A two-week pilot program that allows pedestrians to push a button on the traffic signal pole, stopping traffic in all four directions at a key Nassau Street intersection, has been extended, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert announced.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation had agreed to a pilot program to run from June 10-21 at the intersection of Nassau Street, Vandeventer Avenue and Washington Road in Princeton, but has agreed to extend it, Mayor Lempert said.
The pedestrian-only phase stops traffic at the intersection and allows pedestrians to cross the street in any direction – even diagonally. Right-turn on red movements for cars are banned at the intersection.
“This is a huge victory for the town,” Mayor Lempert said as she announced the extension of the pilot program at Princeton Council’s June 24 meeting.
Princeton has been pushing for the traffic signal modification – called a pedestrian all-cross – for a decade, she said. It is in place at the intersection of Nassau Street, Stockton Street and Bayard Lane, which is under the control of the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Mayor Lempert said she would like to see the pedestrian-only phase expanded to the intersections of Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street, and Nassau Street and University Place, but admitted it’s only a “wish list.”
To activate the pedestrian-only phase, a pedestrian has to press a button on the traffic signal pole and then wait for the white “walk” icon to flash. Pedestrians have 39 seconds to cross the street.
“Nassau Street is officially a state highway (Route 27), but it is also the center of our walkable community. It is vitally important for it to be an attractive and safe place to walk,” Mayor Lempert said.
Town officials have been pushing for safer intersections for years, she said. A pedestrian was killed in October 2017 as she crossed Washington Road in the crosswalk. She was struck by a dump truck that was making a left turn from Nassau Street onto Washington Road.
This is not the first time that the New Jersey Department of Transportation has modified the traffic signal. In 2016, at the town’s request, it modified the traffic signal timing – due to the offset configuration of Washington Road and Vandeventer Avenue – so that both approaches would not have the green light at the same time.
