Dinky station move would benefit Princeton

Kristin Appelget of Princeton University
    Jim Manganaro’s letter (“Dinky move would burden Princeton community,” Nov. 6) makes no mention of the benefits to the community in the university’s development plan, including expanded access to the arts, a new Dinky station integrated with the Wawa, other new retail in the area, a vibrant public square and improved traffic circulation. Instead, the letter focuses only on the relocation of the Dinky.
   Mr. Manganaro presents calculations based on the mistaken idea that the station would move “more than a quarter of a mile.” Since the proposed move is 460 feet, the actual move is about one-twelfth of a mile. He assumes an additional six-minute walk, but even the walker most affected by the 460-foot distance would have an additional walk of only about two minutes. As has been pointed out in several public meetings, someone walking from town to the new station with the Wawa built into it in the future would have a shorter walk than someone who now walks from town to the Wawa and then back to the Dinky.
   In doing his calculations about carbon emissions (which seem to falsely assume that every Dinky rider drives to the station), he leaves out one of the main sustainability features of the plan, which is the driveway that would connect Alexander Street to the university’s Lot 7 parking garage. That driveway would allow the several hundred university employees and visitors who approach from the north to enter and exit the garage without having to drive down Alexander Street, along Faculty Road, and through campus, thereby reducing 500 vehicle miles traveled each day, and thus reducing carbon emissions by much more than the additional few hundred feet that Dinky commuters might drive. Mr. Manganaro also neglects to account for the reduction in emissions that result from improving traffic flow in the area by reducing the current congestion at the intersection of Alexander and University Place that causes significant backups and vehicle idling. When the university’s plan is considered in its entirety, sustainability improvements are one of the main benefits it would achieve for the community.
Kristin Appelget, Director
Community and
Regional Affairs
Princeton University