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The mess of school dropoff. STILL trying to launch Bike Bus in Asbury Park.

Hello APCSC supporters~

I’ll make this short.

This gift article is so worth a read in The Atlantic about the mess of traffic around schools every day: How School Drop-Off Became a Nightmare More parents are driving kids than ever before. The result is mayhem.

Kids riding bikes to school isn;t revolutionary. So why is it so hard in AP?

We’ve been working on launching Bike Bus since last November.

I’m a certified League of American Bicyclists Instructor and I can help set it up. APPD is supportive. So what’s the problem?

Bike Bus has been growing globally, where Sam Balto, a Phys Ed teacher in Portland  launched it and it grew all over the US, and in NJ too. Kids riding bikes to school is not revolutionary, but you’d think it was in Asbury Park.

What’s making it so hard?  I’ve done slide presentations and talked it up for almost a year. 

Excuses, excuses… (*The “L Word” is  a biggie. Scroll down.)

It’s way too similar to the ongoing excuses why we can’t open school playgrounds.

Excuses also abound why we can’t implement traffic calming measures in the city to make it safer, more accessible, and equitable for people walking and rolling. Even just with paint for starters. Especially on the southwest side where more kids walk.

Bike Bus is simply kids riding bikes together to school with a few parent volunteers, picking kids up along the way at “bus stops”. 

I’m sure it’s obvious, and the article says it all, so I don’t need to provide the reasons why riding a bike to school with a bunch of friends (with a parent or teacher volunteer leader blasting tunes!) is a wonderful way for kids to start the day.

I hope you’ll read the article.

Love to know your thoughts.

*The “L Word”: “Liability” gets thrown around way too much.

Polli Schildge, Editor

 

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First installment of real stories: Tales From The Streets

Hello readers,

This is the first in a series of stories from people walking and rolling, sharing their experiences on the road.

Please submit your Tales From The Streets to apcompletestreets@gmail.com.

This installment is from a self-described “Recumbent Racing Trike Adventurist”. He’s sharing a story from someone else with his own commentary.

(Emphasis in bold is from this editor. I might take the liberty of making small grammatical edits for clarity.)

Erskien Lenier’s recumbent bike.

This post is in response to someone else’s that posted a picture of someone in a car distracted by holding and looking at their cell phone instead of paying attention to surrounding traffic including possibly cyclists.

The over all impression I think the post was trying to convey was that you are powerless against negligent drivers, so therefore you don’t ride a bike or any human powered vehicle.

I disagree…

I wear a Gear 360 helmet camera and between high viz colored jerseys, my rig recumbent racing trike is painted neon yellow, my neon yellow helmet, rear facing Cateye Vizeo tail lights that have mode that is similar to what the rear of a police motorcycle uses for pulling someone over and the reality that my choice of human powered vehicle is a very unusual looking recumbent racing trike, rear approaching traffic tends to slow way down and go way wide out of curiosity to get a better grasp of what they are encountering.

I should also mention that I am within 50,000 miles of crossing the 1 million lifetime human powered mile mark.

  • If a driver is truly distracted by something, or even chemically compromised I rely upon a small helmet mounted rear view mirror to peripherally track the trajectory of approaching rear traffic so I can take evasive action if necessary.
  • In higher traffic areas where the bike lane is just lines in the gutter where debris accumulates, the road surface is bad, or cars are parked in the bike lane or non bike lane, I take a lane. And if a vehicle approaches from the rear too quickly I move to center, or slightly left of center to let them know that I am taking the lane as the law in my State of California mandates as I have the right to, and 99.9% of traffic will back down. Especially once they realize they are being filmed they go around without horns blaring, or raving engines, or blowing exhaust like the jacked up pickups tend to think is ok to do every now and then.
  • Never hug the curb, as you have no place to go if someone comes in too close – and curb hugging gives the message that you don’t belong on the road and don’t deserve respect.
  • Ride as if you own the space you occupy and also be responsive to the need to divert your path if necessary for those simply not attentive or being overly  aggressive or bullying.
  • Consider a Recumbent Trike – They generally don’t get treated like wall paper along the roads because they are do different.
  • Never allow your fears discourage you from enjoying the beauty and benefits to your body, mind and spirit, or stop you from going for a ride or commuting. Nothing is 100% safe even being in a car or even worse, sitting on the couch – which is lethal over time….

