In an effort to preserve on-street parking, Pennington has recommended to extend sharrows in a redesign to Mercer County for the borough’s segment of the Great Western Bikeway project.
The Pennington Council approved the recommended request in writing to extend sharrows – a shared lane road markings for bicycles and motor vehicles – from Curlis Avenue to Vannoy Avenue in a resolution at the governing body’s July 10 meeting.
“[The county] was proposing that from North Main Street through the center of town to Curlis Avenue would be what they call a sharrows design designation [of] a single line sharrows with the insignia of the bikes so people will know that is a bike path,” Mayor James Davy said.
The Pennington portion of the bike path is part of segment three of the project that goes through North Main Street to Delaware Avenue to South Main Street then Curlis Avenue.
“… From Curlis Avenue to a point beyond Vannoy [Avenue] it would be no parking and a double line much like you see on the Pennington Lawrenceville Road,” Davy said. “At the [public information] meeting [for the redesign], I suggested and some residents that were there also suggested, that the sharrows extend all the way through Pennington, a single sharrows design from Curlis all the way to the point past Vannoy.”
The suggestions are being considered by the county, the mayor said, adding county officials wanted the borough to confirm the recommendations in writing.
The county has proposed sharrows on the bikeway path to Curlis Avenue and a no parking restriction from South Main Street.
“We are requesting that instead of being no parking [from South Main Street] that it be a sharrows design, a shared parking and bike path,” Davy said, taking away “that hideous looking double white line that you see on the Pennington Lawrenceville Road.”
Mercer County is seeking to create a bikeway path network through the county that consists of more than 17 miles of paths mostly on county roadways.
The primary route for the Great Western Bikeway is the first segment involving a 10-mile bike path route along Couty Route 546 within Hopewell Township, Pennington, and Lawrence Township and link between D&R Canal State Park Trail at Washington Crossing State Park to the west and Bakers Basin Road, according to the county.
From there the proposed route for segments two and three link Ewing Township and Pennington.
For the project, the county received close to $2.4 million from a federal Regional Transportation Alternatives Program grant.
The county is still in the design phase for the project, which at this time is projected to be complete in summer 2024.