To the Editor:

We are hearing/reading multiple complaints about the negative impacts and the ineffectiveness of the NJDOT experiment of closing left turns onto and from Route 1 at its intersections with Washington Road and Harrison Street. A decade ago it was recognized that the main problem for traffic in the Penns Neck area was the east-west flow to and from central NJ’s largest employer, Princeton University. A solution that solved the east-west traffic flow and the Route 1 north-south flow was agreed to by almost everyone in the affected areas. The main feature of the solution was to put Route 1 in a cut that would pass under Washington Road.

This solution came about as a result of scores of meetings and negotiations among residents, towns, environmental organizations, and governmental agencies. The group [in which I was a participant] was called the Penns Neck Area EIS Roundtable. Among all of the possible changes to Route 1 intersections that were considered by the Roundtable, one solution, which became known as the “Preferred Alignment,” respects the environment, gives relief to West Windsor and Princeton residents, businesses and visitors, and improves NS flow of traffic on Rt 1.

Most people who have studied the traffic on Route 1 think the current experiment just postpones the inevitable long-term solution. Had plans for the Preferred Alignment moved forward when it was approved it would have been shovel ready for the stimulus money, and we could be driving on it now. This latest experiment by NJDOT demonstrates the need for the Preferred Alignment.

Lincoln Hollister

Ridgeview Road