Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition
Transportation Equity in Our City
APCSC will receive this honor tomorrow at Rutgers University!
Congratulations!
The Complete Streets Summit Taskforce has selected the Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition to receive a Complete Streets Champion Award at the 2017 New Jersey Complete Streets Summit on October 24, 2017.
“If the unconscious or semi-conscious biases of drivers impact their decision to yield, crossing the street is all the more dangerous for black men.”
“In addition to furthering their thesis that racial bias impacts pedestrian safety, the researchers say their findings show a need for reducing the perceived discretion drivers have for yielding to people waiting to cross. When there is no crosswalk, drivers assume they have a choice of whether to yield or not — even when there’s a law saying otherwise. With a marked crosswalk in place, there is less perceived discretion.”
Read more…https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/portland-crosswalk-shows-drivers-think-pedestrians
REAL piano key crosswalks!
Piano key crosswalks being striped on Springwood Ave @inAsburyParkNJ for Better Block event Saturday, October 14 – safer & celebrate area’s musical history!
Australian report notes benefits of compact, walkable neighborhoods and Complete Streets.
Read more: https://www.healthybydesignsa.com.au/resources/
Doing it in Asbury Park!
Whether by street design, long distances between places, or more deep-seated cultural reasons, most Americans walk very little every day. That’s a shame: Public health advocates argue that moderate, informal exercise outside, including walking, is an important determinant of public health. And America’s car-centric development isn’t doing us any favors, remaining an impediment to higher levels of walking and walkability, a new report shows.
Read more:
https://www.fastcompany.com/40472360/the-u-s-is-failing-at-making-its-communities-more-walkable
To encourage bicycle commuting in the city and ease some the fears associated with it.
“The free roadside assistance initiative is run by the Hartford Business Improvement District. It is part of the organization’s Clean and Safe program, which puts those “safety ambassadors” on downtown streets, giving free assistance to stranded motorists, providing security escorts and acting as another set of eyes and ears for police, said Jordan Polon, the business district’s executive director.
The group added bicycle assistance in May to encourage bicycle commuting in the city and ease some the fears associated with it, she said.”
“Eddie Zayas is one of the district’s “safety ambassadors.” Like the vast majority of the others, he’s a city resident. He wears a fluorescent yellow uniform and an identification badge and patrols on his bicycle downtown. He carries with him a two-way radio, a tool kit and three different sizes of bicycle tubes.
He looks for bicyclists who need help and takes service calls.”
http://www.njherald.com/article/20170916/AP/309169933#
Eddie Zayas, a safety ambassador for the Hartford Business Improvement District, shows off some of his bicycle repair tools during patrol of downtown streets on Sept. 2, 2017. Zayas is part of a program that provides free roadside assistance to bicyclists who break down in Connecticut’s capital city (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
The Associated Press
As an educational organization, Cycling Savvy bypasses the debate over how we wish our roads might look and teaches cyclists, simply, to negotiate those tough choices on the roads where we actually ride.
Read more…
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/10/3/how-to-bike-on-a-stroad
“Imagine a major city without car traffic, without the honking, the congestion, the tailpipes spitting out poison. A city without the ever-present threat of getting run over.”
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/10/02/the-joy-and-freedom-of-a-city-without-cars/
“As you browse through these photos from the journee sans voiture, keep in mind that Paris is trying to make its streets free from the burden of car traffic all year round. The car-free day fits within a comprehensive strategy to improve mobility while reducing motorized traffic.”
“…critics worry most about beginner urban riders navigating the segmented nature of the city’s designated bicycle lanes: They begin and end seemingly at random, forcing cyclists to veer into four-lane roads stippled with potholes and urban grit. Buses and hurried automobile traffic push them into the right-most lane, where doors of parked cars can swing open unexpectedly, catapulting cyclists.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/us/politics/washington-bike-share.html?_r=0
We have requested that Asbury Park be added to the data base. Right now the score is low, but keep checking back! We would qualify for a higher score already with our bike share!
Here’s the link to the app: