Bloustein students proposed bicycle network and other ideas for Rutgers / New Brunswick

What might a bicycle network look like for Rutgers University and the City of New Brunswick look like? Graduate students at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy took on this question as part of Prof. John Pucher’s, Biking and Walking for Sustainable Cities Class. Students took a look at a number of issues including, bike share, turning Rutgers into a Bicycle Friendly University, a community bicycle center like Recycle-A-Bicycle and Second Life Bikes to name a few.

The other presentations I saw talked about:

• How to motivate people to walk and bike more, 
• Redesigning Livingston Ave (a primary access route to New Brunswick from the south),
• A look at the safety improvements and controversy with the Prospect Park West Cycletrack

Included below are several images of the one major presentation that investigated a New Brunswick bicycle network designed to maximize the connectivity between university campuses while connecting to the French Street commercial corridor (Note: I give the students credit for trying some innovative bike lane treatments however I must say that I do have some concerns with the finer points of some of the design treatments).  For those mega bike wonks there is a link to video of the presentation (webinare style) but I don't have that link available as I publish.

 

Hoboken Installs First Bike Repair Station, Doubles Bike Racks Near PATH

The following is reproduced from the official Hoboken City news blog and is published here as a public service.  WalkBikeJersey will do an independent review of these new amenities in Hoboken the next time one our "staff" are in the city.  All photos are attributed to the City of Hoboken.

Hoboken, NJ - Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
First buffered bike lane installed; Bike sharing program planned
 


The City of Hoboken has installed its first self-service bike repair station, becoming one of the first municipalities on the east coast with a public bike repair facility. The City has also doubled the number of bike racks near the PATH. The more than 30 new bike racks are available for sponsorship by businesses or residents and will be acknowledged with an engraved plaque adjacent to the bike rack.

“Our streets are public spaces that belong to everyone, not just cars,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “Every Hoboken resident is a pedestrian, and more than ever, they are also riding bikes to get around. This expansion of our bicycle infrastructure demonstrates our strong commitment to making Hoboken more bike-friendly.”

The bike repair service station behind the Bus Terminal adjacent to the PATH has a stand to hold a bike, a hand-operated air pump, and basic tools including wrenches, screw drivers, and tire lever for minor repairs. The bike racks and bike repair station are part of pedestrian and cycling improvements to Hudson Place that began with construction of expanded and rebuilt sidewalks and bump-outs. Street furniture and planters are also planned for Hudson Place.



Through the City’s bike rack sponsorship program, businesses and residents can sponsor the bike racks near the PATH or can sponsor the installation of a new bike rack outside their storefront or other location. New bike repair stations can also be sponsored. The first new bike rack near the PATH has already been sponsored, and the City is seeking sponsors for the remaining racks. Interested residents or businesses should submit the bicycle rack donation form found at: http://hobokennj.org/docs/transportation/bicycle-rack-donation-form.pdf.

Earlier in the week, the City striped its first “buffered” bike lane along a segment of Clinton Street that was recently repaved between 15th and 16th Streets. The bike lane, which will be extended along all of Clinton Street, represents the first segment of 10 miles of new planned bike lanes along wider streets throughout Hoboken.



“Bike lanes aren’t just for bikes,” added Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs. “They are a critical tool in reducing vehicle speeds and improving pedestrian safety. Our bike lanes have been demonstrated to reduce speeds by an average of 4 miles per hour, greatly lowering the chance of fatality in the case of a collision with a pedestrian.”

The City is also working in conjunction with the Hudson Transportation Management Association towards implementing a city-wide bike-sharing system. More information on bicycling-related initiatives, rules, and regulations can be found at http://www.hobokennj.org/bikes.

The New Brunswick Bikeway – Much more than bike lanes

Last week at the November Middlesex County Transportation Coordinating Committee Meeting it was announced that the New Brunswick Bikeway was in final engineering design and that the project was or would soon be put out to bid. The project would build 1.9 miles of bike lanes from the intersection of Lafayette St and College Ave near the Route 18 John Lynch Bridge at its western terminus, to George Street and Bishop Street at the edge of the Douglas Campus to the east. From Lafayette Street, the bikeway would run on College Ave to Huntington St, then down George St to Albany St (NJ Rt 27). At Albany there would be a spur that will run south to the train station while the main route would head north to Neilson St. Then the bikeway would head east along the entire length of Neilson St to Bishop St were it will turn right for a few hundred feet back to George St.

