PRINCETON: Mayoral candidates discuss local transportation

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Democratic mayoral candidate Liz Lempert said on Saturday that municipal government needs to invest regularly on transportation alternatives to cars.
   ”I think we need to have a target percentage of what we’re spending on road projects to be spent on bike and pedestrian facilities,” she said after participating in a forum sponsored by Princeton Future dealing with local transportation.
   Asked what amount she had in mind, she said she would advocate for 20 to 25 percent of what is spent in a given year.
   Ms. Lempert, a self-described bicyclist, walker and driver, appeared with her Republican opponent for mayor of Princeton, Richard Woodbridge, at the event at the Princeton Public Library. Together, they sat through four presentations dealing with transportation in town and the region.
   Ralph R. Widner of the Princeton Borough Traffic and Transportation Committee said there are about 180,000 daily motor vehicle trips on the streets of Princeton. He said about 80 percent of local traffic is generated from out-of-towners, through 11 “portals,” such as routes 1 and 206.
   Most of the local work force is made up of commuters, some 24,500 people, although the figure is likely a couple of thousand less since the Princeton hospital moved out of town, said Princeton Regional Planning Board member Marvin Reed.
   Mr. Woodbridge, who commutes to Lawrence Township, said “there is a lot of use and overuse of the streets and the highways.”
   Both mayoral candidates spoke of having a regional approach to dealing with “transportation problems.”
   Mr. Woodbridge said Princeton needed to take the lead, not “passively reacting to roads being closed and issues such as that.
   ”Whether we like it or not, we are the epicenter of what’s going on in the state of New Jersey,” Mr. Woodbridge said. “So we have got to take that role, realize that we’ve got it and run with it.”
   He feels that as consolidated a community, Princeton will have more clout. He called for regional planning for “traffic issues” and economies.
   He cited a study by the local recreation board three years ago in which people said they wanted more bicycle and pedestrian paths and are at the top of “everyone’s wish list.”
   In an interview afterward, Ms. Lempert said she opposed closing the Route 1 jughandles, an experiment by the state Department of Transportation to see if traffic flow improves on the busy highway. She said concerns she had about the project had come to fruition, with residual traffic impacts on Route 206 and the region.
   ”By eliminating those turns, you are improving the traffic flow on Route 1, but at what expense?” she said.
   She said Princeton is “suffering tremendous problems” from the DOT experiment.