Life is for the Living and the Loving….

  • Take BOLD ACTION and build into those actions the steps you can, to make your journeys a “calculated risk” that leave you more confident that you can hold your own space, and deal with whatever life presents as you explore and enjoy the journey.

He or She who Risk Nothing Loses Everything that Makes Life Worth While.

 

Onward~

Polli Schildge, Editor

 

 

 

 

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A preventable tragedy – the Gaudreau brothers killed by a reckless, drunk driver

 

An entitled, impatient, intoxicated driver passing on the right on a dimly lit road killed 2 young men.

The Gaudreau brothers were husbands, fathers, brothers, sons. Their wives and children are husband and fatherless. They were supposed to be groomsmen in their sister’s wedding the following day. Their families are devastated.

He was drunk and dangerous. He killed two people. But he is not ENTIRELY to blame…

The deaths of these two young men was preventable. We need much more than PSAs, signs, education and enforcement.

The only way to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injury on our streets and roads is changing the built environment for equitable access for all road users.

Read the New Jersey Bike And Walk Coalition press release.

https://njbwc.org/press-release-gaudreau-brothers/

“This tragedy was avoidable on so many levels. We are not going to achieve zero traffic deaths with cute messaging. We need safer roads, safer drivers and safer vehicles. Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were killed cycling on Salem County Route 551, a rural road with no shoulders and a 50 mph speed limit by a drunk driver who passed another driver on the right who was safely passing them.”

John Boyle, Research Director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the Vision Zero NJ Alliance.

Drivers are prioritized in the US over all other road users.

Roads are public space, but how many of us who walk and roll feel that we have equal right to access the streets in our city – are you fearful of riding a bike or walking in our city of Asbury Park?  Why?

Drivers speed with impunity, run traffic signals and stop signs, and take turns on on red without pausing.

Drivers kill.

New Jersey 2023: There were 177 total pedestrian fatalities, and 24 people riding bikes were killed by drivers.

Whether you’re impressed by data or not…

How many people have to die – it could be YOU, your mother, father, son, daughter, friend.

Driving is a privilege, not a right.

Until we change the culture – the mindset that drivers rule our roads:

Local city leaders can commit to making design changes on streets and roads to keep vulnerable road users safe (that’s any road user outside a car!).

The system in the US prioritizes driving, and the auto industry has such influence that driving is considered a basic human right, but safety on our roads is not.

We can lobby legislators in NJ, and call for NJ to pass the Target Zero Commission bill (S361/A1476).

 The bill will establish a comprehensive plan to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on New Jersey’s roads by employing proven strategies and countermeasures. We demand that our leaders act now to prevent further tragedies and make our streets safe for everyone.

It’s rare that a license is revoked at all, even if there’s a fatality, and almost never permanently.

That drunk driver taken off the road would be warranted, and prevent him from killing again.

But it’s only a matter of time that another fatality occurs on any road that is not designed for safety of all users.

🤬

Onward.

Polli Schildge, Editor

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The REAL Rules of the road. 

These Are The Unbreakable Rules Of Driving

This article in Jalopnik Magazine lists 18 ways drivers (and all people in cars) should behave. It’s a car magazine that actually gets it.

Here are the most important ones. Especially numbers 1, 2, and 3.

Now get in your car and behave. Or just get on a bike or walk. 

1. Don’t Hit People With Your Car. You are the driver. Even if you gave Tesla $15,000 for its so-called “Full Self-Driving” software, you are still the driver. Your car weighs thousands of pounds. It’s your responsibility to avoid hitting people with your car. Yes, even if someone jaywalks wearing all black in the middle of a storm late at night. Don’t hit people with your car. If that means driving more slowly, then so be it. If that feels like too much responsibility, maybe you shouldn’t be driving.

