LIGHT UP YOUR BIKES AND RIDE! Meet up on Tuesday, 11/27 at Springwood Park 6:30pm. About an hour spin around town. Get creative with lights!
The #MeToo Movement And Street Infrastructure
This article is about Seattle, but we can substitute: Asbury Park is working to “advance its most prominent public asset — our streets — toward a bold vision for inclusivity across gender, race, ability and class by making it safe, efficient, and intuitive for all modes of transportation to access…” every part of the city. Walking and biking offer a barometer — and a proving ground — for women’s belonging in public space.”
It’s time Seattle planners listen to women who walk and bike
Claire Martini November 12, 2018
(Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)
The #MeToo movement enables women to speak out about injustices faced behind closed doors. But injustice can also hide in plain sight, stemming from something as basic as the way streets are built.
Safety is paramount. While planners focus on delivering miles of bike lanes and sidewalks, women’s calculus is more complex: “Women and girls have to account for threats and realities of gender-based violence in public—on public transportation, in schools, in workplaces, in parks, on streets,” writes urbanist Tiffany Lam. Women, trans, femme, non-binary cyclists and particularly people of color experience racial and gender discrimination while biking (according to a study in Portland),while shouldering concerns about parenting, appearance, personal safety and harassment. Recognizing that “human infrastructure” supports would-be cyclists, many communities organize rides, skill workshops and education programs; we need leaders in access and mobility at every level of our city, from living rooms and classrooms to City Hall.
Read more…
https://crosscut.com/2018/11/its-time-seattle-planners-listen-women-who-walk-and-bike
It’s About A Better City
It’s about a better city, not about riding bikes or walking, or certainly not a “war on cars”. Many people (or most) who ride bikes and walk also drive a vehicle. We’re all in this together. Asbury Park is finalizing the Asbury Park Bike and Walk Master Plan which will create a network for safe walking and bicycling .
“…a few separated routes through a large, still car-dominated city and region don’t create a viable choice in how to get around for people aged 8-80. For people of both genders and all ages to choose a mode of movement a system or network is needed – complete, connected, efficient, predictable, and safe in both perception and reality.”
It’s Not About The Bike Or Car —It’s About Better Cities
“I don’t consider myself a ‘cyclist.’ Calling myself that would seem as odd as calling myself a walker, a transit-rider, or a driver. I’m someone who loves living in cities, who has studied how cities work all of my adult life. Really, I’m a citizen.”
Read more…
http://spacing.ca/vancouver/2012/10/08/its-not-about-the-bike-or-car-its-about-better-cities/
Think Bicycles Don’t Belong On The Road?
This is a familiar characterization of many people who don’t think bikes belong on the street. This person is a driver who believes that roads were designed for cars and should stay that way. “Bicyclists break traffic law!” “Cyclists don’t pay taxes!” “People on bikes act entitled and run stop signs and disobey traffic signals!” Some of these drivers are aggressive, and even try to frighten people on bikes, intimidating them by buzzing, yelling, honking or even throwing things at them. As your writer I can attest that all of this happens to me frequently. I’m close to being injured or killed by a driver almost every time I commute the 12 miles to and again from my work place.
It can change, with better infrastructure, and more people on bikes.
Chris Cox used to despise cyclists, believing they should get off the roads. Then something changed
Not long ago, Chris Cox used to think bikes shouldn’t be allowed on the road and loathed cyclists. Then, something changed.
Chris Cox November 14, 2018
Cyclists shouldn’t be allowed on the road, I used to think.
They don’t pay registration. Those two-wheeled toys weren’t designed to share the bitumen with “real” transport vehicles like cars, trucks and motorbikes.
It was a perspective that came so naturally to me.
It was my instant reflex response when a colleague told me how he and his mates were terrorised by a motorist on their weekend ride. The driver had tailgated, revved the engine, leant on the horn and finished it off with a drenching with some kind of liquid.
Yet, despite what was a clear example of deliberate and dangerous intimidation by a couple of boofheads in a car, my first reaction was to blame the victim.
