What The Hell Happened To Haddonfield Road?

In the days when a million dollars really meant something, they called it the Million Dollar Mile. Indeed, that portion of Haddonfield Road extending from the Haddonfield border to the Pennsauken border was once dotted with high end eateries, night clubs, big time gambling at the Garden State Park thoroughbred race track and, of course, the newly-christening, enclosed tropical environment of the Cherry Hill Mall. Boasting Sans Souci, The Greenbrier, Cinelli's, Henry's, the Cherry Hill Inn's Starlight Room and other late night haunts the area served as South Jersey's own glamour gulch.

Except for the mall, all of the gleaming attractions that lined this backbone of Cherry Hill's Golden Triangle are gone now. Once the race track closed the whole character of the road was destined to change. The only question was how it would change. And that all depended on what replaced the race track. We were told that Cherry Hill would finally get the town center it never had -- a sort of downtown or Main Street with intimate shopping dining, cultural attractions and a walkable, especially desirable living environment. What we got was more of the same runaway commercial development that has proved less of a blessing (i.e. retables) and more of a curse (congestion and traffic). Today, Haddonfield Road is a cacophonous, car-clogged calamity fed by so many ingresses and egresses that at times you can hardly figure out where you are or where you're going. 

And along the road itself tear downs have paved the way for fast food outlets, strip stores, quick casual eateries, bank drive throughs, hairdressers, nail salons, car washes, a vape shop and not one but two super Wawas. In the middle of the road you'll now find the notorious suicide lane where vehicles are invited to try their luck making a left turn from either direction. Go ahead, take a chance. Just hope there's not a car coming at you from the opposite direction in which case this is a prescription for a head-on collision. And beware, because this road obviously attracts  many drivers from out of state who have no idea how to maneuver this uniquely perilous engineering nightmare. 

Of course, the stretch alongside Garden State Park's Marketplace presents its own set of challenges as there is too much access in and out of some parts of this burgeoning monstrosity and not enough access in and out of others. For example, the area around Wegman's is a constant bottleneck because entree from Haddonfield Road is severely limited. Another tie-up occurs in the area across from the newest super Wawa and this will only get worse when the road alongside the Cheesecake Factory is continued clear through to Garden State Boulevard past new apartments, a proposed hotel and into the area surrounding the massive Costco complex. Further down Haddonfield Road at Garden Park Boulevard a heretofore residential area has been outrageously compromised by connector roads now dumping shopping traffic onto once quiet streets fronting apartments and condos. Within this area a traffic circle (remember traffic circles?!) manages to confuse everybody since drivers have never learned (or long forgotten) that traffic entering the circle must yield to traffic in the roundabout. 

And the problems are not limited to the Garden State Park area. The light at Chapel Avenue is exasperating and in need of smarter synchronization particularly to accommodate left turns. Opposite the mall, traffic routinely backs up as cars jockey for positions to get in or out of the popular Chick-fil-A which now has multiple super drive thru lanes. Again, in front of the second Wawa on Haddonfield Road traffic ties up with people trying to turn left into the gas/convenience behemoth or make their way out. And did we mention that both Wawa facilities abut residential areas where the natives are definately not happy campers?

Folks, this whole area is White Knuckle Alley!

Is it any wonder that as Haddonfield Road approaches Haddonfield proper its name changes to the more genteel-sounding Grove Street? Wisely, Haddonfield wants no part of this dastardly strip.