Completing Rural Roads

Clarksville and Cranbury intersectionMany of the main roads in West Windsor were originally designed for an agricultural economy. Changing them to accommodate suburban design is a challenge.

Nadine Lemmon, writing for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, discusses this problem in The Challenges of “Completing” Rural Roads.

A sobering statistic is that even though most people live and work in cities, 28% of pedestrian and 30% of bicycle fatalities in 2009 occurred on rural roads.

Many times, Main Street doubles as the most direct connection to the next town, so the risk is that cars are moving faster in an area where people are on foot. Beyond Main Street, those different users, traveling at different speeds, share the road. Changing the road design, such as narrowing? the roadway or adding trees and other sight-improvements, can slow down traffic, making the road safer for all. Widening roads is not only costly but encourages faster speeds.

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