#b#Painful Memory Of Traffic Perils#/b#
The date October 1st is coming up, a day I can never forget. On that day in 1994, my daughter was killed in an automobile accident. In her case, the cause of the accident was a drunk driver. Any death in a car accident, however, brings horror, disbelief, pain, never-ending grief, and a loss that cannot be recovered.
I hope that I can make those feelings important to people who drive our overcrowded roads, often too fast, and with not enough regard for their surroundings. I hope that those feelings are especially important to our traffic engineers, administrators, mayors, legislators, governors, and departments of transportation. They, of all people have our lives in their hands, if they plan with disregard for consequences.
A direct example is the lack of thought for safety in the New Jersey Department of Transportation experiment involving the loss of jug handles at Washington Road and the traffic snarl at Harrison Street and Route 1. I imagine you have been reading about drivers making U and K turns in Penns Neck to get back on a straight road into Princeton; about huge trucks driving through narrow suburban streets to avoid a longer trip; about drivers spending extra time getting to work and coming home; about racing automobiles tearing down streets not made for speed. Can you imagine what this is like for the parents and children who live on those streets? The DOT wants to make traffic move faster on Route 1, but at the expense of our neighborhoods. I am outraged by this disregard for life, whether caused by lack of caring, incompetence, or politics. The experiment that has some weeks to go must be stopped NOW before a tragedy occurs.
Are you listening Governor Christie? Are you listening DOT Commissioner Simpson? Can you help us Senators Menendez and Lautenberg? And Representative Holt? This is a cry for help, and we need you as soon as possible. Please listen to someone who has been through the unimaginable.
Paula McGuire
Washington Road, Penns Neck
#b#Recalling 2004 Plan For Penns Neck#/b#
It has been eight years since community representatives, municipalities, traffic engineers, environmentalists, and the public developed a plan for the Route 1/Washington Road intersection. The principal components of the plan (called alternative D.2.A) put Route 1 in a cut under Washington Road and added frontage roads on both sides of Route 1, a west-side connector road to Harrison Street, and a Vaughn Drive connector road. Taking all of these elements together, the NJ DOT envisioned area-wide improvements.
At the time, the New Jersey Department of Transportation stated, “Alternative D.2.A was selected as the preferred alternative because it provides a reasonable level of transportation benefit, while avoiding and minimizing environmental impacts. It represents a project that will achieve significant benefits without entailing years of delay due to extensive environmental permitting requirements. In short, it is a project that can be accomplished expeditiously.”
The DOT noted that it would provide congestion relief by improving traffic flow on Route 1, improving traffic flow on east-west routes crossing Route 1, and reducing traffic on residential streets; minimize environmental impacts to natural areas and species; reduce pollution; avoid residential displacements; minimize impact to historic properties listed with the National Register; and improve bicycle and pedestrian access and safety.
Having studied 20 alternatives, with many configurations, the NJ DOT concluded that the complete plan was needed, not a selection of elements, instituted haphazardly.
Now the NJ DOT has gone against its own plan and, without community input, without computer modeling, has chosen instead to make employees, commuters, and especially residents of the Penns Neck neighborhood guinea pigs for an experiment that has failed in all parameters except perhaps in possibly improving traffic flow on Route 1 for a relatively short distance.
It is time to stop the Route 1/Washington Road experiment and to restore safety to the Penns Neck residents until funding can be obtained to do the job completely and effectively.
Sandra Shapiro
Wycombe Way,
Princeton Junction
#b#Route 1 Frustration#/b#
I’m sure the test traffic pattern at the Route 1 circle has made every resident of West Windsor and Plainsboro scream in frustration. I’m probably not the only one who has shouted at the out-of-town fool who comes to a full stop in moving traffic, befuddled by blocked GPS instructions. Sadly, it’s not even likely that I’m the only one who has watched a milk truck blow through the stop sign on Wilder to make an illegal U-turn and blow through it again, all while my newborn and I look on with opened mouths.
