New Signage Will Direct Visitors, Residents To Parking In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ — Council on Monday approved a request from local businesses for better signage to direct visitors to parking lots and garages.

The signs will also include the Princeton Merchants Association’s (PMA) “Pop into Princeton” campaign logo that encourages shopping, dining, and other services in town.

Ongoing construction in Princeton has disrupted traffic on many streets. It has also added to Princeton’s already existing parking woes. The new signage hopes to steer visitors to the right roads and parking spots, ensuring local businesses benefit. This would also help in mitigating traffic congestion.

The signs would be placed at various locations and routes around town. The cost estimated for the signage was approximately $2,500, deputy administrator and municipal engineer Deanna Stockton said.

During the public comment section, local business owner Andrew Siegel urged council to take action beyond the signage campaign. “Residents and visitors driving through Princeton are confused and frustrated right now due to a difficult to navigate traffic pattern in town, Siegel said.

The central business district usually has seven streets to funnel traffic north and south through town — Bank Street, Chambers Street, John Street, Palmer Square West, Palmer Square East, Witherspoon Street and South Tulane Street. Six of those streets are currently one-way northbound due to work on Witherspoon Street.

“This pattern is creating traffic backups, chaos for drivers as they try to navigate the town, danger for pedestrians as vehicles try to navigate intersections and challenges for vendors attempting to make deliveries,” Siegel said.

“Further we have regular anecdotal information from customers that this is that this reality is disincentivizing Princetonians from coming to town.”

Siegel, President of the PMA, said the statement was made on behalf of James Steward of Princeton University Art Museum and Art Museum Store, Lori Rabon of Palmer Square, Dorothea von Moltke of Labyrinth Books, and Dean Smith and Joanne Farruggia of JaZams.

He said the Witherspoon Street redesign was based on three premises — first, the traffic study determining the effects of a one-way on Witherspoon did not include Palmer Square Streets, thus missing a key component of how traffic flows in town; second, the traffic study assumed a two-way Chambers Street which is not currently the case; and third, the Witherspoon redesign was considered using pre-pandemic traffic data and does not represent current patterns, including on weekends and future holidays.

Siegel requested that Council implement a traffic study to determine solutions to this problem.

Councilmembers approved of the signs. “I think the artistic work is well done. It is comprehensive, easy to read. And I would support us engaging in this endeavor,” Councilman Leighton Newlin said.

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