PRINCETON AREA: Jughandles test starts Saturday

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Township Mayor Chad Goerner takes Alexander Road out of town to work every day, a busy road he and other local officials expect will get busier due to traffic pattern changes scheduled to start along Route 1 this weekend.
   The state Department of Transportation intends to begin a 12-week pilot program to improve traffic flow on Route 1 by eliminating left and U-turns at Washington Road and Harrison Street in West Windsor from the jughandles. Both are major arteries into Princeton.
   DOT, expressing confidence this week that the pilot program would work, said the changes are scheduled to take effect Saturday. To get to Princeton from Route 1 north, motorists will need to either use Alexander Road or make a U-turn at the Scudders Mill interchange onto Route 1 south and then turn right onto Harrison Street or Washington Road.
   For Princeton officials, the changes have raised concerns about increased congestion and motor vehicle accidents on local roads. Alexander Road is expected to bear the brunt, likely to see traffic more than double, Township police said this week.
   ”Alexander Road can handle only so much volume,” said police Sgt. Thomas Murray, the department’s traffic safety officer, in a phone interview Wednesday.
   According to the DOT, the state has collected traffic data for roads in the borough and the township and nearby towns and plan to do so again during the 12-week trial period.
   The pilot program will occur the same time that Quaker Road is due to close on or about Aug.20 so the county can replace a bridge over the Stony Brook stream located near Port Mercer near the Lawrence Township line. The road is expected to be closed for up to six months.
   Aside from traffic impacts, local businesses have concerns that the changes will lead to longer times for deliveries and longer commutes for their employees. In addition, they worry shoppers and restaurant-goers might avoid Princeton rather than go through the hassle of getting here.
   ”I think everybody’s holding their breath on the results of the closure,” said Peter M. Crowley, president and chief executive officer at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday.
   The 65-member Princeton Merchants Association has started to track the impacts of the Route 1 changes on the local economy, said association president Carly Meyer in a phone interview Wednesday.
   She explained the different ways that will be done. The organization plans to monitor foot traffic into member businesses by looking at the number of point of sale purchases and then doing comparative analysis to see if there is any “significant fluctuation in sales numbers,” she said.
   Also, businesses will gather the commute times of their employees to see if it is taking them longer to get to work. And Tiger Transit, the university-run bus service, will tabulate the amount of time spent on the road versus the mileage the buses traveled. Princeton University, the largest private employer in the community, sent out an email about the traffic changes to the university community and put information on its website, including a map showing ways that motorists who use Route 1 can get to campus.
   Pam Hersh, a vice president with Princeton Healthcare Systems, said in a statement Wednesday the changes on Route 1 “should have no impact” on the ability to get to University Medical Center.
   Route 1 is a busy north-south roadway. During the peak morning travel hour, 6,134 motor vehicles pass through the intersection of Washington and Route 1, according to the DOT. That compares to 6,527 for the peak evening hour. Totals are only slightly less for Route 1 and Harrison Street.
   By eliminating the turning movements that drivers ordinarily made, the DOT says some cars would be diverted. Also, the timing of traffic signals will be adjusted to optimize traffic flow, DOT spokesman Joe Dee said Wednesday. He said the state has confidence the pilot project will work.
   Beginning in 2010, the state floated the idea of taking these steps. They intended to introduce the changes in March, only to delay the start until now because to “accommodate” the opening of University Medical Center of Princeton. For the past few weeks, electronic message boards on Route 1, I-295 and I-95 have alerted motorists of the impending changes.
   While DOT representatives met with the public in January, some officials said they have unanswered questions.
   Mayor Goerner said that earlier this year he and Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert wrote to DOT Commissioner James Simpson asking what metrics the agency planned to use to determine if the experiment was a success or failure. He said the state sent back a “non-response” without the information they were requesting.
   Asked about that issue, Mr. Dee said one benchmark would be if Route 1 is less congested.
   Mayor Goerner also raised questions about starting the pilot program during a “vacation month” when the university is out of session, schools are closed and people are away. He said he hoped the state gave more weight to traffic data from September.
   Dee said the data that officials collect will provide a “good picture” of whether the program is effective.
   The pilot program is scheduled to last 12 weeks. Mr. Simpson has pledged to end the program early if it creates more problems than it solves.