Read more…
It’s Not All About Fire Truck Response Times
APCSC has found that Asbury Park’s Fire Department is coming on board with Complete Streets principles (the concept of the Road Diet is still somewhat a sticking point), but there are still holdouts (and also in our Police Department) clinging to the thinking that it’s all about response times, rather than accepting that faster road speeds lead to increasingly high numbers of traffic related injuries and deaths. It’s about #slowthecars and right-sized emergency vehicles.
Rule 51: Expand the Fire Chief’s Mandate
Rewrite the fire chief’s mandate to optimize public safety, not response times. Replace the 20-foot clear and minimum curb radii with more precise measures. Do not add or keep unwarranted signals in the name of preemption. Size new fire trucks to the community and not vice versa.
Perhaps the most ironic day in the life of every city planner is the one on which she discovers that her greatest opponent in making her city’s streets safer is the fire chief. How this bizarre circumstance has come to occur in city after city across the United States is a veritable morality play on the topics of siloed thinking, the confusion of ends and means, and Murphy’s Law. It goes something like this:
A faster response time is good, but not at the expense of life safety.
The fire chief’s job performance is typically judged on response time. The fire department’s budget is often based on the number of calls that fire trucks respond to. These two facts conspire to replace a fire chief’s natural mandate, optimizing the life safety of the community, with a much narrower focus: sending out lots of trucks, and getting them to their destinations quickly.
Get the book:
Walkable City Rules by Jeff Speck
Read more…
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/11/12/for-a-more-walkable-city-enlist-the-fire-chief/
Bikes Are Faster Than Cars
Do you commute by bike? Maybe you’ve found out that it’s sometimes faster or almost as fast to get to your destination by bike than by car. And you don’t have to deal with parking! Now look at the trucks and delivery services lumbering along and (double) parked on your city streets. Maybe there’s a faster, more streamlined solution…
Delivery company Deliveroo and the routing algorithm they named”Frank” collected Smartphone data from riders and drivers schlepping meals for restaurant-to-home courier service. Turns out bicycles are faster than cars.
Data From Millions Of Smartphone Journeys Proves Cyclists Faster In Cities Than Cars And Motorbikes
Red more…
Save Asbury’s Waterfront Update And Council Meeting Video
City Council meeting November 8, 2018
UPDATE
APCSC members attended the Save Asbury’s Waterfront press conference and city council meeting on Thursday night. We saw a wonderful, shared commitment among Mayor Moor, city council, residents and visitors who love AP to keep our beaches accessible to the public and protected from harmful environmental impact. Whether or not you were able to attend the meeting, I recommend watching the video from 11:00 when iStar’s attorney speaks, through Mayor Moor’s remarks beginning at 51:45. Public comments afterward were a variety of informative, angry, frustrated, and even humorous remarks. No matter the delivery, we’re unified in preserving Asbury Park’s waterfront. The city ordered iStar to cease and desist. Now it’s time to harness the positive energy and get back to the table to discuss an alternative to the existing plans. This is what community is about.
Press conference in front of Asbury Park Post Office 11/8/18
Please see attached Save Asbury’s Waterfront Press Conference 11.8.18 held by the coalition Save Asbury’s Waterfront, prior to the Nov. 8th Asbury Park City Council meeting at which iStar Financial, Inc. presented its Phase 5 Infrastructure plans for the City’s northern waterfront.
After 2.5 hours of public comment requesting iStar to stop construction on the northern waterfront, the City Council ultimately passed a resolution forcing iStar to cease and desist construction and demanded that iStar “come to the table” to amend the 2002 waterfront redevelopment agreements.
We sincerely thank the City Council of Asbury Park for listening to the concerns of its community.
Audience reaction to order to iStar of cease and desist.
Watch the City Council meeting and iStar presentation:
For more, check out Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition on FB and on Instagram @asburyparkcompletestreets
SAVE ASBURY’S WATERFRONT *MEDIA ADVISORY*: Invitation to Cover/Photo Opportunity
MEDIA ADVISORY: Invitation to Cover/Photo Opportunity
Tonight, Thursday, November 8th at 5:00 p.m.
