After public meetings held in late January in West Windsor and Princeton the state DOT announced that proposed closures of jughandles on Route 1 at Harrison Street and Washington Road will be delayed until August 1 when there are fewer people at Princeton University and in the surrounding area.
Originally the DOT wanted to conduct an experiment to measure travel times and traffic volume along Route 1 from March to May. Now the plan calls for the closures to happen for eight weeks starting August 1. At the West Windsor Council meeting on Monday, February 13, Council Vice President Linda Geevers said this was not the best plan.
“Many people are away in August. If they’re going to get a good traffic count they should do it when everyone is back. For West Windsor, I want to make sure we get a good traffic study. If people are away that impacts the use of Alexander Road as an alternate,” Geevers said.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh responded to Geevers, saying the traffic study will continue into September. He explained the DOT’s new strategy.
“There are going to be two portions of the study; the DOT really wanted to make sure they cover the summer time plus the school year. Because of the new hospital opening in the spring there were concerns for the timing, so they changed to this plan,” Hsueh said.
The mayor said he expects all West Windsor and Princeton side roads to see increased traffic from Route 1 once the experiment commences.
Councilman George Borek brought up safety as his main concern with the experiment at council’s January 30 meeting. Borek worried about rescue vehicles being able to access Harrison Street in particular, as the traffic light at the intersection of Route 1 does not have a signal-changing system (Opticom) installed. However, in the first week of February Princeton Healthcare System announced that it will purchase the Opticom system for that intersection.
