Save the Dinky raises awareness of memorandum, encounters problems at Communiversity

Save the Dinky, a local nonprofit group, is raising awareness of Dinky ridership by calling attention to a past agreement signed in 2011 by representatives of Princeton Borough, Princeton Township and the University.

The document, titled “Memorandum of Understanding” outlines the University’s intentions to work with both the Borough and the Township,statingthat if the proposed zoning agreements within the Memorandum are approved, any subsequent changes made by the University will be reviewed and voted upon in a public hearing led by the planning board.

The University and the municipalities also agreed to establish a joint task force that would be called the Alexander Street/University Place Transit Task Force.

However,Anita Garoniak, president of Save the Dinky, said she questions how the University will fulfill promises stated in theMOU.

“The MOU was suppose to promote Dinky ridership and nothing has been done to do that,” Garoniak said.

Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget said the University has been upholding all aspects of the agreement.

“Many of the items that are outlined in the agreement have already been achieved,” Appelget said."It is important to remember that the agreement was struck in 2011 and much progress has been made since then. A great deal of the agreement had information about items that were to be included in the design and construction of the station."

The University promotes Dinky ridership for faculty, staff and graduate students through New Jersey Transit programs and campus reimbursement programs, according to Appelget. She added that the University is working with a subcommittee within the town’s public transit committee to explore options to promote Dinky ridership within the town.

“We need to find ways to incentivize people who use the train on a regular basis and that a focus of our work would be to sustain regular ridership,” Appelget said."Sporadic event-driven ridership I don’t believe are the types of programs we would be focusing on. We need to be incentivizing those who use mass transit on a regular basis."

She added that no formal programs have been launched to date.

One amenity that has been established for individuals who use the Dinky is a bike sharing program, which the University is considering expanding. Ten bikes are designated at the train station as part of a pilot program for a bike sharing program, according to Appelget.

In addition to the bike sharing program, the University has scheduled a TigerTransit system to provide a shuttle bus system for Dinky users during peak community hours, which will continue to be in effect, Appelget said.

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Appelget said that the committee and the University will work together to find an answer to increasing Dinky ridership as well as work with New Jersey Transit to identify who the potential riders are in town.

According to Garoniak, Save the Dinky is eager to see the final presentation from the task force, which will present its final report later this month.

Graduate Student Government president Akshay Mehra GS said graduate students who often frequent the Dinky are in a unique situation, as they work here on campus but a vast majority of them live off campus.

Access to the Dinky station from Lawrence, Butler or Stanworth apartments is difficult for graduate students because they have to take into consideration the additional amount of time to walk there, Mehra added.

“There isn’t a good transportation system that serves graduate housing on the weekend,” Mehra said. "If you improve our ability to get to the Dinky the more likely we are to use it."

The significance of the Dinky to graduate students is that it provides a way for graduate students to interact with communities outside of the University.

“We are located at Princeton but we have ties outside of Princeton and the Dinky is a great way to make Princeton not feel like an isolated town,” Mehra said.

Anita Garoniak said the Arts Council of Princeton notified the organization on April 9 that Save the Dinky will not have a booth at Communiversity, an event which aims to bring together artists, crafters, merchants, live entertainment, food vendors and non-profit organizations.

Garoniak said that people do often search for Save the Dinky at Communiversity.

“We are a local organization; we are one of the in-town non profits, probably the only one that has a current grievance with the University,” Garoniak said."It was nice balance to have us there at Communiversity for people to come to the table and take our materials and updates on the two litigations that are still pending and receive information about mass transit."

Jeff Nathanson, executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton, said that Save the Dinky would have been able to have a booth at Communiversity if there had been space.

“There is no principle at work or political agenda," Nathanson said. "[It’s] because we had community groups looking for space that had given us proposals that added value to the event and had very significant contributions to the community.”

Save the Dinky still has two cases pending and will continue to have an education and watchdog role involving transportation, according to Garoniak.

“We still think that the relocation of the Dinky was the biggest policy mistake that our community made since the relocation of the Dinky in 1918,” Garoniak said."The only difference now, as opposed to then, is we understand the environmental value of convenient mass transportation"