2. Road rage.  Other drivers are going to do things that annoy you. They’re going to make mistakes. Sometimes they might even do something reckless or stupid. Go ahead and honk at them, sure, but you’re never going to make the situation any better by escalating from there. Really? You want to fight someone in the middle of traffic? Grow up. Also, this is America, so they might have a gun. Don’t mess with people who might have guns.

3. Chill Out With The Speeding. If you’re on private property, you can do pretty much whatever you want. Want to get drunk and try to jump your dirtbike across the creek without a helmet? That’s dumb, but on private property, no one’s going to stop you. On public roads, though, you have to think about other people. It’s just part of living in a society. It isn’t the end of the world to do 70 mph in a 65 mph zone, but how about we don’t drive 71 in a 35? Deal?

4. Stop It With The Weaving.  Sure, you’re in a hurry, but constantly changing lanes in an attempt to drive faster than traffic rarely saves you much time and could just as easily make you late. Not only do you risk being pulled over by a cop and given a ticket, which takes forever, but you could also cause a crash, which takes forever and can cost a ton of money. This goes double if all you ultimately end up doing is passing a single person in the HOV lane who was just giving the car in front of them a little space.

5. You Probably Deserved That Parking Ticket. There are always going to be exceptions, but let’s be real here. The people who complain the loudest about how unfair it was that they got a parking ticket are usually the people who deserve it the most. Oh, you just popped in for a minute? Would you like to show me on the parking meter where it says the first five minutes are free? No? Because you knew you were risking a ticket when you decided not to pay? OK then. Shut up and pay it.

6. Put Your Damn Phone Down. Compared to other developed countries, the U.S. is a uniquely dangerous place to drive — or not drive if we’re being honest. France, Germany and the UK all have cell phones, too, but Americans appear to be particularly committed to using their phones while driving. It’s illegal because it’s dangerous, and if you really need to check that Facebook message the moment it comes in, just pull over to check it. Let’s be real, though. It can wait.

7. Just Be Sober. If you have to drive, stay sober, and definitely don’t drink while you’re driving. Even if you’re in New Orleans, just don’t. Then again, while drunk driving is a huge problem, high driving has also become a much bigger concern in recent years. And for whatever reason, far too many people seem to think there’s nothing wrong with driving while high. It’s still illegal, makes you a danger to others, and if the cops catch you, that’s your own damn fault.

Onward~

Polli Schildge, Editor

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Enforcement isn’t the answer to reducing traffic fatalties and injuries, but…

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

Lots of city residents lament in personal discussion, and especially on social media that we need more traffic enforcement to reduce speeding and other bad driver behaviors, as though that’s the best remedy for dangerous driving.

Enforcement isn’t the best way to effectively reduce speeding or other bad driver behaviors.

Too little enforcement can give drivers a sense that roads are theirs to do what they please any time, anywhere.

“Why do many of us drive dangerously on the roads? Because we think we can get away with it,” Jonathan Adkins, CEO of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which tracks traffic fatalities across the country, told NPR earlier this year. “And guess what — we probably can right now in many places in the country.

A traffic ticket may not be effective in changing that driver’s behavior after the cop leaves the scene, but it can be a deterrent, and be a part of changing the culture in a city.

Evidence suggests that enforcement and road engineering ought to work together.

 

Police officers and their department heads have become reluctant to do traffic stops mainly for 2 reasons: to avoid accusations of racial bias, especially after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. in 2015, and because of fear for their own safety. Traffic Enforcement Dwindled in the Pandemic. In Many Places, It Hasn’t Come Back.

Traffic stops that involve equipment violations like a broken tail light, which are often a result of racial profiling are becoming more rare, while at the same time, a reduction of traffic stops for speeding and running signals and stop signs is also dropping.

So what do we do?

“Really long-term, design has to be the solution,” said Shawn Garcia, director of advocacy for the safe-streets organization Transportation Alternatives in New York. “Policing is not the direction we want to go in.”

I’m representing APCSC as part of a group of advocates working for legalization of speed cameras to be legalized in NJ.

Speed camera

The objections that stymie the legislation of speed cameras in NJ and Texas come from civil libertarians who oppose the surveillance, even though studies in the U.S. and overseas show that speed cameras are effective at reducing speeds and injuries, .

