Three candidates are running for two seats in the Democratic primary (June 2) for Maplewood Township Committee: Bike Bus founder Martin Ceperley; current Mayor Vic De Luca, running for his 10th term on the Township Committee; and Planning Board and Hilton Neighborhood Association member John T. Sullivan. Read Village Green’s election guidelines here. Read our election coverage here.
The warning signs came slowly at first: A near-miss while crossing Boyden Avenue with my three stroller-aged children when a driver illegally passed a car that had stopped for us. Two overturned vehicles on Elmwood Avenue within a week. Late-night speeding motorists on Midland Boulevard.
At first, I saw these as individual incidents of reckless driving. But looking at the big picture, we can see that residential roads designed in the 1950s actually resemble highways that allow drivers to treat them as such.
Martin Ceperley’s Instagram posts, tireless advocacy of safer streets and launching of the weekly bike bus excursions to local elementary schools arrived as a breath of fresh air that challenged the notion of a culture that accepts traffic violence as a natural, inevitable and acceptable result of car supremacy. And, yes, “traffic violence” is the appropriate term when drivers cause approximately 30,000 annual deaths in the United States.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Through his steadfast advocacy, Martin has shown how well-tested methods can be used to improve street safety. We desperately need to be looking at how to best implement them here.
One morning, my kids and I drove past the scene of my child’s friend and another MMS student after they were hit by a car on Parker Avenue. A local resident walking a dog was struck. A beloved father was hit and dragged. A pedestrian on Springfield Avenue was fatally struck.
These are not random “accidents.” They are the expected result from a lack of adequate infrastructure to reduce vehicle speeds.
Martin has been unwavering in placing the necessary emphasis on street safety for all, which is also an access and equity issue that shockingly gets short-changed in a community that prides itself on being progressive.
Our elected representatives — in Maplewood, as well as at the state level — should be doing everything possible to reduce traffic violence and create safer streets for all. Martin has the vision to lead us toward such a future.
— Bruno J. Navarro
Maplewood, NJ
This letter represents the view of the author and does not reflect the position of any organization with which they have been associated with now or in the past.
