10 Keys to Keep Teen Drivers Safe##M:[more]##
Automobile crashes kill teens more often than any other cause, in New Jersey and across the country. The AAA Clubs of New Jersey and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety believe that parents can increase their teen drivers’ safety.
To mark the first annual Teen Driver Safety Week 2007 (October 15 through 20), the entities are teaming up to offer Ten Things Parents Can Do To Keep Their Teen Driver Safe:
1. Know and understand their teens. Not all teens are ready to drive at the same age. Teenagers mature, develop emotionally and become responsible at varying rates, which parents need to gauge as they determine when their teen is ready to drive.
2. Be a positive and responsible role model. Teenagers learn from their parents’ behavior. Parents’ actions behind the wheel influence the driving behavior of their teens.
3. Choose a quality driving school. Driving is a risky activity for teens and warrants professional instruction. Parents should select a quality driving school for their teens’ driver training that features cutting-edge curriculums, high degrees of interaction and professionally-trained instructors are suggested.
4. Practice might not make perfect, but it can make for better teen drivers. Supplement formal driver education with parent-supervised driving sessions to enhance learning, reinforce proper driving techniques and skills and receive constructive feedback.
5. Keep teen drivers free of teen passengers and off the road at night. Extensive research indicates that a teen driver’s chances of crashing increase with each additional teen passenger. Parents need to make sure they know who is driving with their teen at all times. Research shows teen crash rates spike at night and that most nighttime crashes occur between 9 p.m. and midnight.
6. Encourage teens to get enough sleep. Teens need about nine hours of sleep every night, but many teens fall short due to early-morning school start times and homework, sports, after-school jobs and other activities. A lack of sleep can negatively affect vision, hand-eye coordination, reaction time and judgment.
7. Eliminate the distractions. Cell phones and text messaging are hazardous distractions for teen drivers. With surveys reporting widespread use of distracting technology by teen drivers, more than one-third of states have recently banned cell phone use by new teen drivers. Parents should make it a strict rule in their households, too.
8. Create a parent-teen driving agreement. Having rules, conditions, restrictions and consequences of teens’ driving written down in advance establishes driving as a privilege, and not something to be taken lightly or for granted. Parents should establish rules and consequences that they and their teens agree upon that extend beyond state laws. If the teen breaks a family driving rule, consequences should be enforced and the situation should be used as an opportunity for learning and discussion. Conversely, proper driving behavior should be encouraged and rewarded with additional liberties.
9. Set a time each week for discussion and review. Parental involvement and communication is critical in the prevention of teen-related crashes, injuries and fatalities. Designate a time each week to address concerns (both parent and teen), review the teen’s driving performance and chart the progression towards established goals and benchmarks.
10. Make smart vehicle choice decisions for teens. As the family member most likely to crash, a teen should drive the safest vehicle the family owns. Things to consider are vehicle type (sedans are generally safer than sports cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks), size (larger vehicles fare better in crashes than smaller vehicles), and safety technology (front and side air bags, anti-lock brakes, and stability control systems).
“The first two years of driving are the most dangerous time in a teen’s life,” said Pam Fischer, director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety. “Making sure teens understand the dangers and responsibility associated with driving starts at home. New Jersey’s Graduated Drivers License Law gives parents a base from which to work, but they must understand that it’s a minimum standard. The Division, and our traffic safety partners, are committed to helping parents do all they can to keep their teen drivers safe.”
“Responsible guidance and oversight from parents and guardians are two ingredients that lead to safe teen drivers,” AAA spokesman David Weinstein said. “Get involved. Speak up. Put consequences in place. Your young driver will listen.”
Tracy Noble, Maureen Sczpanski
AAA Mid-Atlantic, Robbinsville
Mayor Hsueh: What’s Next For Redevelopment
In December, 2005, at the urging of my office, the Township Council unanimously adopted a resolution designating the 350-acre area surrounding the West Windsor/Princeton Junction Train Station to be a “redevelopment area.” That action was taken after a study and a recommendation by the Planning Board.
After the State Department of Community Affairs approved this designation and awarded a grant to pursue a redevelopment plan, the Township Council then approved a Request for Qualifications and Proposals (“RFQP”) on March 20, 2006, for a planning consultant to undertake the redevelopment plan for this central part of our community.
Significantly, the RFQP made it clear that the redevelopment plan would call for a mixed use surrounding a “transit village.” The first page of the RFQP stated: The Town Center Redevelopment Plan is intended to advance a bold new vision for future land use, including a mixed use “Transit Village” core in the immediate area to the west of the Train Station.
