the floodplain from the red trail to the canal lot.
This seems unlikely, but I plan to keep this concept alive.
Today was more of a meet and greet. Basically and Intro of Ken, Bill and myself. They acknowledged our work and dedication to the park.
We have loosely planned for a trail walk in the near future to see in person the work we have done.
@clarkenstein and I met with the Somerset County assistant county engineer at the South Middlebush crossing this morning. Traffic was almost non-stop in the 20-30 min we were at the crossing, which is exactly what we wanted. There was a recognition that improvements at the crossing are warranted. It was also noted that there is no current signage on the trail approaching the crossing, which is something we brought to the DEP superintendent.
It was a good meeting and we feel we achieved exactly what we wanted to do, show the county the safety concern and keep the ball rolling. Please keep in mind that this is one step in the right direction, there won't be improvements tomorrow, next week or a month from now.
We also made a connection between Somerset County and the new DEP superintendent, which Somerset has not met yet.