Mayor Dave Fried's decision has been met with mixed reactions
ROBBINSVILLE -- Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried on Wednesday expressed growing frustration over the worsening traffic congestion outside Amazon's 1.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center and said he plans to take the retailer to court.
The shift changes occur during rush hour, meaning thousands of employees are arriving and leaving at the same time neighboring residents in Upper Freehold and Allentown are trying to get to school or work.
Fried said that Amazon needs to implement staggered shifts to ensure that the approved traffic counts are followed. Meanwhile, an Amazon spokesman said the company is committed to continue working with local officials to mitigate the traffic problems during its peak holiday season.
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Here's what NJ.com readers have had to say about the story:
The mayor does not mind the rateable this company created but doesn't want the traffic. Cannot have it both ways.
If Amazon overstepped by factors of 2 or 3 times the approved traffic volume, and blows off a remediating meeting, without bothering to notify or reschedule ... a lawsuit seeking to immediately eliminate the symptom of the Amazon-caused problem sounds about right. Twenty-five car wrecks vs. one cannot be ignored by anyone. Staggering work shifts for temporary hires is one of several ways Amazon can solve this problem. Car pooling, hiring buses, expanding road capacities should be addressed as solutions.
All they need to do is to have half of the employees arrive and leave a half hour earlier, instead of all at once. If they refuse to comply, the township and police can sharply restrict traffic from leaving and entering until they hear the complaints from their own employees.
This a matter of both being at fault, one for Amazon for going beyond the agreement and one for the township for biting off more than they could chew by allowing a distribution facility. Then the township will whine and moan because Amazon jumps ship and hundreds of jobs are lost.
They sent an executive, what more did Fried want? Talk is talk, whether it's a PR exec or the president of the company.... Have them space out the shifts. Suing just creates animosity, more $$ for lawyers and by the time anything is accomplished, the holidays will be over and 200-300 people will not have jobs. I really dislike grandstanding politicians.
The traffic congestion is a combination or workers AND delivery trucks overwhelming a single-lane exit and single-lane county road that was built 40 years ago in a rural farming area. How this distribution facility was approved without improvements to the county road and Exit 8 is incomprehensible. Robbinsville's mayor and planning board created this mess for their neighboring towns, and cannot alleviate the problem now since the facility is up and running. Robbinsville, thanks for screwing your neighbors!
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.