Area surrounding Palmer Square should be off-limits to autos

I've tried to bridge the much-lamented town-University gap. I'll walk across Nassau Street to indulge in a cup of coffee with four extra shots of espresso, or treat my 'zees to ice cream or — and I know this is a rarity around here — go on a date.

I suspect I'm often the first student many of the restaurateurs have ever seen. And I know I've been in businesses that few of my friends know even exist, despite being no more than a 10-minute walk from our dorm rooms. About a month ago, the 'Prince' reported on plans to create a new Palmer Square clone behind Hulfish Street — in part, as an attempt to make the town more appealing to University students. While I approve of efforts to create new public squares, I think a smarter plan to help bridge the town-University gap would be to ban traffic from Witherspoon Street, Hulfish Street and the roads surrounding Palmer Square to create a new, pedestrian downtown.

We students typically dismiss Princeton Borough as an enclave catering to the wealthy housewives of local drug company executives, and become animated only when we learn the town is contemplating some intrusion into our lives.

But this notion of the town as an expensive, insipid collection of old-school businesses has little basis in reality. Small World Coffee has more character and is a better value than the campus center cafe. You can hear world-class jazz acts several times per year in Palmer Square. And I suspect I could buy the prix-fixe dinner at Lahiere's for what Frist charges for a sandwich, drink and dessert. Additionally, let's be honest: We buy all our clothes from the GAP and Banana Republic anyway, so we can't really attribute our isolation to a dearth of student-friendly shops and restaurants.

All this leads me to my theory of why we don't venture into Princeton: Traffic and cramped sidewalks make the place downright unpleasant. Try buying a cup of coffee, and then drinking it in Palmer Square. That ringing sound you'll soon find dominating your hearing is courtesy of the cars, buses and trucks rumbling by.

Unlike European towns and their park bench-lined, vehicle-unfriendly thoroughfares, Princeton's streets are aimed at getting people into stores and out again. We lack benches for sitting outside and idling away the time. We lack an outdoor cafe or terraces. The town lacks the broad, traffic-free spaces that make cities enjoyable.

Even New York, for all its traffic, boasts large squares and public benches, and many of the businesses spill out onto the streets — all pieces of urbanity's allure. Princeton, on the other hand, wasn't designed for hanging out, so we shouldn't be surprised that people don't hang out there. But there is no reason the town couldn't transform itself into the sort of urban space people enjoy.

Aside from a little more tranquility and the freedom from dodging traffic, what would a pedestrian downtown do? A car-free zone would help local businesses by allowing the restaurants to open up outdoor patios. It would encourage shopping because people would feel comfortable simply spending the afternoon in town. Parents wouldn't have to worry that their kids will be run over.

More importantly, a pedestrian downtown would give our few urban blocks a new vibrancy. People could hang out outside in Princeton and play games, talk or practice their guitars. You see all of this happening if you wander through cities like Burlington, Vt., or Denver, which have closed substantial portions of their centers to traffic.

Yes, a certain number of commuters would have to alter their driving patterns if they couldn't cut down Witherspoon Street. But why should the town be so beholden to commuters? A pedestrian downtown would make the blocks across Nassau Street friendly not only to business, but also to the people who actually live here. Peter Harrell is a politics major from Atlanta. He can be reached at pharrell@princeton.edu.