It is anticipated that the Plan would be developed in conjunction with various constituencies, including New Jersey Transit and the New Jersey Department of Transportation to improve vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle access to and from the Transit Village with the ultimate goal of increasing the use of mass transit and thereby discouraging traffic congestion and wasteful land use or “suburban sprawl. “
After a painstaking process stretching over the next eight months, Hillier Architecture was selected by the Council to undertake the redevelopment plan at a cost not to exceed $330,”000. Hillier was to proceed with four phases over a ten-month period.
The first phase, gathering the background information, was to be completed by the end of January, 2007. The second phase, community visioning comprising three open workshops, was to be completed by the end of March. The third phase called for developing regulatory controls and design guidelines to be completed by the end of April followed by a joint Council and Planning Board open public meeting to receive direction from the Township.
The last phase, the preparation of the final document for Planning Board review and subsequent submission to Council approval, contemplated completion by the end of September, 2007. In accordance with the resolution adopted in November of 2006, the Planning Board would undertake the primary responsibilities for developing the final document in that phase.
Since Hillier Architecture was hired 11 months ago, there have been three workshops, an open house, an open forum with Council, at least four special meetings of Council, and two joint sessions of the Council and Planning Board. In addition, the four meetings that Hillier was to attend with a Steering Committee became 15 meetings requested by members of the Council.
The public was invited to attend all of the open meetings and their views were encouraged and solicited. While the last ten months have engaged the public through a fully open process, lack of direction from the Township has delayed the completion of the agreement with Hillier Architecture, now RMJM Hillier, well beyond reason.
The many additional meetings and the Township Council’s uncertainty on how to proceed since June of this year virtually stopped the production of a redevelopment plan. In addition, the unanticipated demands placed on Hillier by the various community meetings have resulted in additional costs for both Hillier and the Township.
To control these costs, I have conferred with representatives of Hillier, and they have agreed to make certain adjustments in costs to date, provided they are allowed to proceed with the completion of the redevelopment plan without the necessity of still more endless meetings and political debates about what their mission should be.
Hillier has been asked by my office to suspend any work on this project, pending a specific direction from the Township as to how they are to proceed, along with an accompanying extension of their contract to accommodate the completion of the redevelopment plan.
In an effort to move forward, I am suggesting to the Planning Board that it advise Council that it is willing to undertake the long-awaited redevelopment plan provided it is a true redevelopment plan. That is, it must cover the entire 350 acres with a plan for a mixed use of retail, commercial, and housing components, consistent with the RFQP and this community’s constitutional obligations to provide affordable housing required by that development.
In order to accomplish this task, Hillier must be permitted to complete its charge in concert with the Planning Board without the need for extra committees or meetings which would be prohibitive from the standpoint of further costs and time delays. This work would be undertaken with a budget developed by the Planning Board to retain the services of its planner, traffic consultant, and attorney and a financial expert, other than ERA, to work with Hillier and the Board in that regard.
The time has come to put politics aside and consider a redevelopment plan that is acceptable to this community and would provide a commercial, civic, and cultural focal point for West Windsor. All future Planning Board meetings and deliberations on redevelopment will be televised through Channel 27 and open to the public as agreed to by the Planning Board last year. I would urge the Planning Board to adopt this position as its own and ask the Township Council for its concurrence.
Shing-Fu Hsueh
Mayor, West Windsor
The mayor issued the above statement on Wednesday, October 3. For more news on the redevelopment process see page 17.
‘Elsie the Cow’
A Big Attraction
On behalf of the Plainsboro Historical Society and Museum, let me thank you for the terrific article in your October 5 issue about our talk discussing “Elsie-the-Cow.”
I was especially impressed with the interview of Edith Sprague. The article contained many things about Edith that I did not know. This article has been laminated and has been posted in our museum and also at the Plainsboro Superfresh Historical Society exhibit board.
Have you seen the exhibit? The wall is 37 feet long and 7 feet high. The current exhibits include:
1. Plainsboro Real Photo Postcards (circa 1912)
2. Princeton Nurseries
3. Plainsboro Baseball
The talk had the largest attendance on any that we have had. Thanks to your article the talk was a great success.
Robert Yuell
Executive director, Plainsboro Historical Society and Museum
Thanks to Farm
On behalf of the faculty and staff at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, we would like to recognize Wayne Kalinowski and John Martel of the Windsor Farm. They were very generous in their donation of fall mums to beautify our school for Back to School Night on October 4.
It is responsible citizens like Wayne Kalinowski and John Martel who make us proud that we have such a great community.
Charles D. Rudnick
Principal, High School South