ABOUT: Save Asbury’s Waterfront is a grassroots coalition of citizens, businesses and organizations that seeks to foster and encourage appropriate development along Asbury Park’s waterfront. That development will: maximize social inclusion and provide access for all residents and visitors; recognize current coastal development guidelines and practices; be sensitive to endangered species, pollution and other environmental concerns; and be transparent during all phases of planning and implementation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Media interested in attending the event can contact Kerry Butch at 732 982-6942, kerrymbutch@yahoo.com, or Kathleen Mumma at 908-642-6859, kathleenmumma@gmail.com
COMMUNITY RALLIES TO SAVE ASBURY’S PARK’S WATERFRONT
WHAT: Save Asbury Park’s Waterfront is a broad coalition of citizens, environmental and civic organizations such as Clean Ocean Action, Surfrider Foundation, American Littoral Society, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition, and others who want to preserve and protect our oceanfront land from inappropriate development.
WHO:
Confirmed speakers and their topic of interest include:
Kathleen Mumma, Host – Welcome
Dr. Madeline Monaco, President, 1501 Ocean Association – Public Access
Kay Harris, Historical Society & Business Owner – Open Public Space
Joyce Grant, Founder, Citizens for Oceanfront Preservation – North Beach Preservation
Reverend Gil Caldwell, Civil Rights Activist, The Dialogue Group – Social Inclusion and History
Pam Lamberton, Asbury Park Complete Streets – Transparency & Access
Diana Pittet, Surfrider Foundation – Public Access and Environmental Concerns
Avery Grant/Kerry Butch, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance – Environmental and Social Justice Concerns
Don Brockel, Chairman, Deal Lake Commission – Environmental Concerns
Capt. Paul Eidman, Anglers Conservation Network – Fish & Wildlife Conservation
American Littoral Society – Environmental Concerns
Cindy Zipf, Clean Ocean Action – Environmental Concerns
Senator Vin Gopal
Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling
WHEN: Thursday, November 8th at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: in front of Asbury Park Post Office, 801 Bangs Avenue @ Main St. Asbury Park, New Jersey
PARKING: There should be parking in the municipal lot located at 1 Municipal Plaza as well as street Parking on Main Street. There is no need to pay for metered parking during the press conference.
ABOUT: Save Asbury’s Waterfront is a grassroots coalition of citizens, businesses and organizations that seeks to foster and encourage appropriate development along Asbury Park’s waterfront. That development will: maximize social inclusion and provide access for all residents and visitors; recognize current coastal development guidelines and practices; be sensitive to endangered species, pollution and other environmental concerns; and be transparent during all phases of planning and implementation.
SAVE ASBURY’S WATERFRONT MEDIA ADVISORY_ Invitation to CoverPhoto Opportunity
News and Info About Save Asbury’s Waterfront
APCSC Support of Save Asbury’s Waterfront
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition supports city development and initiatives which make every part of the city livable and accessible to everyone. Our goal in support of the Save Asbury’s Waterfront campaign is to maintain the character of this part of the waterfront and boardwalk so that it’s completely open and welcoming to residents and visitors, and to protect the natural environment of the area. The financial burden in the initial goal of the campaign will be daunting. It is to stop the bulldozers and bring the developer Istar and the city back to the table to reexamine the plans (see below). We have faith that the mayor and city council are listening and considering our agenda as described in the the Asbury Park Sun and on the ABC 7 news report.
Please come to the City Council Meeting on Thursday, 11/8: 5pm press conference; 6pm Istar plans; 7pm public comment.
For more information:
AP master plan 2017. Redevelopment plans on our Resources page.
Explainer video: Parking!
We’ve come to assume that there should be available and low-cost space to store our vehicles on city streets. Think about it. Why should it be cheap (or free?). It’s rent for your car! Couldn’t there be much better ways to use space in our cities? Here’s a good explainer video!
Why we should be paying more for parking – video explainer
Charging more for parking could save the environment, ease congestion and inject energy back into the high street. But how? The Guardian’s Peter Walker explains that we’ve been thinking about parking all wrong: it’s not a right, but rather an over-subsidised waste of space
Peter Walker, Josh Toussaint-Strauss, Phil Maynard, Joseph Pierce, Simon Roberts, Paul Boyd and Katie Lamborn
Read more…