With highways being the center of the Township's transportation system, proper coordination of the road network becomes basic. However, design options for major highways are restricted by the location of existing development, major topographic and drainage features, public land holdings, the right-of-way of Route 18, the government railroad, and the overhead power line. The Swimming River Reservoir, for example, is along the Township's northeastern boundary and extends in a westerly direction about halfway through the Township (almost to Route 34) in the area between Route 537 and Phalanx Road. The reservoir and its tributary (Willow Brook) are crossed at only six locations. N.W.S. Earle consumes one quarter of the Township and is located across the Township's entire southern boundary. Only Route 34 penetrates this property while Five Points Road skirts it on the west. Route 18 extends from the southwestern corner of the Township in an east/west direction across the Township. It is crossed at only four locations. Although major facilities such as the railroad, freeway, drainage corridors, reservoir, and power line provide important services, they also have had an impact upon how the street system emerged and how it will be directed in the future.
The various stream corridors historically dictated the alignment of many roads. As scattered lots occurred, followed by major subdivisions over the years, these rambling roads absorbed greater traffic burdens. Then as each new road, public facility, or subdivision was put in place, flexibility for future road improvements was preempted.
A 1989 survey of street conditions showed that surface deterioration was scattered and road conditions were slightly better than the conditions found in the previous survey in June, 1979. The general pattern of deterioration has been one of minor problems such as the pavement unraveling along uncurbed edges, some alligatoring (or cracking), and spot patching to correct localized problems. None of these conditions were significant, but they indicated a continuing need for maintenance. Throughout the system there were no sidewalks and little curbing. Visibility problems were mostly due to overgrown vegetation and a number of curves.
Generally, the road system consists of two-lane roads varying in shoulder width from no shoulders to full shoulders. As new developments have been constructed, pavement widening has been done to provide shoulder areas along those portions of the road abutting the development.
Plate 9, Road Functions, identifies the major highway system. The primary arterial system consists of Route 18 Freeway connecting New Brunswick with the Parkway and points south, plus the north/south function of Route 34 and the east/west functions of Route 537 and Route 520. The secondary arterial system consists of Five Points Road running south into Howell Township, Phalanx Road running east into Middletown and the Community College, the combined function of Dutch Lane/Conover Road/South Main Street running between Freehold and Holmdel, and the U.S. Government highway running north from N.W.S. Earle into Middletown. The primary and secondary collector roads represent the basic road system in the central portion of the Township. The "collector" roads are largely the old rural road system which has continued to assume greater traffic burdens as development has taken place and the number of vehicles has increased. The "collector" roads are those used by drivers seeking entrances into individual subdivisions, or gaining access from one neighborhood to another or to the arterial road system, or traveling between home and school, or daily shopping trips, or similar activities. Because these streets collect and distribute traffic, they are a major segment in the entire road system. Their design intersections, controlling access to them, and properly channeling turning movements throughout the collector system are important considerations in anticipating that there will be even furtherture increases in traffic volume.
Plate 10, Road Jurisdictions, shows state, county, and Township roads. The Route 18 Freeway is a state highway. Of the "primary arterial" roads, all are either state (Route 34) or county responsibilities (Swimming River Road, Route 537, Phalanx Road, and Route 520). Of the four "secondary arterial" roads, the highway serving N.W.S. Earle is a federal highway while Boundary Road, Dutch Lane Road/North Conover Road, and Phalanx Road are county roads. Finally, all "collector" roads are Township responsibilities with the exception of the County's Crine Road running west from Dutch Lane Road into Marlboro Township. This pattern of the major highway system being primarily state and county roads is not unusual and is consistent with characteristics found in other rural and suburban communities. However, continued maintenance and improvements require coordination and cooperation with these other governmental agencies.
A review of road rights-of-way reveals a pattern of wider widths on those roads performing major functions (the right-of-way is the total width of land for road purposes under the jurisdiction of the Township, county or state, while the pavement width is only a portion of the total right-of-way). Although the generalization that major roads usually have wider rights-of-way does not hold true in every instance, it is apparent that wider rights-of-way are emerging on the major roads where faster moving vehicles, better visibility, and greater traffic volumes warrant the wider conditions. Generally, the wider rights-of-way are on the non-local highway network, e.g. federal, state and county. Those roads which remain less than 50 feet wide are the older, two-lane country roads and the local streets located in the older subdivisions. These narrower rights-of-way are generally 33 feet wide. In recent years, as developments occurred on tracts abutting these narrower roads, widening to at least 25 feet from the centerline (half the minimum 50 ft right-of-way) has been required as part of constructing the new development.
