A partner organization Walkable Princeton recently reported on an August 10, 2026 council meeting in which members questioned the merits of the North Harrison St bike lanes and a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Terhune and North Harrison. We're sharing excerpts from that post below. Read the original post.
Reposted from Walkable Princeton:
At the August 10 meeting of Princeton Council, the town’s elected officials got involved in a heated discussion over what had appeared to be a mundane resolution about a grant application to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. It became clear that the Mayor and various members of Council have quite different perspectives on what kinds of safety improvements should be funded by the town.
The grant application relates to proposed work on North Harrison Street. Since 2023, the municipal engineering department has been considering possible solutions to make traffic flow better – and more safely – along North and South Harrison Street. Safety improvements were planned to help advance the town’s “Vision Zero” policy, which aims to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero, by “integrating safer street design into planning, capital projects, and maintenance”. In November 2024, Princeton Council received a detailed report from consultants, with a series of recommendations for improvements (Report: “North Harrison Street Improvements Set To Begin Between Nassau St and Franklin Ave, With Bicycle Improvements To Follow“).
The town successfully applied for grant money from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to help fund the work. But in recent months, discussions in municipal committees have concluded that the scope of work, which was estimated at $7 million, is too great. In particular, Councilman Brian McDonald was strongly in favor of cuts. He said that the proposed work should not go ahead without the town having a more complete list of priorities for capital projects, and also expressed doubt about financing for any projects that are part-funded by NJDOT.
As a consequence, the town will cancel or indefinitely postpone the following improvements, which had previously been planned…
Mayor Mark Freda immediately objected to the resolution. He wanted to know why the engineer’s memo said that the new buffered bike lanes on North Harrison Street were “functioning”. The mayor also insisted the bike lanes were only supposed to be implemented as a ‘pilot project’ for one year. When was the review of their success going to be carried out? And should that not happen before discussion of any other improvements on North Harrison Street?
It quickly became clear that the staff and various members of Council had different impressions of what ‘pilot project’ meant. The municipal engineer, Deanna Stockton, said that the ‘pilot’ was intended to last until the time when the current, interim layout could be replaced with a permanent configuration. The permanent configuration would improve on the existing layout, and draw from lessons learned about the effectiveness of the bike lanes. Ms Stockton said that there would be further review of the bike lanes this fall, but asked that Council consider carefully their benchmarks for ‘success’.
Mayor Mark Freda also seemed very unhappy about the proposal for a roundabout at North Harrison Street and Terhune Road. …
Read the full post here...
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