Support 8A Playground Improvements: Sunset Lake Park, an all ages, active, engaging space for people in Sunset Lake Park.
What is the Participatory Budget Program?
Residents of Asbury Park age 14 and over were invited to submit projects for the city.
All of the submissions are excellent.
Many people have not heard about the program, and in future years we hope many more people will submit project ideas for neighborhoods all over the city.
This year $250,000 will be allocated to the proposal with highest votes, then to the next, and so on.
Proposal 8A is for an engaging play space for all ages, which would utilize $50-75,000 of the $250,000 total budget. We hope this will be the beginning of adding fun, active amenities to all of our parks.
You can see the APTV video of all of the the presentations. 8A Playground Improvement: Sunset Lake Park is at 38:49. https://www.asburyparktv.com/aptv.
Sunset Lake Park was designed by the founder in the 1870s as a “passive park”, and has remained the same since then. There are no amenities for people in the park nor in most of the city parks…). Now concrete “roads” slice through it, with unwelcoming, stone “benches” on a “helipad” in the middle. People are encouraged to pass through this literally “passive park”.
Sunset Park is located in the center of the city, and should be a true destination for everyone, to play and socialize, as a “community backyard.”
Please support the proposal “8A Playground Improvements: Sunset Park”,
Remember voting ends tomorrow, Friday 3/31!
This flyer with the QR code makes it so easy to vote!
Vote right here online, or get a paper ballot at City Hall, or at Second Life Bikes at 21 Main St.
This proposal offers EVERYONE in Asbury Park a place to play, relax, and socialize. Our parks have been underutilized for too long, especially beautiful Sunset Lake Park. This proposal envisions a creative area at the western end of Sunset Park along Main Street, centrally located, and where many residents walk with children.
Parks are the city’s backyard, and should be the favorite destination for recreation, and socialization.
The cost of this proposal would be $50,000 – $75,000, depending on the equipment and the scope of the project.
“Play and Connection in Sunset Park: A Vibrant Active Community Space”
This proposal represents the submissions from numerous residents for an active community play space for all ages in Sunset Park, identifying the need for a range of equipment and seating options that cater to various ages, interests and abilities.
While there has been an historic desire to keep large swaths of Sunset Park entirely passive, there is enough space at the west end of the park along Main Street to accommodate active play space. This would be easily accessible to families from all corners of the city, especially to visitors and the many families who live, and walk to school and businesses in that area.
A majority of residents live in residences without yards, or have houses with limited outside space. Sunset Park (and all parks in the city) should be our shared backyard – a place where we can all relax, play, exercise, and connect.
An all-age active space including equipment for: climbing, stretching, swinging, bouncing, pushing, pulling, and comfortable seating:
Fitness equipment 13+: A section with outdoor fitness equipment for adults and teenagers. This could include pull-up bars, push-pull, balance, and other equipment that promotes cardio and muscular endurance, strength and agility. There would be signage indicating how to use the equipment safely
Play equipment: A playground area with swings, slides, climbing structures, and other equipment that caters to children and adults of all ages. The playground would have a soft surface to prevent injuries.
There would be benches and tables for conversation, games and picnics, and for parents or caregivers to relax while their children play.
In summary, an active community play space for all ages would be designed to encourage physical activity, socialization, and fun for everyone in the community – people of all ages and abilities.
Examples of playgrounds all over the world:
Chicago, Ill.
Please vote for 8A. Playground Improvements: Sunset Lake Park here.
The premise of Old Enough!, a Japanese reality show streaming on Netflix is simple. In 10-minute episodes a tiny kid sets off to complete the child’s first errand alone. (Well, “alone,” with the cameramen.)
Get your earbuds ready and go for a walk today and listen to
this podcast episode, First Errand on 99% Invisible, based upon the show.
It’s about everything we want for kids, for everyone on our streets – safety from drivers, and streets designed for human mobility.
From the show “Old Enough”
Needless to say, the show couldn’t be set in the United States.
Parents who have allowed young kids independence to play alone have been arrested, or at the very least are labeled terrible parents. This paranoia about kids’ safety in general, and especially on our streets says a lot about our culture.
Only 10% of American kids walk to school, compared with over 80% of kids in Japan. Kids start walking to school in Japan at a very early age, because they CAN. Roads and street networks are designed for kids to walk. Drivers in Japan are taught to yield to pedestrians. Speed limits are low. Neighborhoods have small blocks with lots of intersections. And there is little or no street parking in neighborhoods.
