This image shows a number of features of a ‘Complete Street’. Can you name then? (Click to expand, image via Local Motion).
This Saturday (2/22/2014) Princeton Future will hold a public meeting at Princeton Public Library at 9 a.m. to discuss matters relating to Traffic and Transit in Princeton. The meeting will focus on how to implement the new Circulation Element of the Princeton Masterplan, which aims to ‘entice people out of their cars and to promote using mass transit, bicycles or walking as their primary means of travel.’
The meeting will take a question and answer format with five speakers. The first speaker is former Princeton Borough Mayor, Marvin Reed, who was the mastermind behind the updated Circulation Element. Walkable Princeton contributor, Sam Bunting, will speak second, outlining a vision for ‘Complete Streets’ in Princeton. ‘Complete Streets’ is a policy which places equal value on all users of a street or road. Princeton’s new Circulation Element was written under a Complete Streets framework, after both the Borough and Township adopted Complete Streets resolutions in 2012. Implementing Complete Streets means that pedestrians, cyclists, users of limited-mobility, and transit riders are considered equally with motorized vehicle when deciding how to design a street. How can this best be carried out in Princeton?
The meeting will also feature Ralph Widner, a member of the Traffic and Transportation committee who has conducted statistical analyses of traffic in Princeton, and Steve Kruse, chair of the Princeton Pedestrian and Bicyclist Advisory Committee, who will discuss plans to improve options for local cyclists. The meeting will finish up with a presentation from Kevin Wilkes, Chair of the Alexander Street – University Place Transit Task Force, which is expected to report this year about potential improvements to transit and vehicular circulation around the University’s Arts and Transit project.
Flyer for upcoming Princeton Future meeting on Traffic and Transport. See also here for full-size version.
This should be a really important opportunity for Princeton residents to have their say about how we should be planning our streets in coming years. Hopefully there will be a great turnout, and if you need any further incentive, Princeton Future are usually really good about laying on some free coffee and baked goods at their meetings!
walkableprinceton 
Would love to come but I’m 2,500 miles away.
BTW, that digram of a “Complete Street” is missing a crosswalk! REALLY ANNOYING!!!! This “engineering” practice of eliminating all but the bare minimum of crosswalks REALLY irks me. I know why the designer here eliminated the one crosswalk (to eliminate the long crossing without a median island and to avoid the possible “multiple vehicle threat” that happens on multilane roadways – one car stops, screens the other motorist from seeing the pestrian until its too late).
Anyway, I called this “engineered non-compliance.” Since pedstrians have an expectation of being able to cross at any corner (and have the right to by NJ law) pedestrians will cross here anyway, as they always do, in “non-compliance” to the design. Princeton is loaded with “T” intersections like that illustrated where there are only two marked crosswalks, when there should be three.
Plus is it really safer for a pedestrian to be exposed to TWO street crossings when they only really need to cross ONCE to get where they need to go?
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