Hopewell Borough Council has advanced efforts to make the borough safer for pedestrians – making the entirety of Broad Street 25 miles per hour (mph) and adding new traffic signal “no turn on red” locations.
Borough Council President Charles “Sky” Morehouse, Councilwoman Krista Weaver, Councilman Ryan Kennedy, Councilman David Mackie, Councilwoman Debra Stuhler, and Councilwoman Samara McAuliffe voted in favor of adopting the two safety measures through ordinances at the governing body’s Dec. 7 meeting.
The first ordinance lowers the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph from the east to west on Broad Street, a county road, according to Weaver.
“It may seem like five miles per hour is not a huge change, but this is really the realm we are looking at where if a pedestrian is hit by a car going between say 25 to 30 miles per hour the chances of death and serious injury is greatly increased in that range, so this potentially could make a huge difference for us.”
There will be coordination with the Hopewell Township Police Department, who serves the borough, to do an education campaign and have warnings for the mph speed limit change.
“We are going to have increased enforcement and the idea is not to make it a cash grab,” Weaver said. “The idea is for people to actually slow down to make it safer. There are going to be warnings, and hopefully some pamphlets to hand out about why speeding is dangerous and why we should slow down.”
Borough residents won’t see the speed limit change overnight.
“We need the [Board of County Commissioners] to pass a resolution approving this because it is a county road,” Mayor Paul Anzano said. “The signs will not change tomorrow, but I know the mayor-elect and Krista are going to be leaning on their good friend Dan Benson and county commissioners to get this done.”
Weaver noted that the Mercer County engineer has verbally agreed to the speed limit change and instructed the borough to pass the ordinance.
The second borough ordinance adds more “no turn on red” locations in the municipality.
There was already a no turn on red in place from eastbound on Broad Street to southbound on South Greenwood Avenue.
“When we talked with the county engineer about lowering the speed limit, I also asked about whether we could make Broad Street and Greenwood “no turn on red” in any direction,” Weaver said.
“It is currently no turn on red if you are heading eastbound turning right onto South Greenwood. Now it will be all directions, no turn on red.”
According to the ordinance, “no turn on red” at traffic signals has been added from westbound on East Broad Street to northbound on North Greenwood Avenue, northbound on South Greenwood to eastbound on East Broad Street, southbound on North Greenwood to westbound on West Broad Street, and eastbound on East Broad Street to southbound on Princeton Avenue.
Additionally, from northbound on Princeton Avenue to eastbound on East Broad Street.
“Anyone else here walking their children to school you understand how scary it can be for people living around the corner and not looking,” Weaver noted.
“This will hopefully again slow people down, get people to pay more attention, and make the streets a little safer particularly for school because so many travel from that intersection.”