Jersey City announces plan for 54.7 mile bicycle network

This news is getting a little old now but is significant enough on the statewide level that WalkBikeJersey needs to cover it.

Early last week the Jersey Journal reported about Jersey City's plan to add 35.2 miles of bike lanes and 19.5 miles of sharrows throughout the city in a attempt to start a comprehensive, 54.7 mile bicycle transportation network.

Jersey City is in a unique position to create a fairly luxurious bicycle network as most of the main avenues are exceedingly wide and underutilized, at least in the eastern portion of the city.  It has been my own personal experience that much of Jersey City's streets are easy to navigate, even during rush-hour, as motor traffic demand is just not there.

This is, in part, due to planning efforts in the city that placed much less emphasis on accommodating the car and instead focusing efforts on planning around pedestrians and public transportation, namely the Hudson-Bergen Lightrail and PATH.  Also, Jersey City doesn't even require parking and puts a maximum on the number of spaces!  So effective has this planning been, that it was the focus of a major Streetfilms series and can be viewed below. 

This is the first large New Jersey town to embrace a comprehensive bicycle plan and will undoubtedly act as a model and leader for many other Jersey towns to follow.

Go JC!