Sunday, August 01, 2010

Pennington NIMFY's Oppose Complete Streets Project on King George Rd.

The Times of Trenton reports that residents on King George Road in Pennington have organized into vocal opponents to plans to make their road more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians. Residents oppose the addition of bike lanes and sidewalks to their street.

A look at Google Maps reveals that the west end of King George already has sidewalks, but the east end resembles a quiet country lane. Not knowing the traffic volumes King George there is probably a desire among planners to upgrade the road while neighbors like the look of their street.

And the question of traffic volume may be where bicycle and pedestrian advocates stand on this issue. If the road has become a cut through street with high volume then the complete streets solution is to add bike lanes and sidewalks. But if the traffic volume AND traffic speeds are low (less than 1500 vehicles per day and real speed of 25mph) then the neighbors may be on to something.

Anyone with more details on this project is welcome to submit comments.


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3 comments:

CityLights said...

It's always fascinating to me to watch New Jersey take (often tentative) steps in the direction of complete streets while New York City, where I live, is busy building suburban malls in Harlem and approving cul-de-sac enclaves in Staten Island. Soon New Jersey will be the new New York!

Anonymous said...

Did you see this?
http://www.pedestrians.org/retrofit.htm

I like the idea of a tricycle test, "Would you allow a 4 year old to ride a tricycle in the street while you watch from the front porch? In the rain? At dusk? If the answer is no, you need a sidewalk."

Andrew J. Besold said...

Hard to say John.

I've ridden through Pennington on weekends but never during the rush hour. My guess is that road probably doesn't need bicycle lanes but could use the sidewalks.

The roads that could use the bike lanes are Delaware Ave and Main St and parts of Rt 31.