Overview diagram of the eastern portion of the New Brunswick Bikeway.
Access to diagrams and report courtesy of the Middlesex County Planning Department.

As part of the construction of the bikeway, every street the project impacts will be repaved, intersections will be updated to comply with ADA standards, traffic signals will be redesign and retimed with new hardware if necessary, the median along Albany street will be narrowed and realigned in places, and bicycle racks will be installed in select locations. As this project does much more than simply paint lines on the roadway, $7.1 million has been allocated to fund the construction of the project.

Overview diagram of the western portion of the New Brunswick Bikeway.
Access to diagrams and report courtesy of the Middlesex County Planning Department.

While this blog has been critical of this project in the past, having looked at the final layout and gaining a better understand what the project entails, makes us feel more comfortable with what the project will give New Brunswick cyclists. While the project regrettably still reroutes cyclists away from the core of New Brunswick’s downtown, it does contain much that will benefit cyclists. The bike lanes along Albany St from Neilson to the train station will aid those living Highland Park reach the station. The bike lane along the length of George St west of Albany is a perfect route for cyclists between parts of the College Ave Campus and downtown. And while Neilson St might not be the most ideal route for cyclists traveling between the College Ave and Cook/Douglas Campuses, the bike lanes along this street will make it easier for cyclists coming from Highland Park to get to the Cook/Douglas Campus as well as some destinations downtown.

Detail diagram of the major intersections along the New Brunswick Bikeway.
Access to diagrams and report courtesy of the Middlesex County Planning Department.

What is also really interesting is that the New Brunswick Bikeway will also have the first modern, on-street, contra-flow bike lanes in New Jersey, at least that WalkBikeJersey is aware of. These lanes would be located on Neilson and Bishop Streets and look fairly well though out. The one area where the contra-flow lane leaves us with some concern is in a small area on Neilson St where cars facing the opposite direction of the contra-flow bike traffic would park between the contra-flow lane and the curb. Despite this minor concern, these contra-flow bike lanes will serve as an example in New Jersey of this type of unique bicycle facility. If they work well here (as I believe they will as contra-flow bike lanes are common in Europe and in some locations in the US) then other places in New Jersey will be more likely to build them in their own towns to better and more conveniently serve cyclists where needed.

Advocate Develops a Bike Lane Plan For Collingswood

From John and our friends at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia:

Local champions are key to making our first generation suburbs bicycle friendly. Case in point is Collingswood Streets founder Stella Bonaparte who has completed a bike lane evaluation study for the borough of 17,000 in Camden County. Bonaparte looked at the existing conditions and a history of bicycle crashes on Haddon Ave and Collings Ave as well as parallel streets such as Maple Street and found that bike lanes are indeed feasible on both Haddon and Collings. Bicycle parking and access to the PATCO High Speed Line was also looked at.

While this evaluation was only a feasibility study it deserves to be integrated into the County's growing list of local bicycle and pedestrian planning projects such as the Central Camden County Bicycling and Multi Use Trail Plan and the Camden GreenWay trails plan.

You can access the report on the Collingswood Streets website on the Livable Streets Network.

View Larger Map

The intersection of Haddon and Collings Ave in Downtown Collingswood

Is Rt 35 south of Pt Pleasant "Shore to kill?"

This past Saturday night I was returning home by car from a bike trip to Island Beach State Park. However driving north on Rt 35 at 9pm was an exceptionally unnerving experience even despite traveling below the 35mph speed limit much of the time. Roadway condition were poor and the street lighting just as bad. In many places the roadway, particularly the shoulder was ill defined and in most places, exceptionally wide. Overall the original roadway design seems more appropriate for a highway with scattered commercial strip mall development and 50mph speeds than a street with downtown style stores interspersed with residential homes and HEAVY pedestrian and bicycle traffic.