Legal mechanisms designed to keep streets safe are breaking down, while traffic deaths are rising. Is there a better way?

Impounding cars, and revoking licenses plus legalization of speed cameras among other strategies can be effective: A fatal crash shows us everything that’s wrong with traffic enforcement

Police gather at the scene of a crash

“New Jersey emerged as the state with the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities. New Jersey Tops Pedestrian Fatality List. Out of the 3,030 total traffic deaths recorded in the state during the study period, 916 were pedestrians. This means that 30.23% of all traffic fatalities in New Jersey involved pedestrians, the highest percentage in the nation.”

APCSC has been advocating for a Vision Zero Policy in Asbury Park…but this requires a commitment to implement street and road modifications to change driver behavior, and make it safe for walkers and rollers.

“Lots of cities have appointed staff to oversee their Vision Zero efforts, but who don’t implement physical safety measures, instead sit at a desk creating power point presentations. Here Is What Vision Zero Should Really Look Like.

Generally, city professionals are reduced to working on bike lanes, preparing plans with lots of public outreach (marketing), and applying for grants. When we see this, we are seeing an unserious approach. Does this seem familiar in Asbury Park?

Safety on Asbury Park streets and roads shouldn’t be the domain of one person; or the police. It needs to be part of the culture. Safety first. Safety second. Safety, safety, safety.

If we’re depending upon enforcement, signs, and PSAs to change driver behavior we’re doing it wrong. 

Our streets can be reconfigured, often starting with just paint and pilot projects. When roads are paved the street or road can be modified with curb extensions so people walking have less distance to cross and to slow drivers. Raised crosswalks, mini-roundabouts, protected bike infrastructure are proven effective countermeasures to slow driver speeds.

Signs and PSAs are not effective, and are a lazy way for cities to imply that they are doing something about driver behavior.

Screenshot

I’ll leave you with a quote:

We ask everyone outside the car to be safe so that drivers can be dangerous.

Onward.

Polli Schildge, Editor apcompletestreets.org

 

 

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A Misdirected Public Service Announcement In Asbury Park

This PSA below was sent out by the city of Asbury Park, and it needs to be revised.

 

This PSA  focuses on responsibility of bike and scooter riders with 8 “rules” at the top of the message, implying that behavior of people using micro mobility are the most serious concern to public safety.

Only 3 short, vague lines are aimed at drivers at the end of the PSA.
The message to drivers looks like an afterthought, and almost appears that it was designed by the auto industry.
Words matter – the industry strives to shift the responsibility off drivers, and place the onus on other road users.
PSAs are a LAZY way of checking a box. 
We can do better with messaging in Asbury Park. 
Please. 
We all know that DRIVERS are the greatest danger in any city to everyone: themselves, and especially anyone outside of a car..
If there are PSAs about safety in AP they should be directed to drivers FIRST with the most emphasis – and ideally there should be separate PSAs aimed exclusively at drivers.
Drivers and bike riders alike erroneously believe that bike riding in painted bike lanes is safer, or a “rule” as indicated in the graphic. It’s NOT a rule, nor is it safer.
 
Telling bike riders to use bike lanes is misinformation, and inconsistent with the  “Bicyclists May Use Full Lane” signs that are finally going up in AP. (Thank you- we need them everywhere in the city!)
Almost every bike lane in the city is in the “door zone”. Painted bike lanes make the road seem a bit narrower to drivers, possibly slowing them down. Painted lines indicate to drivers that bike riders may be present. But they are not effective safety infrastructure for bike riders. Driver doors open into the lane, causing people to hae to swerve into traffic or get hit by the door.
NJ law states that bike riding on the roadway, “take the lane” is legal.
Please keep the message consistent. The city is posting Bicyclists May Use Full Lane sings, so don’t tell bike riders that it’s a “rule” to use the bike lane.
Tell drivers that they should be looking out for people on bikes and scooters , and walkers too!
It’s ESSENTIAL that driver behavior is the FIRST concern in any messaging about a  “Safer Asbury Park.” 
We all know that drivers are a huge problem in the city, and they’re getting worse, yet this graphic message indicates that bike and scooter riders are the menace.
Every day we are all at risk of serious injury or death by inattentive or aggressive drivers while walking or biking, and driving too. It is me, you, and ALL of us who could be victims of dangerous drivers.
Signs and PSAs are minimally helpful, but language and perception matter.
The PSA graphic references 4′ passing at the bottom of the message. Instead, it needs to make specific reference to the NJ 4′ Safe Passing Lawand should be at the top.
It is the LAW that drivers must maintain low speed behind people on bikes and scooters until they can pass with 4′ of clearance.
The two gigantic digital signs on Ocean Ave. restrictions for tents, dogs, and bikes should be used to deter speeding and dangerous driving on thoroughfares in the city.
What are Asbury Park’s priorities … really?
Traffic volume has increased in the city, and it will continue as more residential properties are developed and venues and events are on the calendar. 
 
