Kenny Sorensen, the talented and well-known musician has been advocating for safe infrastructure for bicycling for years. This is his letter to the editor of the Asbury Park Press. A road diet can be the solution. “While New Jersey traffic fatalities have declined slightly, pedestrian and bicycle deaths have sharply increased. This is a trend nationwide. More pedestrians and bicyclists are being killed and injured by cars than ever before.” #slowthecars Learn more…
Public streets not just for car owners: Sorensen
Ken Sorensen Jan. 11, 2019
Public streets should be for everyone, not just car owners. Our friends in Asbury Park Complete Streets have been successful in implementing a “road diet” on Main Street in Asbury Park. This current project converts four lanes of traffic to a three-lane configuration with a turning lane and bike lanes. It’s much safer for motorists and pedestrians. A road diet is a design tool that reverses six decades of road design focused solely on cars at the expense of pedestrians’ safety and general quality of life.
Renaissance Village has accepted applications and residential spaces are being occupied. The objective of the redevelopment of Springwood Ave is to create an affordable place where people live, work, shop, and visit. The intention is to create a truly walkable and livable, vibrant part of the city, with commitment from the city and investment. The redevelopment of Springwood Ave connects it with Memorial Drive, the Transit Center, and Main Street, making it a great example of revitalization, connecting it “seamlessly to the surrounding area” and the rest of the city.
The Failure of “Just Add Water” Urbanism
by Arian Horbovetz
“Urbanism, at its core, is connective and fluid, creating places where people want to be, not simply via neighborhood revitalization, but by blending that localized revitalization seamlessly into the surrounding area. There must be a sort of “transition” from one area to the next that guides the resident or visitor gently, instead of assuming that a large-scale new-urbanist creation can suddenly spur arteries of growth in inhospitable urban deserts.”
“…successfully landing commercial tenants and creating an intended neighborhood effect is based largely on the overall health of the environment in which they are built. Mixed-use developments are, inherently, intended to welcome and amplify walkability.”
