A roundabout was installed on Rosedale Road last year.

The administration of Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes has proposed that the speed limit along Rosedale Road, also known as County Route 604, be lowered to 35 miles per hour in Princeton between Elm Road and Province Line Road.

Currently, the speed limit on Rosedale Road is 40 miles per hour in some locations and 45 miles per hour in others.

An ordinance introduced at a recent county commission meeting will be voted on at the March 23 public meeting.

The speed limit change is one of several traffic-calming measures undertaken by the county that ties into the “Safe Routes to School” grant Princeton received to make Rosedale Road safer for children walking and bicycling to and from Johnson Park Elementary School.

Other improvements designed to enhance pedestrian safety included:

Restriping the Rosedale Road corridor to reduce travel lane widths to 11 feet in order to encourage reduced vehicle speeds
The installation of a mini-roundabout last summer at the intersection of Rosedale Road and the entrances to Johnson Park Elementary School and Greenway Meadows Park in an effort to increase pedestrian safety and decrease congestion during peak school and park operation hours by calming vehicular traffic
The installation of rectangular rapid flashing beacons at both roundabout approaches on Rosedale Road to increase driver awareness of pedestrian crossings.

For many years, the intersection of Rosedale Road and the entrances to Johnson Park and Greenway Meadows has been considered unsafe, with both the local bicycle and pedestrian committee and the PTO at the elementary school raising concerns about the crosswalk there and the safety of pedestrians and school children. The intersection was flagged in a Safe Routes to School report in 2016.

In August of 2021, Princeton resident Pinghua Xu was killed after being struck by a driver while crossing at the pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection. The 82-year-old walked in the area every day and was a familiar face to many Princeton residents. He had activated the pedestrian crossing signal before he attempted to cross the road and was struck by the driver of a Lexus SUV.