Walking routes will be audited to improve safety

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Department of Health has received funding to conduct an audit of the accessibility of parks, schools, and mass transit destinations by pedestrians and bicyclers. The money is part of a Partners in Health “Healthy Communities” grant for $20,000.

“We’re going to actually study walking paths,” said Karen Lore, the health department director. “Any path with a destination potential, but we’re now focused on the redevelopment areas. For instance, Glenwood Avenue. Is it as safe as it can be? This is a way to encourage walking and biking.”

Lore said auditors would be doing the work and taking input from residents. Crime and pedestrian-accident statistics will be studied.

“How do we make commutes more likable and walkable?” she said.
The results would be presented to the mayor and council. Improvements to commuting routes based on recommendations from the Department of Health audit, according to Lore, would be from the recent gasoline tax increase.

“There should be a lot of grants coming down for these things,” she said. “People want walkable communities. They want to be in a mixed-use community and go out to restaurants and mass transit destinations.”

The audit will be conducted by Charles Brown, an adjunct professor at Rutgers University.
In a telephone interview, Brown said he had 15 years of experience in transportation, planning, policy and research. He called the walking audit an assessment of the pedestrian environment. The safety of all modes of vehicular movement would be studied but he stressed that all types of movement begins as a pedestrian movement.

The plan was data-driven, he said. The number of all types of crashes, from 2015-2016, were to be collected as was crime data. With this information, five routes were being considered.

• Glenwood Avenue from Bloomfield Avenue to Prospect and Willow streets, at Watsessing Elementary School.
• The entirety of Conger Street.
• The intersection of Broad Street
and Watchung Avenue.
• From the intersection of Broad Street and Watchung Avenue, to East Passaic Avenue.
• Bloomfield Avenue, from Grove Street to Watsessing Avenue.
Brown said the project begins this month and should conclude by the end of summer. There will be five categories in which recommendations will be made from the results.
• Education
• Engineering
• Enforcement
• Encouragement
• Equity

“Equity,” Brown said, meant that the mobility of senior citizens on Bloomfield pathways is being considered.

A steering committee of nine individuals has already been selected to assist with the audit. They will be trained by Brown. He said if anyone wishes to be part of this committee, they can join by contacting the Bloomfield Department of Health. Brown is presently reviewing crash and crime data.

“We’re going to have a public meeting to get the public involved in every aspect as possible,” he said. “The first physical walk will be once the weather is more favorable but after data analysis and the public meeting.”

Missing sidewalks and abandoned properties would be documented and photographs would be taken. Essex County roadways might be included but the focus is township routes.
A community meeting to discuss the audit has been tentatively planned for Thursday, April 20, according to Maya Lordo, a health educator for the Bloomfield Department of Health. She said a press release is being prepared.

The members of the steering committee are Lore; Brown; Lordo; Judith Early, of Greener Bloomfield; Jill Scarpa, assistant health officer, Bloomfield Health Department; Officer Ben Christiano, Bloomfield Police Department, Traffic Division; Stephanie Cruz, Bloomfield Health Department/Human Services; Teka-Lark Lo, Bloomfield resident; Michelle Leonardis, public health investigator, Bloomfield Health Department.

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