Safety Concerns At 2 Westfield Road Crossings Prompt Investigation

WESTFIELD, NJ — Safety concerns at two road crossings in Westfield have prompted the Town to launch a review.

At the Tuesday Council meeting, resident and runner Michael Blancato pointed to visibility problems near Kimball Road and Wychwood Road and the lack of a crosswalk at Davis Court crossing East Broad Street.

Blancato told the council he had previously sent emails about both locations.

As a runner, he raised concerns about how the crossings impact pedestrians, including children and people pushing strollers.

Blancato said the Kimball Road crossing is hard to see because there are no sidewalks nearby and described Davis Court as difficult for people trying to reach Lenape Park and the sidewalk network leading to a traffic light at Springfield Avenue.

"It's really important from a safety perspective that there are well-lit crosswalks," Blancato said. "Something needs to be done. Either the little blinking lights or a speed bump or something needs to be done there."

On Kimball and Wychwood, Blancato said the crossing had previously had a crossing guard and called the current setup a problem for the occasional child walking to school.

On Davis Court, he described seeing "a woman with a baby carriage" trying to cross as cars passed by.

He also said, "There's a beautiful trail there, but there's no sidewalk for us to get to the light to cross."

Blancato acknowledged that East Broad Street is a county road and said the town would need to begin the process for a traffic engineering study.

He urged council members to look beyond data alone and evaluate what a pedestrian actually sees at the location, especially as daylight hours shorten.

After his remarks, Mayor Jeremy Berman said, "We are looking into both things."

Public Safety Committee Chair Jenn Gilman then addressed Blancato directly and said the issue had already been discussed earlier that night during the Council Conference meeting.

"I want to let you know that we did discuss your concerns at tonight's meeting and we have given the encouragement and approval to move forward with the required steps to look at the Davis Court and East Broad intersection," Gilman said.

Habgood separately thanked Blancato for using lights while running and for choosing what she described as safe routes.

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