Central Jersey: Which highway is worst? U.S Route 1 or U.S Route 9? (Edison: live in, shop)
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For those of you that live in general area (Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth Counties), which highway do you think is worst? Morning rush-hour, midday 'lunch break' traffic, evening rush-hour, cruising on a Saturday night, etc. etc.
U.S Route 1 or U.S Route 9? These two particular highways tend to generate a lot of hate for people that live in Central New Jersey. I happen to had grown up inbetween these two strips (in Monroe) and currently live in Freehold having to be forced to commute on U.S Route 9 for work. And.... well.... it quite frankly sucks. However, I do happen to remember stumbling upon U.S Route 1 a couple of times back in the day during rush-hour traffic and not particularly enjoying it either. Perhaps Route 1 may be slightly better, due to having more lanes, but I'd like to hear the perspectives from others on this forum.
FYI; I'm mainly referring to the interchanges from Edison to Trenton for U.S 1 and Woodbridge to Lakewood for U.S 9. South of Trenton, U.S 1 enters PA, which is irrelevant to this conversation. While south of Lakewood, U.S 9 essentially becomes a two lane country road, also irrelevant. Thoughts?
Route 9, more accidents. Bad mixture of slow cars and buses and too many traffic lights that promotes speeding. Whoever designed the timing for the traffic lights on rt.9 should be sent to jail for causing many road fatalities. If you go too slow you'll get caught in bottleneck of red light after another. They need to allow for higher volume without the bottleneck effects. In Manhattan on Lex and Madison ave I can hit green after green. Rt 9 is setup where only those doing 65mph+ can hit green after green.
Route 9, more accidents. Bad mixture of slow cars and buses and too many traffic lights that promotes speeding. Whoever designed the timing for the traffic lights on rt.9 should be sent to jail for causing many road fatalities. If you go too slow you'll get caught in bottleneck of red light after another. They need to allow for higher volume without the bottleneck effects. In Manhattan on Lex and Madison ave I can hit green after green. Rt 9 is setup where only those doing 65mph+ can hit green after green.
I never really understood that either. I don't think there is necessarily a big discrepancy on the amount of traffic lights between U.S Route 1 and U.S Route 9, but low and behold there happens to be more significant slowdown on Route 9 then on Route 1. I think it has much more to do with the fact that there is less consistency pertaining to the quantity of traffic lanes on U.S Route 9 compared to U.S Route 1.
Route 1 consistently tends to have 6 or more lanes on its stretch from Edison to Trenton. Route 9, however, starts at about 6 lanes in Sayreville/Old Bridge areas, only to be downgraded to only 4 lanes starting right around where you pass the shopping plaza with the Whole Foods in Marlboro, just south of Old Bridge, for most of its stretch from that point on. What makes this even more treacherous is how Route 9 will magically go back to 6 lanes on certain intersections (especially ones with big shopping destinations such as Freehold Raceway Mall or Manalapan EpiCentre), only to quickly revert back to 4 lanes after crossing these same major intersections. It also does not help how many people will use the very most right lanes on these particular intersections (the 65+ mph crew) to speed up ahead of people in the middle lanes, only to cut off those very same people once the very right lane merges with what was the middle lane. Those situations are just fender benders waiting to happen.
At the end of the day, the amount of lights probably wouldn't be that much of an issue if there was a consistent assortment of 6 or more lanes throughout the entire stretch of the highway. The constant stop & go is what further amplifies my hatred for this road.
I never really understood that either. I don't think there is necessarily a big discrepancy on the amount of traffic lights between U.S Route 1 and U.S Route 9, but low and behold there happens to be more significant slowdown on Route 9 then on Route 1. I think it has much more to do with the fact that there is less consistency pertaining to the quantity of traffic lanes on U.S Route 9 compared to U.S Route 1.
Route 1 consistently tends to have 6 or more lanes on its stretch from Edison to Trenton. Route 9, however, starts at about 6 lanes in Sayreville/Old Bridge areas, only to be downgraded to only 4 lanes starting right around where you pass the shopping plaza with the Whole Foods in Marlboro, just south of Old Bridge, for most of its stretch from that point on. What makes this even more treacherous is how Route 9 will magically go back to 6 lanes on certain intersections (especially ones with big shopping destinations such as Freehold Raceway Mall or Manalapan EpiCentre), only to quickly revert back to 4 lanes after crossing these same major intersections. It also does not help how many people will use the very most right lanes on these particular intersections (the 65+ mph crew) to speed up ahead of people in the middle lanes, only to cut off those very same people once the very right lane merges with what was the middle lane. Those situations are just fender benders waiting to happen.
At the end of the day, the amount of lights probably wouldn't be that much of an issue if there was a consistent assortment of 6 or more lanes throughout the entire stretch of the highway. The constant stop & go is what further amplifies my hatred for this road.
You drive up and down Rte 9, there are some points with 3+ lanes then breaks off to 2 and then back up to 4 and repeat. The bottlenecking areas don't cause accidents. It's the straights that causes accidents. There are many left lane hoggers and buses that frequently stop. On Sunday night I can go to Freehold from Edison in 15mins. On Friday afternoon it is 50mins. The traffic lights are bad on Rt 9, they are designed to prevent people from speeding past 40mph, I find that going 60mph+ can go green light farer. On Rt 1, the traffic lights are much longer. More speeders but I harder ever seen accidents just more room.
You drive up and down Rte 9, there are some points with 3+ lanes then breaks off to 2 and then back up to 4 and repeat. The bottlenecking areas don't cause accidents. It's the straights that causes accidents. There are many left lane hoggers and buses that frequently stop. On Sunday night I can go to Freehold from Edison in 15mins. On Friday afternoon it is 50mins. The traffic lights are bad on Rt 9, they are designed to prevent people from speeding past 40mph, I find that going 60mph+ can go green light farer. On Rt 1, the traffic lights are much longer. More speeders but I harder ever seen accidents just more room.
Well that is mainly because of the lack of 3+ lanes (going one direction) for much of the strip between Lakewood and Marlboro. One thing I've noticed is that once you enter in Old Bridge, the traffic begins to flow much more nicely. The left lane hoggers are annoying, but that is only because there are only 2 lanes in one direction. The right lane is always going slower than the speed limit because cars in that lane are either trying to exit Route 9 or are backed up from cars ahead of them that are merging onto Route 9. Because of that, you have a lot of drivers that go on the left lane to avoid this, but because there are so many cars on the left lane it bottlenecks the traffic.
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