View Larger Map

And talk of pedestrian and bicycle traffic! It was everywhere and coming from every conceivable direction. This was particularly true in the Lavallette and Ortley Beach areas. Despite the volumes of bike and pedestrian traffic facilities for them were extremely minimal and often in poor condition. Bike lanes are nonexistent and even sidewalks were intermittent. Bicyclists came from every direction with only one of over a hundred having any lights even though it was completely dark by this time. Pedestrians were also hard to see, including ones making every effort to use the marked crosswalks. Local authorities did try to help pedestrians by placing construction barrels in the roadway to accent crosswalks but at night this seemed (to me at least) to cause more confusion.

Now the reason why I bring this up is that Rt 35 is a state highway and it my best understanding that it is entirely within NJDOT's jurisdiction. It is a roadway obviously in need of repair particularly on the north bound side. With repairs coming soon at some point it is time for NJDOT to step up and come up with an Context Sensitive Solution for this highway that suits the needs of all roadway users and increases safety for all. Under the former guidance of Gary Toth, NJDOT became a leader in Context Sensitive Design. With plenty of room in most places there is no reason why contiguous sidewalks and bike lanes (including a possible retrograde lane on the north bound side) along with crosswalk bulb-outs cannot be built to the latest standards without impacting sacred parking spaces. I can think of few other roadways in New Jersey at the moment that are more in need of such treatment.

I just hope something is done about this soon before the title of this post proves to be prophetic.

Follow-up: Hoboken bicycle lanes

I promised not to beat this specific topic to death but I received confirmation that the first bicycle plan for the city of Hoboken does indeed call for the placement of a bicycle lane along the left side of one-way Madison and Grand Streets.

The situation in Hoboken City politics with this entire bike plan is very delicate and the final plan including the proposed treatments for Madison and Grand Streets came after a long period of negotiation. The last thing I would want is to disrupt the good work that was done in Hoboken to get to the point they are now. Hopefully this will be a fairly bold first step (of many) for the city as it strives towards bike friendliness.

Heck! They are even going to try using Sharrows. Sharrows! I don't know of another location in New Jersey that has even dared suggest the use of sharrows. For that alone they deserve a round of applause!

That said there is still the idea of those left side bike lanes which continue to bother me. What makes me really uneasy is that the sole reason given to place the lanes on the left side of both Madison and Grand Streets was only to reduce the potential for doorings. The consultant was said to have said that placing the lane on the left side of a one-way street would reduce to potential for doorings by 75% and that this was reason enough to use such a treatment.

I relayed this reasoning to a friend of mine who has much more experience with bike/ped planning than I. He seemed to agreed with me and thought that this reason alone really doesn't cross the appropriate threshold needed to place them on the left side of the street.

Needless to say, this practice leaves me very uncomfortable particularly since the reason given here is so general and could apply to nearly all one-way streets in New Jersey. For nearly a century and by New Jersey law (see below), bicyclists were expect to stay to the right just like all other slow moving vehicles. Staying to the right is ingrained into my mind and into the minds of countless other serious cyclists all across New Jersey and most places beyond. It is also where car drivers expect us to ride our bikes. Changing such a fundamental rule of the road for all but the most exceptional circumstance will only lead to confusion and possibly worse.


From Title 39, New Jersey's Statutes regulating the operation of roadways:

39:4-14.2. Keeping to right; exceptions; single file

Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction; provided, however, that any person may move to the left under any of the following situations:

(a) to make a left turn from a left-turn lane or pocket;

(b) to avoid debris, drains or other hazardous conditions that make it impracticable to ride at the right side of the roadway;

(c) to pass a slower moving vehicle;

(d) to occupy any available lane when traveling at the same speed as other traffic;

(e) to travel no more than two abreast when traffic is not impeded.

Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway may travel no more than two abreast when traffic is not impeded, but otherwise shall ride in single file except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.

L.1951, c. 23, p. 71, s. 17. Amended by L.1977, c. 388, s. 1, eff. Feb. 23, 1978; L.1983, c. 257, s. 1, eff. July 7, 1983.