It’s critically important that the city redesigns streets to make it less likely that drivers will behave badly.
Physical implementation of traffic calming measures like curb extensions, mini roundabouts, raised crosswalks, physically (not just painted) protected bike infrastructure are methods that are proven to mitigate bad driver behavior and save lives.
Until AP implements bold changes to the built environment, and offers more alternatives to driving like 24/7 transit VIA in Jersey City, and bike share, it must be the priority to focus messaging to drivers to make streets safer for vulnerable road users.
We are ALL are vulnerable – you, me, our neighbors, our children, and grandchildren any time we are outside of a car. 
Asbury Park must stop demonizing people riding 2 wheels with stupid “bicle riding prohibited” signs. How about NO Driving signs?
Bike lane ends?
How about Roadway Ends?
If there’s a sign we need everywhere (we  have too many stupid signs)  it’s
Slow The F Down.
Get involved. Share your email.
We have work to do to make this clty safer, provide equitable mobility and access for everyone, to make it a truly livable city for everyone. 

 

Onward.

Polli Schildge, Editor

 

 

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Sign to oppose the stupid e-bike bill

Please take 10 seconds to oppose this TERRIBLE BILL. And share!
New Jersey Bill S2292/A3359 would require registration and insurance for all low-speed e-bikes and e-scooters.
While other states are rolling out subsidies to make e-bikes more affordable, New Jersey is poised to do the opposite, making e-bikes harder to access and more expensive for working families.
Want a job and an e-bike? Apply to this new SF delivery program
Advocates are adamantly opposed to Senate President Nicolas Scutari’s bill, fearing it would undermine the goals of reducing car dependency and carbon emissions, and be an expensive and arduous impediment for those who rely on cheaper modes of transportation.
It’s really just a distraction from the REAL issue, which is TOO MANY CARS, traffic crashes and fatalities in New Jersey.  There is not enough reliable transit in the state, city by city, so this bill would effectively force people to rely MORE on driving, or be unable to access destinations at all.

These are the most affordable electric vehicles on the market and an increasingly popular for seniors and alternative to driving a car or delivery van.A New Jersey Senate committee on Thursday passed what even supporters call a flawed bill that would require micro-mobility users to carry a type of liability insurance that doesn’t even exist yet.

There is no requirement for insurance for class 1, 2, or 3 e-bikes, with max speed under 28mph. Over 28mph generally does require insurance. This bill would require insurance for all e-bikes and scooters, including low speed.
Drivers of motor vehicles kill over 40,000 people every year, and it’s worse with the proliferation of large SUVs and bigger and bigger trucks.
Imagine car-free streets with bikes of all kinds, and infrastructure to support all types of bike riding. More micro mobility would make our roads safer for everyone – far more so than with the number of cars on streets everywhere.

Onward.

Polli Schildge, Editor
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Parking – or people?

Want your city to thrive? Start by rethinking parking lots.

The topic of excessive parking was covered in a recent StrongTowns newsletter. Yeah. We get it. it seems like there is never enough parking available in Asbury Park. Whether you drive, walk, or roll the subject of parking is fraught with misunderstanding, and sometimes triggering.

Read on.

