BRICK – A major Brick Township intersection has changed its traffic signal pattern in hopes to decrease crashes.
In August, the Brick Township Police Department advised the community that the Ocean County Engineering Department changed the traffic signal sequence at the intersection of Chambers Bridge Road and Brick Boulevard.
Ptl. Terence Berkeley, Public Information Officer of Community Police for Brick Police, explained how changing the signal pattern is a multi-step process collaborating with the county.
“Sometimes the county will be the first ones to pick out an issue with the sequencing and lights. Most of the time we’re patrolling the area and seeing an increase of accidents in a certain area. We ask ourselves why is that, and then we start looking into it further…the pattern of the traffic light seems to be an issue and it’s always the number one cause of a crash when we do our investigation. You start seeing a common trend,” Ptl. Berkeley said. “We’re always collecting data from every crash. Once we identify any issues, we immediately notify the county of the issues that we’re seeing. Then it takes a little time for them to come out and investigate it even further.”
The Office of the Ocean County Engineer stated that to make the best change for the signal pattern, they review traffic counts and accident reports along with visual observations.
Berkeley noted that the department has seen an uptick of crashes throughout the entire Township since 2020.
“We’re still trying to break down what that trend is about,” he said.
As for the intersection of Chambers Bridge Road and Brick Boulevard, Berkeley said this change has been a long-time project in the works.
“This summer has been the worst accident-prone summer at that intersection in quite some time. We’ve had multiple serious accidents and every single time it was almost the same exact statement of ‘I thought I had a light,’ or ‘I did not have a light.’ So, that’s been number one priority for quite some time,” Ptl. Berkeley said. “We finally had the Ocean County Engineering Department come out and change the light, and since then we’ve had little to no issues.”
The previous traffic pattern consisted of northbound traffic having a green light, but only allowing traffic to make a left turn for a partial amount of time. And vice versa for southbound traffic.
“What kept happening was people would see a quick green light at a glance. It wasn’t for the turning lane; it was only for the straight-ahead lanes. It was confusing motorists and that’s where we saw a lot of accidents,” Berkeley said.
The new signal pattern is now a split phase operation. All southbound movements will display a green light, while the northbound movements will display a red light. Once the southbound phase is complete, the southbound movement will display a red light, and all northbound movements will display a green light.
In addition, the Chambers Bridge Road channelized right turn lane onto Brick Boulevard (south), which is currently controlled by a yield sign, will be changed to a stop sign.
Several large message boards were placed in the area by the Ocean County Engineering Department to alert motorists of the changes.
