We are a group of Cranbury Road residents who have been advocating for sidewalks along our road. Some of us have been asking for two decades. So we first wish to thank the administration and council for conducting a thorough study of the options.
It is clear to everyone that the many constraints along Cranbury Road make it impossible to devise the perfect bicycle and pedestrian-friendly solution. We have reached our recommendation after considering all the alternatives.
We wish to see improvements, and we believe the existing right-of-way should be used for this purpose. Yet we respect the rights of homeowners and are seeking a solution that is minimally disruptive — using the legal right of way and, if possible, encroaching just six inches beyond that, excluding any meandering (which is between the homeowner and the township). Given all the effort and expense that has gone into this project, both on our part and on the part of government, we do not want to do something more dramatic that then could be derailed by objections from some of our neighbors.
We are limiting our comments to the portion of Cranbury Road from Millstone/Clarksville roads to Princeton Hightstown Road because that has been the focus of our community outreach.
1. Our recommendation is for a meandering sidewalk (preferably using tree-friendlier macadam) with a small buffer to the roadway, only on the side of the street with odd-numbered homes (the Ellsworth/Montessori side).
2. The sidewalk should meander at the homeowner’s request (for trees or other reasons); the buffer should only be absent at the homeowner’s request. We believe a buffer is advantageous for safety reasons as well as for snow removal and as a place for homeowners’ trash cans, recycling containers and brush.
3. We recommend the combination of a four-foot sidewalk and two-foot buffer (1.5 -foot buffer for those who do not want any encroachment beyond the right of way). While we recognize that the township prefers a five-foot sidewalk, we note that many West Windsor neighborhoods have four-foot sidewalks. The narrower sidewalk also would allow for the buffer without encroaching more than six inches beyond the right-of-way.
4. The township has suggested that a five-foot sidewalk is needed because of potential grant applications. We would urge the administration to have a frank and open discussion with NJDOT and Mercer County about the constraints on Cranbury Road and whether, given the circumstances, a four-foot sidewalk would be acceptable in a grant application.
5. We believe there is enough room on the shoulder of the bridge to create a proper sidewalk. Otherwise, we accept the current shoulder and narrow elevated path, rather than the cost of a wider bridge.
6. We recognize that our proposal does not include any bike lanes. Unfortunately, there is simply no room. We believe that children will bicycle on the sidewalk, with their parents walking or riding slowly with them. More confident cyclists will continue to use the roadway, as is their right. Their presence has the ancillary benefit of slowing traffic.
7. That leaves more cautious cyclists who might prefer a multi-use path or bike lane. We would encourage the township to signpost an alternate bike route through the Sherbrooke neighborhood to Carlton Place behind Rite-Aid, preferably in consultation with the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, and using the path that connects Berkshire Drive to Dey Forest Park and Carlton Place. This route, while less direct, would offer a more gradual incline as well as less traffic — two big advantages.
We realize there are many different ideas about how to proceed with making Cranbury Road safer. We hope we have sufficiently explained our thinking, and we are always available to discuss this further.
Samirah Akhlaq
and Yasser Rezvi
109 Cranbury Road
Sarah and John Thomson
113 Cranbury Road
Don and Ilene Watrous
131 Cranbury Road
Wendy Schutzer
79 Cranbury Road
New Horizons Montessori,
Shaheen and Hasan Syed
59 Cranbury Road
Marc and Agatha Siegel
123 Cranbury Road
Amy and Ed Picco
95 Cranbury Road
Kattrina and Matthew Schmitzer
85 Cranbury Road
Peter Stewart
and Heather Buchanan
1 Sunnydale Way (on Cranbury Rd.)
