West Windsor government is going all-out to stop the DOT’s Route 1 experimental jughandle closures at Washington Road and Harrison Street, which has caused Penns Neck residents multiple headaches and safety hazards. After Mayor Hsueh took action by rounding up area mayors and officials on Wednesday, September 26, followed by the Mercer County Board of Freeholders’ action a day later, Council passed a resolution to end the experiment and return the intersections to their previous alignments at its meeting on Monday, October 1.
Police Chief Joe Pica told Council that DOT Commissioner James Simpson visited West Windsor earlier in the day on Monday, and he was particularly interested in seeing what occurs in Penns Neck with illegal U-turns and K-turns disrupting the neighborhood and its residential properties (which are often used as turn-around spots). West Windsor Business Administrator Marlena Schmid said Simpson visited the area after Mayor Hsueh had sent him DVD copies of the September 4 council meeting, where residents told DOT Assistant Commissioner Anthony Attanasio and Communications Director Joseph Dee about their fears and frustrations (WW-P News, September 7).
According to Chief Pica, Simpson said he recognizes the problems Penns Neck has and he would do whatever is in his power to address those issues. Nonetheless, the township is going to the DOT with a resolution and then to the Governor Christie’s office. Councilman George Borek called for a letter to be sent to Governor Christie, inviting him to a town hall-style meeting that could be held at a WW-P school to accommodate a larger audience, giving residents and officials a chance to show the governor the severity of West Windsor’s situation.
Council Vice President Linda Geevers told Schmid that it is imperative for West Windsor to bring in the key stakeholders to the township so that they can see the issue firsthand, hear from residents, and address any questions or concerns. Schmid says based on her talks with the DOT and their continued focus on Route 1, Council must make recognize priorities of the state.
“I think you need to take that into consideration, and that is another reason to get the state to consider implications for east to west,” she said.
Councilman Borek agreed with her sentiment. “When I’m at the state house in Trenton, I hear legislators say how wonderful it is that they can come down on Route 1 and not get stuck in traffic. People are even encouraged to stop taking the turnpike and take Route 1 instead because it is easier now. If this is what they’re thinking and this is what they’re seeing, they’re not seeing what is happening on Washington Road,” Borek said.
Councilman Maher said he is skeptical of the area mayors teaming with West Windsor. At the October 1 Council meeting, he said he thinks the only towns very much negatively affected by the traffic experiment are West Windsor and Princeton due to increased traffic on Alexander Road and other arteries for traffic headed to the university campus and Princeton’s downtown.
“If I am the mayor of Plainsboro, Lawrenceville, or East Windsor, am I going to spend political capital trying to solve West Windsor’s problem? No, this township and Princeton need to be leading the charge on this. Let’s be realistic,” Maher said.
Borek added that while he respects what Mayor Hsueh has tried to do with other mayors, getting the governor to hear about West Windsor’s problems is paramount.
“There needs to be a different course of action because this is not a one-sided venue here. We have to utilize all our resources,” Borek said.
Council’s action on October 1 prompted thanks from citizens of Penns Neck including Susan Parris, Sharon Sibilia, Eric Payne, and others who led the charge by speaking at previous Council meetings, starting a petition on Change.org, sending letters to the editor, and handing out postcards all over West Windsor. The three-page resolution makes note of “endangering the historic Penns Neck neighborhood, inundating it with abnormal levels of traffic behaving erratically, causing accidents, and endangering the health and welfare of residents and their children.”
Council’s resolution also specifies that the township has spent $1,900 each week in overtime expenses for police. Schmid said that the running total as of October 1 was $9,500, and that she has been clear with the DOT that the costs will be submitted to them for reimbursement.
Council President Kamal Khanna said he had a complete timeline of DOT activity and planning for Route 1 since 2004, if members of the public were interested in seeing it. He also spoke about the constant contact that Mayor Hsueh and members of the administration have had with the DOT to update the state agency on each problem that has come up.
Schmid said that as of October 1, West Windsor Police had issued 70 summonses, and another 225 motorists had been stopped and “counseled” without receiving a ticket. But the root of the problem remains hard to counter.
“The real problem that continues to exist is with drivers who are lost and/or are from out-of-state. They have been counseled about turning around on Washington Road or using the side streets to head west to Princeton. In talking to the DOT, they believe that the presence of our troopers plus the state police has contributed to some decrease in illegal U-turns and K-turns,” Schmid said.
Councilman Bryan Maher asked Pica to state the most common excuse for people who are pulled over making u-turns and k-turns in Penns Neck. The chief told him that his officers report that regular commuters have tried finding alternate routes, but still many out-of-state commuters and people who are genuinely lost are still landing on Washington Road and seeking a shortcut away from traffic – usually towards Princeton.
Schmid said that on October 1 the DOT made a change to the green light signal at the intersection of Washington Road and Route 1. “They have increased the number of seconds that people driving west on Washington Road have to cross the Route 1 intersection,” she said.
According to Schmid, another part of the DOT’s plans to help out include signage that would take lost motorists down past the train station and out of West Windsor through Alexander Road “so people don’t turn around on Washington Road or in Penns Neck.”
The DOT advised West Windsor that a lot of the signage along Route 1 will be removed. “Some signage clutters the roadway and detracts from motorists’ lines of sight, and the DOT will examine what signage they really need to follow. At the same time they are in agreement that the signage that needs to remain there must be changed so that it can be eye-catching for motorists,” Schmid said.
Schmid said that in the first week of October the township was told by DOT that a vehicle monitoring system board will be added. It will tell northbound drivers approaching the Washington Road circle that they must go up to Scudders Mill Road and make a U-turn towards Route 1 South to get to Princeton.
Also, the DOT’s camera at Washington Road and Route 1 will be repositioned so that there can be a real-time, 24/7 view of what is going on at the intersection, especially for traffic going east or west. Schmid said that at present the camera faces the south side of the intersection, and the DOT will work with the owners of the cemetery to place the camera up on a pole over the property. Data collected by the camera will later be factored into the project’s analysis.
Schmid said in her talks with the DOT, the state agency has made it clear that the jughandle closures are far from being a permanent deal. “They want to see the pilot program through the 12-week study period, which ends in November, and they want to have the opportunity to composite information. It remains to be seen, but actions speak louder than words,” Schmid said.
Chief Pica said that when Simpson visited Penns Neck, he also assured the chief that the closures are not a done deal. “Their plan right now is try to resolve issues that are plaguing the Penns Neck area, and then at the end of the pilot program they will reassess it. I do give them credit for trying to address every request we have had,” Pica said.
With brief discussions of the Millstone bypass project that was never carried through, Pica added that any actual solution to the Route 1 and Penns Neck traffic flow may not have been conceived yet. “It’s a complex problem. I think the DOT is trying a number of different things and hopefully they can work it out that Penns Neck is not affected. But I’m confident they are doing what they can,” he said.