Everyone should be able to safely, REALLY safely walk on American streets.
Pete Buttegieg, USDOT Secretary, plus state, and local legislators support safe road design, and there is local and gov funding available, but we need political will to implement traffic calming measures.
Road design must change to PREVENT crashes involving people who bicycle, walk, run, scooter, skateboard, push strollers, as well as people who drive cars.
Inequitable NJ law already exists requiring a bell and bike lights, and 3 out of 4 people ticketed for bell or light infractions are people of color.
Many people who ride bikes for daily transportation may not have the ability to acquire a helmet – therefore enforcement of a helmet law will lead to even more people being targeted by police.
… it is hard to overstate how our unnatural obsession with head protection is stifling the growth of our bicycle culture. It achieves little, except deterring the most casual cyclists, who also happen to be the slowest and safest ones on the road.
Bad driver behavior is a problem, but…
It has never worked to continually remind drivers to stop texting, obey traffic signals, and slow down. It’s impossible to change human behavior with signs, PSAs, even with laws. Automobile ads promote driver entitlement, and manufacturers are building distractions right into the dashboard. Larger and larger SUVs and trucks are killing more people, and cars that can exceed 100mph, and roads that invite speeding are all ongoing problems.
Jesse Singer’s book There Are No Accidents makes it clear that the system is responsible, not the individual. A helmet law will not keep bike riders safe from crashes, which kill 45,000 people a year in the US, and the number is rising. Crashes are not accidents, “preordained and unavoidable”.
A critical mass of cyclists improves the safety for everyone.
Yale student How Sen writes, “If you do choose to wear a helmet when biking, don’t stop there: Learn how to properly and safely interact with vehicles. Share the road. Know your rights. Learn to take the lane and feel comfortable about it. Not only do motorists treat you differently when you’re wearing a helmet, studies show that helmets may be giving you a false sense of safety.”
“Statistics show that cyclists’ fear of head trauma is irrational if we compare it to some other risks. Head injuries aren’t just dangerous when you’re biking—head injuries are dangerous when you’re doing pretty much anything else.”
Only safe road design will mitigate traffic violence.
Everyone outside of a car is a vulnerable road user, and we cannot and should not depend on helmets, bells, and lights – or even drivers – to keep us safe. Only safe road design will mitigate traffic violence for everyone, including drivers themselves.
Since the 1920s automobile manufacturers have been touting the wonders of car travel.
The goal of the industry was to create this pervasive myth to sell more cars.
Through the 1940s, 50s and 60s owning a vehicle was aspirational, possible for the well-to-do, mostly white American consumer. Racism was structurally built in. Robert Moses leveled minority neighborhoods to build highways to make way for cars.
Sara Seo in Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom, ” reveals how the rise of the automobile led us to accept – and expect – pervasive police power. As her book makes clear, “this radical transformation in the nature and meaning of American freedom has had far-reaching political and legal consequences.”
”Today, officers make more than 50,000 traffic stops a day. “Driving while Black” has become a major route to incarceration — or much worse.
When Daunte Wright was killed by a police officer in April 2021, he had been pulled over for an expired registration tag on his car’s license plate. He joined the long list of Black drivers whose violent and premature deaths at the hands of police were set in motion by a minor traffic infraction — Sandra Bland (failure to use a turn signal), Maurice Gordon (alleged speeding), Samuel DuBose (missing front license plate), and Philando Castile and Walter Scott (broken taillights) among them. Despite widespread criticism of the flimsy pretexts used to justify traffic stops, and the increasing availability of cellphone or police body cam videos, the most recent data shows that the number of deaths from police-driver interactions is almost as high as it has been over the past five years.”
Asbury Park is the recipient of funds to implement traffic calming methods on 3rd and 4th Avenues.
Some residents have been vocal about their objections to mini roundabouts, citing loss of parking. This is NOT true – the parking they fear losing is not legal within 25′ of the corner. Yellow daylighting paint now clearly indicates required parking distance away from the corners at the intersections.
APCSC is happy to discuss the best ways to help prevent speeding, which can include other treatments like raised crosswalks, and speed humps.
