Sarah Thomson and Samirah Akhlaq-Rezvi are next-door neighbors on Cranbury Road. That has united them — but not because it’s easy to walk from one house to another. Because of the lack of sidewalks on their heavily traveled road, between Princeton-Hightstown Road and Millstone Road, it is difficult and dangerous, which led them to co-found the Cranbury Road Sidewalk and Safety Project.
Akhlaq-Rezvi, her husband Yasser, and three sons Kazim, who is 13 and attends Grover Middle School, Yosef, who is 10 and goes to Millstone River, and four-year-old Zayn have lived on Cranbury Road for a year. “Zayn attends the Montessori preschool, a half-dozen houses away, but I can’t walk him there because it is too dangerous. I have to drive him,” she says.
The family has lived in Guam, Indonesia, and Egypt because of Yasser’s job as a banker. Now he works in New York, and Samirah is a stay-at-home mom planning to get a master’s degree in education. “We love it here,” she says. “It is a diverse, beautiful town with an excellent school system and access to Princeton University. We love our house, and all of the beauty and nature surrounding us. But the drawback is the lack of sidewalks — we had no idea how dangerous this road was.”
Samirah says the family also chose the house so that her husband could walk to the train. “But it is so dangerous that he usually doesn’t.”
Thomson and her husband, John, moved to their house on Cranbury Road a year and a half ago. “John is from Scotland, and I am from Seattle,” she says. “Our daughter Claire lives in England. We moved to this area because my husband was offered a job as the dean of Fortis College. I work in business development for a Canadian firm, but I work from home.”
Thomson says her family was also attracted by West Windsor’s diversity. “I lived in Japan for many years and have a master’s degree in Asian art history. As soon as we found our house, I knew it was the right place — a beautiful property filled with wildlife. But we don’t love the fact that Cranbury Road is so dangerous.”
Both Thomson and Akhlaq-Rezvi have political roots. “I have worked on campaigns and causes my whole life,” said Thomson. “I feel like Cranbury Road is an even more important issue to be working on. My mother, who was an art professor at the University of Washington, and my father, an engineer for Boeing, were both very politically active. My great-grandfather was even a state representative for Washington.”
Akhlaq-Rezvi’s parents and family live in Pakistan, where she was born and raised. “My father owns a fish and seafood processing plant, Akhlaq Enterprises, and my mother is a professor of history and religion at Iqra University. She is a very progressive lady. And our family has also been involved in politics in Pakistan from time to time,” she says.
The lack of sidewalks drew the neighbors together. “We started talking with Sarah, and said, ‘what if we had sidewalks?’ This is a democracy. Maybe we can talk to the mayor about getting sidewalks put in,” Akhlaq-Rezvi says.
Thomson and Akhlaq-Rezvi’s husband Yasser, along with their two older sons, attended a Council meeting to observe the proceedings and spoke with Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh.
“He told us to speak to Pat Ward, and also gave us the idea to talk to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance,” said Thomson. “Yasser contacted the Alliance, and I contacted Pat Ward. We did not hear back from her, so Samirah and I went to speak to the mayor again. He said that he would immediately follow up.”
“We then held a neighborhood picnic, to build a sense of neighborhood community and to find out what other Cranbury Road residents thought about the sidewalks idea. Everyone is very supportive, and they are willing to get involved and do what it takes to get sidewalks. The people who live in the homes most affected are willing to give up property for sidewalks. Many of the long-time residents said they had raised the issue before and nothing was done, but are still very supportive of the idea.”
Thomson adds, “we are not a political group; we are not supporting any particular candidates. We are simply trying to raise awareness about a serious safety issue, and hopefully get something done about it.”
“We went door-to-door along Cranbury Road and adjoining streets to talk to people about the issue, find out their views, and ask them to sign our petition and to get involved. We found that we had nearly unanimous support,” says Akhlaq-Resvi.
“Next we attended a meeting with the mayor, and he introduced us to two of the county freeholders. They in turn invited us to attend a freeholders meeting,” continued Thomson. “They were all very interested, because of the safety issues, the concept of ‘complete streets,’ and the health benefits of walking. County Executive Brian Hughes told us that though the county cannot provide sidewalks, he was concerned about the safety issue and would look into the costs of doing something to make the road safer and provide us with an estimate.”
Thomson and Akhlaq-Resvi then arranged for a march along Cranbury Road, between Route 571 and Millstone Road, to highlight the safety issues (WW-P News July 12). “It was very successful,” Thomson says. “We had over 45 marchers, including the mayor and several council members. Everyone can see how dangerous the road is. Afterwards, we went to another council meeting to request electronic street signs, and we scheduled a committee meeting with the mayor. We also talked with George Fallat, the county traffic engineer. He has agreed to do a walk-through with us and seemed genuinely interested in the problem.”
“We are trying to follow up on all leads to make sure something gets done,” she says.
Thomson and Akhlaq-Rezvi now want to make sure the momentum keeps going. “These are our next steps: to schedule an evening meeting with the mayor, to make sure more of the group can attend; to have professional signs made, that we can post on people’s lawns, such as ‘sidewalks now;’ ‘stay alive drive 25,’ and other safety slogans; involve local businesses that will benefit from people being able to walk to their locations; get people to contribute time and/or money. We need more help. Anyone interested can contact me at sthomson112@gmail.com or join our Facebook page: Cranbury Road Sidewalk,” Thomson said.
“This issue affects anyone who uses Cranbury Road in any way. By building sidewalks, we will make the road much safer for bikes and pedestrians, and cars, too. It will create a better sense of community, and make this area more like a real downtown, because people will truly be able to walk to the stores and the train station,” says Akhlaq-Rezvi. “It truly is a town-wide issue.”
— Sue Roy
