Hello Johnson Park Parents and Community Members,
Thank you for the wonderful response to our call for letters to the Princeton Town Council. Many letters made their way into the councils hands and sent on to the other necessary offices.
This morning we heard from the city engineers office with more information. I am sharing that with you below. This intersection has many parts that are not working and will need to be repaired. PSEG, Mercer County and Princeton will need to work together to replace/repair and rethink this section of the roadway. We have been told this could take quite a bit of time.
While we are waiting for updates, what can we do as a Johnson Park community?
We can make sure that we are using the pedestrian lights each and every time we cross Rosedale Rd.
We can make sure that we slow down, every time we enter the school zone. Lead by example to other traffic.
We can report any incidents to town police department of unsafe driving/ pedestrian safety issues.
The PTO will keep in contact with Dr. S. to follow updates on progress between the town and county. We will keep you updated, as we move forward and hope to help encourage the responsible parties to mark this repair urgent for our community.
Please feel free to reach out with any of your thoughts!
Thanks,
Brooke Cole
JP PTO Co-President
____________________________________________________________________
Dear Ms. Cole,
The Mayor and Council President forwarded your email regarding the Johnson Park School signs and signals. Please feel free to reach out to us in Engineering, either directly to Deanna and me, through our general email address engineering@princetonnj.gov, or via SeeClickFix when you have such concerns.
We are aware of the issues with the flashing signals and the speed monitoring signs and are working with Mercer County on getting the flashers restored. Rosedale Road is a County route and the signals are owned and maintained by them. The system is powered by solar panels and those panels are obsolete and malfunctioning. There are other technical issues with the system (the speed signs simply no longer work, for example). The County is working with PSE&G on a solution that involves hard wiring the flashers – this may involve installation of an additional utility pole and overhead wires or trenching and installing a conduit to run the wires underground.
The rectangular rapid flashing beacons at the crosswalks are functioning and they should be used any time a pedestrian is crossing at the roundabout. In addition to having to slow to enter the roundabout, these flashers should be alerting motorists to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. If pedestrians are not pushing the button, however, the flashers won’t come on. There are multiple advance warnings to motorists to alert them to the roundabout and school zone, including pavement markings indicating a school ahead and rumble strips in addition to roadside signs. We will discuss your concerns further with our traffic safety personnel and the traffic safety committee.
We appreciate your concerns and, again, feel free to reach out directly to us when you need to.
Jim
James J. Purcell, PE, PMP
Assistant Municipal Engineer
Department of Engineering and Infrastructure Operations
Municipality of Princeton
400 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
p: 609-921-7077 x 7631 c: 609-580-0751
____________________________________________
Hello Johnson Park Parents and Community Members,
I am writing to you as both a member of the PTO and a parent of a student at Johnson Park School to ask for your help in bringing attention and action to a safety issue that impacts all of our families at JP.
As you may know, in the fall of 2022 a roundabout was installed at the intersection of General Johnson Drive and Rosedale Road. This intersection has long been an issue for the heavy traffic coming both ways on Rosedale Road as a major throughway, but most importantly in the mornings and evenings when school is in session.
The safety measures added to the intersection include flashing pedestrian lights, flashing warning lights and a speed monitor. These were all operational when the school year began in September 2022. By April 2023, these safety measures were not working. They are currently not working.
For the past ten months, my co-president and I have been working to bring this to the attention of the appropriate persons. We started with the school principal, facilities managers, the Board of Education and the Superintendent's office. Each has been helpful but ultimately is not the right person (s) to solve this problem. They in turn have worked to contact whomever they can to attempt to solve this safety issue. As of this morning, the speed beacons, and speed monitors, are not operational.
Our next step is to take this to the Princeton Town Council meeting on January 22nd. This meeting will take place at 400 Witherspoon Street, at 7 pm and include the Mayor and the Princeton Town Council. If you would like to join us and speak at this meeting, please follow this link to sign up to speak by 6:59 pm on the day of the meeting: https://princetonnj.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=1528
To better use our time, and provide as much information as possible to the Princeton Town Council we would ask that you consider writing a letter to each of the council members to be sent before the meeting on Jan 22nd. We have included the council members' names and email addresses below.
Princeton Town Council Members Information:
- Mayor Mark Freda - mfreda@princetonnj.gov
- Mia Sacks, Council President - msacks@princetonnj.gov
- Leticia Fraga - lfraga@princetonnj.gov
- David Cohen - dcohen@princetonnj.gov
- Eve Niedergang - eniedergang@princetonnj.gov
- Michelle Pirone Lambros - mlambros@princetonnj.gov
- Leighton Newlin - lnewlin@princetonnj.gov
Phone: 609-924-5176 and Fax: 609-688-2031
Feel free to use the sample letter below or craft your own. Some things you may want to include in your letter are:
- Speed Monitor is not operational
- Flashing Beacon Speed lights are not operational
- Heavy traffic on Rosedale Rd
- Your experience dropping off or picking up your student
- Your experience biking or walking to Johnson Park
- Your observations in that intersection
- Any other details you think may help with understanding of this issue
To learn more about the roundabout and its safety plan you can read more here: https://www.mercercounty.org/departments/planning/rosedale-road
Thank you for helping us continue to speak up about this safety issue at Johnson Park School. We are so proud of our community and thankful we are in this together!
With appreciation,
Brooke Cole
Co-President Johnson Park PTO
_______SAMPLE LETTER__________
[Your Street Address]
01/16/2024
400 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
Dear Council Member :
I am writing to ask you to return Rosedale Rd to a safe pathway to Johnson Park School (JP) for our families and elementary school students. The entrance to JP is served by a mini roundabout. It helps with foot and bike traffic across Rosedale Road to and from Greenway Meadows Park, and the neighborhoods beyond. It is essential to regulate (motor, foot, and bike) traffic coming both ways on Rosedale Road, and in and out of General Johnson Road (JP).
One important component of the installment of the roundabout, when put in place in September 2022 was to also include flashing pedestrian crossing lights and (in each direction) speed monitors and flashing lights. We do not have a crossing guard posted anywhere, so this combination of safety lights is the only safety measure in place at Johnson Park.
Sometime before April 2023, these speed monitors and flashing lights stopped working at all and they have not operated since. It has created an unsafe intersection once again for bikes, buses, pedestrians/students, and cars. We need all components of this system to be in working order for the system to work.
Cars are coming from either direction on Rosedale Road at increased speeds down each hill and coming through the roundabout. Sometimes at 45+ mph. Parents and students say that they no longer bike or walk to their community school. With out the flashing lights and speed monitors the cars do not slow down. It simply isn't safe.
I am asking that you take action immediately to make these speed monitors, warning lights, and flashing pedestrian lights operational to provide a safe entrance and exit to our school.
Sincerely,
[Your Name}