Thursday Thoughts

After what I experienced Wednesday I wonder just how regular commuters deal with the pitfalls of traveling out of the area on a daily basis. It took me an hour and a half to go from exit 105 in Monmouth County to Beachwood, a trip that should have taken about 30 minutes. Of course the weather was to blame for much of the slow-crawling on the Parkway which got even worse when I got off in Toms River and tried to negotiate the downtown traffic mess. As frustrating as this was many of you experience the horrors of commuting every day which frankly I can’t even imagine.

By the way Wednesday saw another traffic fatality in Ocean County when a Barnegat man was killed in a one-car accident on Route 70 in Manchester.
38 people have died on Ocean County roadways this year and that number is sure to grow over the next 5 ½ months. Ocean County’s 62 road fatalities in 2006 was tops in New Jersey…not a record you want to brag about. To be honest I’m surprised there are not more deaths on local roadways for a combination of reasons. Road improvements just cannot keep up with the demand and at times seem like a band aid where a tourniquet is really needed. There are too many cars for our infrastructure and trips that used to take 5 or 10 minutes can now take a half an hour. Of course the Parkway is often a raceway with cars weaving in and out of traffic at speeds well over the limit. Throw in the fact that far too many drivers are distracted by talking on their cell phones and you have utter chaos which will get worse before it gets better.

While ESPN is airing a mini-series titled “The Bronx is Burning” the Yankees are starting to sizzle and resemble the kind of team many expected when they season began. In late May they trailed Boston by 14 ½ games in the American League East and as recently as two weeks ago the deficit was
12 games. However by winning 11 of their last 14 while the Red Sox have struggled the Yankees have reduced the margin to just 7 games with a lot of baseball yet to be played.