Beekman Road: Turn, turn, turn

The South Brunswick Township Council is considering whether it should add an extra turning lane from Beekman Road onto Route 27. The idea, as I understand it (I wasn’t at Tuesday’s council meeting where it was discussed) would be to designate a left-turn lane and set aside a separate right-turn lane (an accommodation would need to be made for drivers going straight into the CVS).

On a theoretical plane, I probably could support something like this. But the failure of this intersection is more than theoretical. We were driving home tonight at about 7 p.m. and turned onto Beekman from Route 1 heading west. When we got to Beekman, we needed to make a left and sat through about a half dozen lights.

So, the turn lanes make sense.

But more needs to be done. One of the major problems at the intersections is that the cars coming out of the CVS and heading straight onto Beekman create havoc — creating a dangerous situation (it can be difficult to see the cars that are heading straight) and stopping those turning left from Beekman onto Route 27 and holding up the line of traffic.

A turning arrow is needed, at the very least, to better regulate traffic. Realigning the intersection to line it up with the Franklin section of Beekman would have been the best approach, but the construction of the Mobile station (now a Lukoil) has pretty much ended that possibility.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Unknown's avatar

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

3 thoughts on “Beekman Road: Turn, turn, turn”

  1. Well lining the roads up was the original intent. It was the NIMBYs in Society Hill that whined about the traffic if the roads were connected. Now look at the mess there is.

  2. Ahh, you have to love the gooferment at all levels.The essence of the problem is the \”back exit\” from the CVS shopping center. Based on too many trips to KFC, that \”shopping center\” is used as entry and exit from the development behind the shopping center. You can watch the kamikaze drivers careen through the center. And that one way sign at the back is ignored. (I have slipped from Commerce to KFC. But lots of folks do that to avoid making a death defying left out of Commerce onto 27North.)So the state should imho take down the light there. Make it no left turn in any direction and maybe even put up a concrete divider.Make it ten feet tall. (That\’s about as likely as anything else happening.)Maybe the next accident victim should sue the State, Franklin, and South Brunswick for stupidity. Oh yeah, that\’s right — Sovereign immunity!So take care if you patronize KFC.

  3. I travel this intersection at 7:00 A.M. daily, M-F, and There are cars from the NIMBY\’s that live back there using the CVS parking lot as a cut through every morning. There are no stores open in that mall at 7:00 AM to warrant 2 to 3 cars lined up waiting to cross Rt. 27 to travel Beekman Road to get to Rt. 1. These NIMBY\’s just delay traffic and are the root of the problem at that intersection.

Leave a comment