Harvey Rd. speed limit driven down to 40 mph
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - A 40 mph speed limit on Harvey Road is better than a 50 mph limit, but still not low enough for some who reside there.

The Township Committee unanimously passed an ordinance reducing the speed limit on the road to 40 mph, but those who live on the road said at the Oct. 4 public meeting that the limit should be lower. Township officials said there is little they can do to reduce the limit even further without state Department of Transportation (DOT) approval.

Harvey Road resident Michele Mars said the road has two one-lane bridges and a great deal of horse traffic.

"People grossly abuse the speed limit on the road," she said. "Sixty mph is not unusual."

Harvey Road measures approximately one mile from Burlington Path Road to Davis Station Road and is generally 24 feet wide with no shoulders or curb. An engineering report on the road conducted by Manalapan-based Schoor DePalma's (now CMX) engineer, Nicholas Verderese, concluded that 40 mph is the appropriate speed limit for the road.

Mayor Stephen Fleischacker said the Township Committee recognized the speeding problem on Harvey Road when the road was repaved.

"We want to lower [the speed] as much as we can, but we have to abide by DOT regulations," he said. "We don't agree with what the state requires, but we have no local jurisdiction."

He explained that the DOT requires a speed limit for any given road to be within 5 mph of the 85th-percentile speed of freeflowing traffic on that road. To determine the appropriate speed limit for Harvey Road, the township had an automatic traffic recorder placed on the road from May 23- 31, according to the Verderese report.

Deputy Mayor William Miscoski called the way the state determines speed limits

a typical New Jersey stupid thing."

Township Attorney Granville Michael Magee noted that the municipality also tried to lower the speed limit on nearby Sharon Station Road to 35 mph, but the DOT said the limit had to be 45 mph.

Committeeman Stephen Alexander said that the township relies on the New Jersey State Police to enforce local laws because it does not have its own police department. "The practical effect - what are people going to do on that road with no real law enforcement?" he said, adding that he is not knocking the state police but noting the problem with speed limit enforcement on local rural roads. He said the township could ask the state police to patrol the area for a while.

Resident Rosemary Niemczyk said that she automatically slows down while driving when she sees a sign for a one-lane bridge. She asked if the township could place such signs on Harvey Road, and Magee said that it would be possible.

Township Administrator Barbara Bascom said that a sign reading "Slow - Narrow Bridge Ahead" could be posted on the road.

Alexander noted that there are already signs posted along Harvey Road regarding the state law that mandates drivers to slow down to 25 mph when passing horses and their riders. David Meirs III, owner of the Concord Stud Farm on Harvey Road, added that the law does not pertain to horses being led or driven, only those that are actually being ridden.

Bascom said the new 40 mph speed limit signs would be posted on Harvey Road 90 days after the approval of the ordinance to lower the limit from 50 mph.