The Washington Post opinion piece (gift article) on March 27th about the damaging effects of excessive surface parking lots in our cities describes the problem:

Surface parking lots eat up people space. “They’re often large fields of empty space,” says Derek Hoetmer, founding principal at urban design firm MCLV, “contributing nothing beyond the sole purpose of storing personal property (cars). They lack the ingredients of what makes cities great: a sense of place.”

“These micro wastelands drain the life from neighborhoods, blighting American cities. It’s time we imagine better.”

Did you know that there are 8 parking spaces for every car in the US?

America has eight parking spaces for every car.

Cities like Buffalo are getting rid of parking minimums and changing zoning, which opens up valuable space.

Many former parking lots are turning into housing. (Some are also becoming parks, in cities including Dallas and Detroit; in San Diego, part of one parking lot has been restored to a salt marsh.)  As cities realize that they’ve built more parking than they need, dozens have eliminated parking requirements in new buildings, as described in this Fast Company article.

Excessive property dedicated to parking also has a negative effect on kids’ health. There’s a short anecdote in the WP article about kids playing in an empty parking lot being kicked off the property. A bank that owned the lot didn’t want the liability. The lot has been vacant, and unused for years; but this use of empty space for play could not be permitted.

Advocates for open streets and open playgrounds know that if cities aren’t built with the health, development, and independence of kids in mind, the  result is an insidious public health emergency.

School playgrounds should be open off school hours, public parks should have active play equipment, and parking lots can be repurposed as play spaces for kids and families.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt talks about the great rewiring of childhood in his new book, The Anxious Generation

Haidt says childhood is increasingly being spent in virtual worlds rather than the real one, and early years are so solitary, sedentary, and coddled.

For the first time — maybe in history? — a middle-aged man is more likely to be admitted to the hospital for unintentional injuries than a boy aged 10-19.

 

The move from a play-based childhood to a device-based one has contributed to an epidemic of obesity, and mental illness among young people, especially girls. The rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and even suicide are skyrocketing. There are other related factors, including what Haidt describes as “collapse of adult solidarity”

Matt Levy’s 2010 documentary, New York Street Games opens with the words: “Before cellphones, BlackBerries and Facebook . . . before a neighbor’s doorstep required an invitation . . . before ‘playdates,’ there was play.”

There’s been a decline in outdoor activities since the 1970s. Bike riding to school is down 31% since 1995, according to American Sports Data, a research firm. Only 6% of children ages nine to 13 play outside on their own. Kids in low-income communities, are spending 40 hours a week with electronic media, according to the Kaiser Foundation.

“I worry that we’re going to be a society in 50 years of computer kids, people who are desensitized to other human beings,” said Levy. “If I start using technology to talk to you on a full-time basis, that’s a problem.”

 

 

 

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Housing is a Complete Streets issue.

 

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition advocates for equity in accessibility, mobility, and everything that happens on our streets that affects health and safety of residents and visitors,

We advocate for housing which is not dependent upon parking minimums, providing ADUs (accessory dwelling units) so people can age in place, and to enable people to find housing where they might not have otherwise, and places for people, meaning play spaces, arts venues, any gathering places, which do not depend upon providing parking, or parking minimums.

We all deserve the right to be able to get where we want to go safely, and to have a place to live in Asbury Park.

AARP: What’s Good for Older Americans Is Good for All of Us

Infrastructure Is an Important Part of the Equation

“The first thing is just having good principles of urban planning, being thoughtful about making sure that a neighborhood can be navigated by people in the community, whether they’re in a car, walking, using public transportation, bicycles, etc. And there’s one other piece that I want to make sure to mention, and that’s safety. Safety from hazards, like a dangerous rusted staircase at a transit station, or broken sidewalks. But also good lighting and the other things that keep people feeling safe as they’re navigating their community.The bottom line is that a really livable community has both the housing options that people need, regardless of their income or physical ability, it has the transportation options that people can use to get around, and it’s got supportive community features and services.”

Equity in access for everyone means NOT deferring to drivers of motor vehicles as the priority.

Traffic and the demand for parking –  parking requirements and any factors that limit affordable housing – displacing residents, negatively affecting the school district, and hurting the character of the city as a livable community.”