I appreciate irony as much as anyone, but almost getting hit by a milk truck on an afternoon stroll is not my idea of a good time. That milk truck was just one of many vehicles (some larger and some smaller) that I’ve seen making illegal U-turns since this circle has confused Princeton-bound drivers.
It hardly seems fair that everyone who lives on or near Washington Road now has to take his life in his hands when he leaves the safety of his driveway. Actually, some don’t even have to leave their driveways because vehicles are using driveways and lawns as turn-around points.
Traffic in these neighborhoods has increased drastically. Those who detour through our streets are frustrated, angry, and annoyed drivers who speed, fiddle with their GPS or cell phone, and ignore other cars and pedestrians. In neighborhoods that have, until now, been relatively quiet, it is even more of a danger. Children and adults are used to safely running, walking, and playing in yards and crossing streets worry-free.
I have lived in this neighborhood since I was 5. I chose to stay and raise my son here because it really is a beautiful, friendly, and formerly safe place to live. It’s devastating to watch this change.
Julia Thomas
Varsity Avenue, West Windsor
#b#You Can’t Go Home Again, Penns Neck#/b#
Before my retirement a few years ago, I always came home to West Windsor after work on Route 1 from the north. I would make a left turn at the Washington Road intersection, but occasionally I would use Fisher Place if the traffic light there happened to be favorable. If I were still commuting now, I couldn’t do either of these things. I would have to go on to Alexander Road and either awkwardly cut across three lanes of traffic to get back onto Route 1 northbound for a right turn at Washington Road, or else continue straight on to the overloaded circle on Alexander.
Both of the above time and fuel-wasting maneuvers are required courtesy of NJDOT’s decision to block off left turns to get through traffic moving faster on Route 1. West Windsor-bound motorists from the north might now be well-advised to bring a digital copy of Thomas Wolfe’s “You Can’t Go Home Again” to listen to and consider while waiting to get through this morass. But as you know, it’s all our fault for wanting to live here.
While on the subject of going home, our beloved Crested Caracara that used to perch on the utility pole beside the Grover homestead on Village Road East in the evenings has now departed, probably for sunnier climes such its usual central Florida habitat.
Lest I be considered hopelessly inept as a birdwatcher, I want to correct an item in the previous issue of the WWP News that stated that I saw it “stoop” for prey there, which would be unusual behavior for the normally ground-feeding Caracara. I did see a Merlin, a small falcon formerly known as a Pigeon Hawk, perform the high-speed dive known as “stooping.” In any event, a utility pole would be too low a perch from which to launch such a dive. The Caracara was happy to just sit there in the evening and survey its temporary domain.
Bon voyage, Caracara. You, for one, CAN go home again.
John A. Church
#b#West Windsor Plan Is Working#/b#
I am writing this note to disagree with the view that the DOT jughandle experiment has failed. I have been a resident of West Windsor and worked in the area for the past three decades and a firsthand witness to the business growth in the area.
Lately, most of us have endured the nightmare scenario of traffic crawling on Route 1 during the commuter rush hours. There are proposals such as reconstructing the Washington road and the Harrison street intersections. These proposals have been shelved due to lack of funding at the state level. The NJ Department of Transportation is attempting to improve the traffic flow with modest proposals of eliminating the jughandle turns at both these intersections that involve very little capital spending, yet help improve the traffic.
Like any behavioral change, drivers will get adjusted to the new traffic patterns. Just because a few drivers are violating the (clearly marked) no U-turn signs, I believe that calling the experiment a failure is unjustified. One should not forget that we all depend upon the economic vitality of the area for our jobs and wellbeing in general. If we make living and working in the area a continued nightmare, please be assured that companies (and jobs with them) will go someplace else. I plead to all concerned to consider the larger picture before jumping to NIMBY conclusions.
Ram Kolluri MBA
President, Global Investment Management, Alexander Park