After driving roundabouts, the number of people who favor them more than doubles. A survey on drivers’ views of roundabouts before and after construction conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) illustrates public opinion. Before construction, the number of drivers in favor of roundabouts was only 31 percent, and those strongly opposed was 41 percent. After driving them, this shifted to 63 percent in favor and only 15 percent strongly opposed.
Studies have shown that roundabouts are safer than traditional stop sign or traffic signal controlled intersections.
Roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or traffic signals were previously used for traffic control, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Studies by the IIHS and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have shown that roundabouts typically achieve:
A 37 percent reduction in overall collisions
A 75 percent reduction in injury collisions
A 90 percent reduction in fatality collisions
A 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions
National Association of City Transportation Officials Guide ToMini Roundabouts
NACTO diagram of a mini rondabout.
Mini roundabouts and neighborhood traffic circles1 lower speeds at minor intersection crossings and are an ideal treatment for uncontrolled intersections.
Mini roundabouts may be installed using simple markings or raised islands, but are best applied in conjunction with plantings that beautify the street and the surrounding neighborhood. Careful attention should be paid to the available lane width and turning radius used with traffic circles.
A neighborhood roundabout in Washington State. WSDOT
Roundabouts have become an increasingly popular intersection type by traffic engineers, communities, and transportation officials. The purpose of this report is to examine the safety performance of roundabouts by comparing the before construction crash rates and the after construction crash rates and traffic volume data. Overall, roundabouts are performing well when looking at the crash reduction record. Roundabouts in Minnesota have had over an 80% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes
Minnesota has ~200 roundabouts, and like any other skeptical traffic engineering team, they’ve been documenting the results.
Carmel, Indiana has 138 roundabouts, the most of any city in the US. Roundabouts move traffic more efficiently and reduce the number of fatalities and serious-injury accidents. They work because of their safety record, their compatibility with the environment, their aesthetics and their ability to make it easier for pedestrians and bicyclists to navigate.
The reasons people choose/use different transport modes are complex, often sensitive and controversial – how about parking??
As advocates for active transport, and safe streets our messaging doesn’t have to be about bikes or cycling, skooting, or even walking.
We can focus our discussion on the type of city in which we all want to live.
n on
If we want to enable more people to engage in active transport, micromobility and transit we cannot afford to have a war with the same people whose hearts and minds we’re trying to win.
Driving a private car has become completely normalized and often unquestioned as the primary choice of transport. But as more and more people are beginning to question it, we can encourage curiosity and interest, not put them in a position of defensiveness.
People who drive exclusively often have never experienced the joy, and health benefits of riding a bike or walking instead of driving.
Other people have no choice and ride bikes or walk because they don’t own cars.
So we must encourage our city leaders of the worthiness of designing road environments and public spaces for purposes and functions for everyone.
It’s about enabling movement of people and goods in various different modes of transport, including motor vehicles. It’s also about creating places where people can linger.
Local councils across the country are working toward implementing a framework to make more liveable cities.
A driver will only receive a ticket if they are speeding 10mph above the speed limit or if they run a red light, basic traffic rules that help save lives and prevent injuries.
PLEASE PLEASE write a short note directly to Tara Gill, tgill@saferoads.orgto sign on. Tell her your name, position, and organization or affiliation and that you support speed cameras in NJ and OPPOSE THIS BILL.
The event will be moderated by the League of Women Voters as well as Asbury Park reporter for The Coaster, Carol Gorga Williams; District 3 Representative, Dan Harris; and President of West Side Citizens United, Nina Summerlin.
The candidates are:
For Mayor:
John Moor
Sonja Mack
Felicia Simmons
For City Council:
Jesse Kendle
Angela Ahbez-Anderson
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition is dedicated to its mission of transportation equity in Asbury Park including equitable access and safety for all users of Asbury Park streets.
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
There will be a Q & A, and a drawing for a bike from Second Life Bikes, gifts from Asbury Park Cyclery, Ada’s Gojo, Cryolete, Galley Pizza, Booskerdoo and more!
THE STREET PROJECT is the story about humanity’s relationship to the streets and the global citizen-led fight to make communities safer.
Digging deep into the root causes of traffic violence, the filmmakers engage a diverse array of experts including street historian Peter Norton, city planner Jeff Speck, and urban design expert Mikael Colville-Andersen. These expert interviews are interwoven with the stories of real people working to make their communities safer.
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition is dedicated to its mission of transportation equity in Asbury Park including equitable access and safety for all users of Asbury Park streets.
