{"id":19075,"date":"2021-11-29T05:14:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=19075"},"modified":"2021-11-29T05:35:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:35:22","slug":"left-turns-to-be-banned-entering-exiting-new-brick-wawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2021\/11\/left-turns-to-be-banned-entering-exiting-new-brick-wawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Left Turns to be Banned Entering, Exiting New Brick Wawa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vehicles<\/a>

Vehicles jockey for position making turns into and out of the Wawa on Route 88 in Brick, Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

State officials have agreed to a request from Brick Township to prohibit left turns entering and exiting the township\u2019s newest Wawa store on Route 88, a state highway.<\/p>\n

Since the store opened earlier this month, residents and township officials have complained that Route 88 \u2013 in the already-busy area of Jack Martin Boulevard \u2013 has turned into a major bottleneck<\/a> since drivers cannot get by other vehicles making a left turn into the store. Making matters worse, vehicles turning left onto Route 88 from the store have created traffic issues within the parking lot and have led to close calls on the highway. Mayor John Ducey said the township previously asked to have left turns prohibited by the state Department of Transportation, but they were ultimately allowed. Because the Wawa property is located on a state highway, jurisdiction over traffic patterns falls to the NJDOT.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a>

Jack Martin Boulevard, Brick, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Following a new round of requests by officials, local media coverage and a flurry of phone calls from residents, the state agency took a second look at the new development along the highway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DOT asked [township] council the pass a resolution to ban lefts in and out of Route 88,\u201d said Ducey, explaining that the resolution will allow the state to formally update its records to reflect the prohibition of left turns. The township will also be able to place signage indicating the ban on left turns, and police will be able to enforce the regulation.<\/p>\n

The township council passed the resolution confirming the prohibition to the state just before the Thanksgiving holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to thank the DOT for being flexible and reversing their decision, and I want thank the council for voting for the resolution,\u201d Ducey said.<\/p>\n

\"Vehicles<\/a>

Vehicles jockey for position making turns into and out of the Wawa on Route 88 in Brick, Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vehicles<\/a>

Vehicles jockey for position making turns into and out of the Wawa on Route 88 in Brick, Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ultimately, the state made its decision following discussions with the township \u201cregarding congestion caused by cars making a left turn from Route 88 into the Wawa,\u201d NJDOT spokesperson Steve Schapiro confirmed. \u201cWe are working together to explore what can be done to alleviate the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ducey theorized that state officials likely based their decision on testimony provided during the hearings that occurred while the Wawa was under consideration for planning approval that indicated the bulk of traffic would be using large driveways on the less-congested Jack Martin Boulevard to enter and exit the store rather than the small driveways on the state highway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey listened to the testimony, and they heard, \u2018everybody is going to use Jack Martin,'\u201d said Ducey. \u201cWell, people are going to make a left where they\u2019re going to make a left \u2013 at the driveway \u2013 because it\u2019s not illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, as the signage will confirm, the left turn will indeed be illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, hopefully, everybody will begin using Jack Martin, the way it was designed,\u201d Ducey said.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State officials have agreed to a request from Brick Township to prohibit left turns entering and exiting the township\u2019s newest Wawa store on Route 88, a state highway. Since the store opened earlier this month, residents and township officials have complained that Route 88 \u2013 in the already-busy area of Jack Martin Boulevard \u2013 has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,1649],"tags":[24,4484,626,2295,2294,625,272],"class_list":["post-19075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-local-business","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-jack-martin-boulevard","tag-new-jersey-department-of-transportation","tag-njdot","tag-route-88","tag-wawa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/brick_wawa_route_88_turn_166-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-4XF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}