The question of how to handle congestion caused by tour buses on Nassau Street came before Princeton Council in the form of a work session Monday night. A committee made up of Council members, merchants, and others has been grappling with the tour bus issue for several months, and Mayor Liz Lempert wanted to hear from the governing body before proceeding further.

“It’s a difficult issue,” said Council President Bernie Miller earlier in the day. “It’s difficult to come up with a solution that doesn’t gore somebody’s ox.”

Buses arrive daily so that tourists, many of whom are international travelers, can take pictures of Nassau Hall and other parts of the Princeton University campus. The stops are often one leg of a trip to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington, D.C., so tourists are in town for only a brief period of time. Many visit Starbucks for snacks and to use the facilities, and some merchants complain there isn’t enough time for shopping or meals at local restaurants.

Merchant Henry Landau of Landau on Nassau Street was opposed to a proposal that would remove eight metered parking spaces on Nassau Street to make way for loading zones for the tour buses. Instead, he suggested that buses stop in front of the PNC Bank at the top of Palmer Square and then reload across the street where the taxis wait for passengers. “If you back up the taxi parking on the other side to where the taxi stand is, you would have more than adequate space for two buses on that side as well,” he said. “In most cases the buses are in and out by 11 a.m.”

Safety is a major concern. “It’s my number one goal,” said Council member Lance Liverman. The large buses, parked on Nassau Street and obscuring visibility for pedestrians as well as those driving cars, are “an accident waiting to happen,” he said. Mr. Miller commented that safety of tourists is equally worrisome. “When the bus stops away from the pedestrian crossing, they walk out in the middle of Nassau Street,” he said.

Council discussed implementing a temporary parking program which could run from June 1 through September 30. Two places on Nassau Street could be designated for loading and unloading passengers, and the buses would park on Alexander Street across from the Dinky train station. Another possibility was to drop passengers off on William Street, have the buses park across from the Dinky station, and then pick the passengers up again at the other end of town.

Council member Jo Butler said keeping buses off of Nassau Street could be a missed opportunity for merchants, and questioned if all buses should be treated equally. “It’s not one size fits all,” she said. “We might want to consider different solutions on different days. We have a lot of people we want to make happy.” In response to a suggestion that different rules apply to the buses on different days of the week, most Council members said they favored a policy that applied to every day.

Criteria the Council came up with for development of a plan were centered around access to crosswalks, spaces large enough for buses to park, keeping meters close to stores for residents to use, minimal disruption for church programs and business deliveries, a walkable distance for tourists to visit Nassau Hall, and proximity to shopping destinations. The town’s Traffic and Transportation Committee will review suggestions and return to Council with recommendations at a June meeting.