Members of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance are calling for the use of the Leading Pedestrian Interval — or Pedestrian Head Start — to be used at two intersections in town.
The system allows pedestrians a few seconds to begin crossing the street before drivers have the green light. The WWBPA made the recommendation on its blog, www.wwbpa.org, and cited the use of the system in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., where traffic officials have begun changing the timing of traffic lights to increase pedestrian safety.
“This has been demonstrated to work well in large cities, but we believe it could also be useful in West Windsor, particularly at the Route 571/Wallace Road/Cranbury Road intersection and possibly at the Alexander Road/Vaughn Drive intersection,” the blog stated.
While the WWBPA has not publicly recommended this specific improvement, it is listed as one of its many written recommendations it submitted to the township for Route 571.
As the state is working on the Cranbury/Wallace/Route 571 intersection, the WWBPA feels that some of the improvements — sidewalks and pedestrian countdown signals — improve pedestrian safety. However, it argues that others, like the lengthening of the crossing distances and removing the pedestrian refuge in the intersection on the bridge side, degrade safety.
“Striping does not appear to be completed yet,” said WWBPA’s Jerry Foster. “We’re hoping for a high visibility crosswalk, although by itself the crosswalk may not improve safety much, since the speed (40 miles per hour) and lack of visibility traveling east over the ‘hill’ created by the bridge doesn’t leave much time for motorists to react to signal changes or to the presence of pedestrians.”
