Lights planned at intersection

After a handful of accidents involving pedestrians on Washington Road in recent years, students will be able to cross this busy street more safely in the next academic year.

Plans have already been made to install lights at the crossing between Thomas Laboratory and Fine and McDonnell halls over the summer.

"These lights will be similar to ones at the crosswalk by McCarter Theatre and University Place, which notify oncoming vehicles of pedestrian crossing by blinking," Jon Hlafter, director of physical planning, said.

Preventing accidents

Public Safety Officer James Lanzi, who chairs the Pedestrian Safety Committee, said the focus on improving roadways is part of a "general university trend to improve crosswalks and public safety," and not a response to previous accidents at the crossing.

Hlafter, however, believes the project was spurred by past accidents. He said the office of physical planning had been pursuing the approval of the improved crosswalks ever since students were injured crossing Washington Road in the last few years.

Lanzi said he hopes making the crosswalks more visible will reduce the number of accidents.

"But it's not only a vehicle problem, it's also a pedestrian problem, such as crossing during the wrong lights," he said.

Complicated process

The University's Pedestrian Safety Committee has been one of the driving forces behind the reevaluation of safety in areas like the McDonnell crosswalk.

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Composed of 17 members, four of whom are undergraduates, the committee "identifies areas that may need improvements and brainstorms . . . ideas to help those areas," Lanzi said.

The proposals must typically wait for a permit and financial approval from the University before they are carried out, he added.

Sometimes other approval may be necessary, depending on jurisdiction of the project site, Hlafter said.

The University Place crosswalk needed approval from only the Borough and Princeton Planning Board since University Place is located entirely in the Borough, he said.

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In the case of the new Goheen crosswalk, however, approval from Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, Mercer County and even the New Jersey Department of Transportation were required since the crosswalk is located so close to the county lines, he said.

Costs and expenses

Though simple in design, these crosswalks are not cheap. For the installation at McCarter Theatre, "if you just consider the crosswalk itself, the lights and crosswalk and beacon lights several hundred feet down the street . . . purchase and installation cost about $150,000," Hlafter said.

The lights probably won't be installed during the academic year. Embedding the new lights into the ground will require blocking off part of Washington Road, which experiences a high traffic volume during the school year, Hlafter said.

Instead the project will probably be put off until the summer, he added.

Hlafter said the Township is considering putting in a pedestrian towpath along the canal on Alexander Street, which is off-campus, "but at this point there are no other points being considered close to campus."