Asbury Park was designed in the mid-1800s to be accessible on horse and buggy,  walking, then trollies,  including bicycling, and now includes all forms of micro mobility. When cars ere added to the mix we succumbed like cities everywhere to the ravages of traffic, demands of drivers, and parking regulations.

Our roads were NOT designed for cars.

Our cities were designed for people to live, socialize, and to do business, without fear of being threatened, or killed by drivers.

Streets must be designed for everyone, from the youngest children to elderly. Asbury Park is getting closer to offering opportunities of housing options with ADUs.

Let do this Asbury Park. You know you can if you want to.

Onward~

Polli Schildge

Editor

 

 

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TRAFFIC CALMING EFFECT OF BIKE LANES

Hello readers~

Whether you ride a bike or not, you’ll probably agree…

Asbury Park has been slow to implement bicycling infrastructure.  Over four years ago some painted stripes and sharrows (stenciled “sharing arrows”) were installed, but since then there has been negligible painted implementation, and there are no protected, delineated bike lanes anywhere in the city.

After this Rutgers study was done in 2022 there was some hope that it would have inspired permanent implementation of protected bike lanes, or even painted striping, particularly in this area of the study, since bike lanes were proven to have a positive traffic calming impact.

There are no protected, delineated bike lanes, or markings of any kind in the area of this study, and we are still waiting for bicycling infrastructure to be  implemented consistently throughout the city.

We expect Asbury Park leaders to recognize that it is inequitable to prioritize driving over vulnerable road users, and to take action to make our streets safe for everyone.

From the NJ 4′ Safe Passing Law advocate Rebecca Feldman:

Let’s be clear about the endgame. It’s not that we want people to travel slower, it’s that we NEED fewer people being injured and killed by speeding drivers. 

Related: APCSC and other advocates testify for Target Zero at Senate Transportation Committee

TRAFFIC CALMING EFFECT OF BIKE LANES

In this study, protected bicycle lanes marked with simple traffic cones and plastic delineators were associated with a reduction in average maximum speeds of 20 to 30 percent.

The findings prove the traffic calming effect during the time of this pop-up in 2022.

The findings come from an analysis of almost 10,000 cars during a temporary pilot demonstration project in Asbury Park, N.J., where bike lanes were both painted and delineated with traffic cones. The study incorporated 24-hour video footage of the intersection for 10 dates in March and April 2022.

The results of the study: “The Traffic Calming Effect of Delineated Bicycle Lanes,” by nine researchers at Rutgers University, including the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, will be published in the June volume of the Journal of Urban Mobility.

Average top speeds of vehicles dropped by 28 percent, by 21 percent for vehicles turning right, and by up to 8 percent for drivers going straight.

Painted-only bike lanes were also associated with a reduction of 11 to 15 percent solely for vehicles turning right. Traffic moving perpendicular to the bicycle lane experienced no decrease in speeds.

Bicycle lanes with traffic delineators will have a stronger traffic calming effect, such as reductions in speed, than with painted-only bike lanes, according to the study. 

“In the context of traffic safety and Vision Zero initiatives, this finding is significant in that it suggests that delineated bike lanes can reduce traffic speeds, making the overall road environment safer for all. The pop-up bike lane reduced the traffic lane width and created a sharper turning radius, which likely served as a traffic calming mechanism.”

There is no shortage of assistance to help New Jersey towns and cities to take action, such as from NJTPA. The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority is the federally authorized Metropolitan Planning Organization for the 13-county northern New Jersey region. Each year, we oversee over $2 billion in transportation improvement projects and provide a forum for interagency cooperation and public input.

Federally, the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Transportation Discretionary Grant program provides a unique opportunity for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to invest in road, rail, and transit.

The Rutgers New Jersey Bicycle & Pedestrian Resource Center assists public officials, transportation and health professionals, and the public in creating a safer and more accessible walking and bicycling environment through primary research, education and dissemination of information about best practices in policy and design.

Let’s make Asbury Park an accessible, equitable city for everyone. 

Onward.

Polli Schildge, Editor

 

 

 

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