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EAST WINDSOR: Bike, pedestrian study results revealed

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By Amy Batista, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR – The township presented some of the preliminary findings from a recent Bicycle and Pedestrian Study, which recommended multiple tiers of trail improvements, including connections to existing facilities, short links to strengthen the trail network and potential opportunities for future trails.
East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov, township officials and New Jersey Department of Transportation staff were present at the meeting Feb. 24 at the senior center to review and discuss the draft findings, and seek comments and ideas from the public.
The study, supported by a NJ Department of Transportation grant, is intended to review and enhance bicycle and pedestrian networks and opportunities in the Township.
The committee charged with gathering and reviewing the information consisted of Mayor Mironov, Deputy Mayor Peter Yeager, council member Perry Shapiro, Planning Board Chairman Ed Kelly, Environmental Commission Chairman and Green Team member Ron Baliant, Clean Communities Vice Chairman Gary Fournier, and Police lieutenant Chris Jackson.
“During the course of the study we looking at the existing trail ways and the existing infrastructure in terms of our roadways and our sidewalks,” said Mayor Mironov. “I think it was a very helpful exercise for all of us.”
She said among the goals of the study was not only to look areas that could improved but also how the township could enhance linkages with its closest neighbor Hightstown as well as throughout the region to the benefit of all residents.
“This has always been an area that has been a high priority for the East Windsor council and the administration – to provide improved opportunities for bicycling and pedestrians both for recreation and for getting to shopping and public facilities,” said Mayor Mironov. “This is intended to be a Master Plan, a guide, for East Windsor Township when we best look at how to prioritize projects.”
Supervising transportation planner Peter Kremer of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a transportation engineering firm, said the study revealed a trove of information.
“Generally what we found is that you have some really wonderful facilities in town – parks, assets, and you have a lot of nice off road trails – but what you have is really a lot of things that are not connected,” said Mr. Kremer. “More opportunities to make better connections, that’s a really critical thing.”
He said having five, six or seven miles of trail that takes a neighborhood to a store or a place to get a cup of coffee or dinner gets people off the road, and that’s healthy.
“That’s interconnects in nature,” he said.
In the study, the firm found that pedestrian improvements really stem from changing standards over time.
“When it was built it was built it was state-of the-art and the state-of-the-art has really changed quite a bit over time,” said Mr. Kremer. “So the recommendations that we have are more of saying that you need to bring those things back up to standard.”
Mr. Kremer said the firm would present an implementation plan of recommendations and who would be responsible for the improvement – the town, the county or the state.
The study itself was done in two main phases, according to transportation planner Reed Sibley of Parsons Brinckerhoff. Phase one dealt with existing conditions and analysis. He said a town-wide inventory of the existing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure provided the foundation on which to develop some recommendations for improvements.
“We have a public meeting here tonight and based on input we can make changes to the final report and get that to the town to move ahead with,” said Mr. Sibley.
He said some of the first data analyzed was the crash data from the most recent five-year period available, which was 2009 to 2013.
“There were 42 pedestrian crashes and 34 bike crashes during that time period,” he said. “They were kind of scattered around town. The greatest concentration was kind of in the 130 corridor, particularly with bikes. As far as pedestrians go, some of the bigger clusters were actually in the parking lots around town.”
Mr. Sibley said that one of the more notable statistics was that the vast majority of both occurred away from intersections.
“It points to more corridor wide issues rather than spot locations and crossing locations,” he said. “Based on the crash data and local input we got from the study advisor committee, we focused our field assessment on the five of the key corridors in town,” he said. Those included U.S. Route 130, Route 33, County Route 571, Hickory Corner Road and Dutch Neck Road.
Mr. Sibley said the firm also will focus on priority intersections along those roads including, Route 130 at Dutch Neck Road, Route 130 at County Route 571, Hickory Corner Road at Oak Creek Road and Dutch Neck Road at Oak Creek Road.
“The typical street is generally very bicycle and pedestrian friendly,” he said. “A lot of the older neighborhoods have a continuous sidewalk network and the streets are low volume and low speeds, which are generally comfortable for cyclists.”
He said the town is already doing a lot of improvement at intersections and some of the traffic signals have been recently updated.
“The town has a lot of great off-road trails facilities,” he said, adding there are about nine paved and unpaved trails. “There are a lot of great trails to be working with its just a matter of trying to knit them together.”
Mr. Sibley then presented some slides showing what they meant by sidewalk gaps along arterials on Route 130 at Hickory Corner Road by the Haldeman Ford Dealership followed by another slide showing lack of sidewalk connectivity where there was a worn path in the grass at the corner of Route 130 and Stockton Street and Route 571 by the Weichert Realtors.
“Accessibility to pedestrian signals was something that we saw very frequently,” he said.
The study also included a bike network analysis.
“The main goals we are trying improve connectivity across the whole town, connecting the neighborhoods together, trying to make it accessible for all riders of all ages of all abilities,” said Mr. Sibley.
He said they have recommended a series of either bike lanes or shared-lanes marking in a few locations and a few improved off-road paths.
“We also looked at the trail improvements,” he said. “New facilities to enhance connectivity. We looked at enhancing some of the crossings with better signage and better stripping.
“I need the feedback here tonight,” he said. “We are going into the final report. We give that to the town and then from there hopefully they can use that to pursue grant funding and over the long-term start to implement some of these improvements and start to build a better network for bicyclists and pedestrians in East Windsor.”
The public presentation is available on the township website to view at http://www.east-windsor.nj.us.

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