Road Warrior publishes traffic falsehoods

Every road and highway in North Jersey is clogged with traffic.

Editor's note: In his desperation to fill three Road Warrior columns a week without actually leaving the office and seeing for himself, Staff Writer John Cichowski will publish even the most patently false complaints from adoring drivers who love to see their names in print. Cichowski also knows he can slip even the most preposterous falsehood past snoring copy editors. A concerned reader who uses many of the same roads also checked with police and found a number of glaring problems in a Dec. 26 column.

Road Warrior problems continue, even after management indicated they are being addressed internally at The Record.
Once again, the Road Warrior fills his Dec. 26 column with readers' unsubstantiated and misleading claims and pet peeves as gospel & facts w/o any investigation and reporting if these claims are true.  


The Road Warrior Dec. 26 column is the 25^th article with problems, starting with his 9/12 column, about which I've notified The Record's management & Road Warrior without substantive results or any preventive actions to address these problems and very few published corrections.

As I previously stated, The Record's management should exercise some due diligence to prevent an endless stream of unsubstantiated examples or selfish pet peeves about transportation issues in the Road Warrior columns without any investigative reporting to verify the claims, if it wants to maintain integrity within its newspaper. 


The Record should also employ a NO BRAINER TEST that asks if a reader's claim or example can be disputed by common sense/facts or if an individual's claim/question is simple enough to be addressed much better by directing the person to the town police or customer service at well-known, state transportation agencies rather than publishing the unsubstantiated claim/question without any corrections in the Road Warrior column.  


A highlight of misleading and false statements, gripes, & examples are noted below.

The Record or Road Warrior should make appropriate corrections and ensure better coverage of readers' interests.

1.  Misleading false statement - "Road Warrior readers sound off on a Top 10 list of annoyances that TRIES to go beyond typical gripes about cellphones, rooftop snow, spotty traffic enforcement and yellow caution lights."

CORRECT FACTS -  Two gripes focus on SPOTTY/NO police traffic enforcement of cars rolling thru stop signs & reckless jitneys.  Nice try.  Try better editing so that details in the list match its initial description.

2. Mysterious gripe without any answer -  Since his car slows to a crawl on Route 4 west near The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack when returning from work in NY, a reader asks "Why?" since "I never see accidents, lane closures, merges or other obstacles. It's the ONLY PLACE where I always get caught in this much annoying traffic."

CORRECT FACTS -  As repeated so often, a reader asks "Why?" and the Road Warrior is clueless since he does NOT bother to investigate and answer the reader's question.  Actually, the mystifying answer, which has eluded many others, has to do with traffic merges and the Riverside mall traffic.  Perhaps, the Road Warrior can investigate and elaborate with an answer in a future column.   


What is even more mystifying is how this is the ONLY place this driver always gets caught in annoying traffic since traffic always comes to a crawl for everyone else returning from NY work around the outbound GW bridge and Route 4 west around Teaneck, around Forest Ave., around Rt 17, and many other points.  Once again, the Road Warrior publishes a reader's unsubstantiated comment/example without questioning the reader about its validity based on using some common sense prior to publication.


3. Misleading example - "Jan's top contender for the location with the least [car turn] signaling is the place where Clinton Avenue and Piermont Road meet County Road in Tenafly."

CORRECT FACTS - Lack of car signaling at this location has more to do with the unique configuration of the traffic roads, where 3 of the 4 roads are almost configured like a Y-intersection, rather than car drivers not wanting to use their directional signals, as Jan was complaining.  Road Warrior should use common sense and Mapquest to make sure a reader's claim is substantiated by the reader's example prior to publication. 


4. Misleading false gripe and example - On Waldwick's quiet Harrison Avenue where she lives, people "don't bother to slow down for stop signs on their way to the train station".  Even worse, are cops who watch these drivers break the law, yet "they don't go after them."


CORRECT FACTS - This gripe does not pass the No Brainer Test above and should NEVER have been published. Why is she submitting her complaint to the Road Warrior for publishing prior to simply contacting her Waldwick Police Department to resolve this easily addressed matter?  Waldwick Police Dept. has no record of any complaint and assured me they would NOT allow any drivers to roll thru stop signs without ticketing them. 


4. Misleading false gripe and example - "added her favorite version of this complaint: Optional "No right turn on red" signs, like the one most folks ignore at Pascack Road and Ridgewood Avenue."

CORRECT FACTS - This example does not pass the No Brainer Test.   I frequently travel thru this busy intersection at all hours, incl. rush hour.  Most people do NOT ignore the "no right turn on red" signs at this intersection.  In fact, I have never seen anyone ignore these signs, even as traffic backs up.  Perhaps, there may be some, who do ignore this sign at this intersection, but most do NOT.  STOP publishing unsubstantiated examples that can easily be checked and are simply false. 


5. Insensitive boorish gripe and example - "what is there to like about this state highway [Route 17]?.... Nor the cars that pull out of parking lots, hug the shoulder, then cut you off."


CORRECT GRIPE -  I and many other drivers, who exit these Rte 17 parking lots and have the courtesy to speed up while hugging the shoulder to avoid accidents prior to trying to merge, would appreciate drivers, who clearly see us trying to merge, give us the simple courtesy of allowing us to merge and NOT gripe like we are trying to cut you off. Road Warrior should NEVER have published his baseless, selfish gripe.
Here's hoping for change and better fact-checking, corrections, reviewing (Googling?), and oversight of proper questions, examples, and answers to readers' questions by The Record's editors, columnists, & reporters based on more reliable, accurate, and common sense info prior to publication.