In a move to improve safety and aesthetics, more than 20 new street lights will be installed along Main Street and Maplewood Avenue in Cranbury, a township official said on Sept. 5.
Township Committeeman Matthew A. Scott called it a “win-win-win” in having brighter lights that will make it safer for pedestrians and cost less to operate.
The 22 lights will go along Main Street, from Route 130 to Old Trenton Road, and the entire length of Maplewood Avenue, he said. The installation of the lights by PSE&G will occur over the next nine to 11 weeks, he said.
Scott said poor street lighting was something he noticed before joining the governing body. He called it a priority of his to address.
“One of my goals was to make the downtown more pedestrian friendly, more aesthetically pleasing,” he said.
Scott said public safety is a “big part” of the motivation to replace the lights. In particular, he described the lighting around Gil & Bert’s Ice Cream and the post office, both on Main Street, as “inadequate” and “very dim.” Poor lightning was an invitation for an accident to happen, he said.
“At night, it’s very hard to see,” he said. “People park their car across the street and then run across for ice cream; it’s very difficult to see at night.”
Scott said the town pays a monthly lease fee for each light, but said there are no costs to the town for replacing the lights. He said the newer lights will cost about $200 per light a year in electricity costs, compared to $500 per light for older versions.
More broadly, he said he is looking to replace the lighting in the rest of town. Scott said “the outlying areas of town have the same issue of sort of a mish-mosh of different lights” that were installed “at various times.”