Data on current traffic volumes remains limited. Therefore, Plate 11, Traffic Volumes, has included several earlier years in order to show an "order of magnitude" in order to compare through traffic on major roads with the amount of traffic on intersecting side streets. While these earlier counts cannot be relied upon as representative of actual traffic volumes in 1995, they nevertheless indicate an historic pattern along Route 34 carrying the highest volume of traffic and some indication whether Route 34 had twice as much traffic as a side street, or ten times as much. The older data are from the New Jersey Department of Transportation and reflect 1984 volumes at the Route 34/537 intersection. Nothing more recent than 1986 is available for the intersection of Route 34 and Flock/Phalanx Road, while 1988 data was available at the intersection of Route 34 and Conover/Laird Road.
There is more current data on Route 537. Between Route 18 and Five Points Road the data show a steady rise in traffic volume going from an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT, the total traffic in both directions) of 12,070 in 1984 to 14,880 by 1990 and around 15,830 by 1993. This suggests an increase of nearly one-third between 1984 and 1993. A 1994 count east of the Dorbrook Park entrance showed an AADT of 9,234, which is about 58% of the volume that Route 537 carried near Route 18.
Data on Route 18 reflected increases in volume from an AADT in 1987 of 12,870 to a 1992 count of 17,300 north of Route 34, but a loss in volume from 23,880 (1989) to 17,230 (1992) south of Route 34. The rate of increase north of Route 34 is similar to that shown at the Route 537 location near Route 18.
The older intersection counts along Route 34 at Laird/Conover Roads, Phalanx/Flock Roads, and Route 537 showed that traffic was primarily through traffic along Route 34 at all three intersections. Traffic volume on Route 34 had the general pattern of being highest south of Route 18 at the N.W.S. Earle entrance, then dropping as one traveled north. The Route 34 volume around the intersection of Route 537, for example, was about 84% of the volume near N.W.S. Earle entrance. North of Route 537, the Route 34 volume dropped to about three-quarters of the volume at the N.W.S. Earle entrance.
The movement on Route 34 is largely one of handling through traffic while the intersecting Township streets have a more local function. In part this is indicated by the significantly lower ratio of traffic volumes on the side streets compared to Route 34. For example, the traffic at Conover/Laird Roads has been about 13-15% of the Route 34 traffic volume while it has been about 10% at Flock Road. On the other hand, a distinct movement of traffic has developed between Route 34 and Phalanx Road which indicates the regional importance of Phalanx Road as access between the Freehold area and places to the east such as the Community College and Red Bank.
Route 537 is a major east/west highway and has historically had significant traffic volumes in relation to other roads in the area. The regional nature of Route 537 is also well known. And more recent data indicate that the volume on Route 537 has steadily increased near Five Points Road. In addition, the annual data over the years have consistently indicated a concentration of traffic accidents at the Route 537/34 intersection. With the growth in traffic volume on Route 537, the peak hour congestion at the Route 537/34 intersection, the recent diversion of regional traffic onto local streets to avoid the congestion at the intersection, and the concentration of traffic accidents at this intersection, there is an urgency for completing major improvements at the Route 537/34 intersection.
Even the older AADT figures and intersection counts from the Department of Transportation have shown a continuing increase in traffic volumes, especially on Route 34. In 1960-61, for example, Route 34 carried between 7,000 and 8,000 vehicles per day. Around 1970 that figure had increased about 50 percent to 12,000. By the mid to late 1970's, the Route 34 AADT in Colts Neck ranged from 12,400 at the north end to 13,000-14,000 between Phalanx Road and Route 537, then increasing to 16,700 vehicles a day below the N.W.S. Earle entrance. By the period 1984-1988 these figures had grown to 15,000-16,000 between Phalanx Road and Route 537 and over 19,000 vehicles near the N.W.S. Earle entrance. In about 30 years, traffic more than doubled. The 1990 and 1993 counts on Route 537 suggest regional volumes continue to increase.
Another indicator of how the road system operates is the traffic accident pattern. Plate 12, Traffic Accident Pattern, shows the pattern for the calendar year 1994. The total number of accidents was 328. Almost three-quarters of these were on the County and State highways or, in other words, on the major parts of the road system carrying the most traffic. In the previous Master Plan, a similar map was prepared for the one year period from August 1988 to July of 1989. In that one year period there was a similar number of 360 accidents.
Of all the accidents, 13%, occurred at or approaching the intersection of Route 34 and Route 537 (in 1988/89 this intersection had a similar 16% of the total). Other accident prone areas included the intersection of Routes 34 and 18 which had 4% [6% in 1988/89] and the intersection of Routes 18 and 537 which had 5% in both 1994 and 1988/89. In all, about half of all accidents occurred at intersections in 1994 compared to 62% at intersections in 1988/89. Of the total number of accidents, 25% involved injuries in 1994 compared to 30% in 1988/89.
There are no new county road proposals in Colts Neck. As a general rule, the county Growth Management Guide places more emphasis on maintaining and upgrading the existing road system.