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.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Assemblywoman to Lead Cross State Bike Ride For 3 Foot Passing Bill
SPENCER TO LEAD CROSS-STATE BIKE RIDE TO PROMOTE CYCLING SAFETY LEGISLATION
More than 100 Riders Expected to Participate In Aug. 9 120-Mile Round Trip Tour from Newark to Lambertville
(NEWARK) – Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer will lead more than 100 bicycle riders through a cross-state tour on Sunday to highlight the need for a state law that would provide cyclists with heightened safety on New Jersey’s roadways.
The tour is slated to leave Newark’s Penn Station at 7 a.m. and pass through Elizabeth, New Brunswick and Princeton and Lambertville. The schedule is subject to change and may be updated.
“’Share the road’ has been the mantra among bikers and motorists for years, but recently that tradition has begun to break down,” said Spencer (D-Essex), an avid cycler and member of the Major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey, which is sponsoring the ride. “Increasingly, road rage and impatience have put more and more bikers in dangerous positions. Cyclists, whether on a pleasure ride or their daily commute, deserve some guarantee to their small part of the road.”
Spencer is prime sponsor of legislation that would require motorists to leave a buffer of at least 3-feet when passing a bicycle travelling in the same direction. Violators would be subject to a $100 fine. The measure overwhelmingly passed the Assembly in June.
If enacted, New Jersey would become the 12th state to have a 3-foot-buffer law on its books. Since 2000, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin have enacted such a law.
“New Jersey’s network of county and local roads and mix of urban and rural landscapes has made it an ideal state for cycling,” said Spencer. “But as more people try to take in this scenery on their bicycle, state law needs to be on their side. By taking to the road together, cyclists from across the state can send a strong reminder that our roads belong to everyone, whether they travel on two wheels or four.”
The Newark-based Major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey is named in honor of Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, an African-American cyclist who held the world mile track cycling championship title from 1899 to 1901. The club sponsors numerous distance rides throughout the year.
More than 100 Riders Expected to Participate In Aug. 9 120-Mile Round Trip Tour from Newark to Lambertville
(NEWARK) – Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer will lead more than 100 bicycle riders through a cross-state tour on Sunday to highlight the need for a state law that would provide cyclists with heightened safety on New Jersey’s roadways.
The tour is slated to leave Newark’s Penn Station at 7 a.m. and pass through Elizabeth, New Brunswick and Princeton and Lambertville. The schedule is subject to change and may be updated.
“’Share the road’ has been the mantra among bikers and motorists for years, but recently that tradition has begun to break down,” said Spencer (D-Essex), an avid cycler and member of the Major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey, which is sponsoring the ride. “Increasingly, road rage and impatience have put more and more bikers in dangerous positions. Cyclists, whether on a pleasure ride or their daily commute, deserve some guarantee to their small part of the road.”
Spencer is prime sponsor of legislation that would require motorists to leave a buffer of at least 3-feet when passing a bicycle travelling in the same direction. Violators would be subject to a $100 fine. The measure overwhelmingly passed the Assembly in June.
If enacted, New Jersey would become the 12th state to have a 3-foot-buffer law on its books. Since 2000, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin have enacted such a law.
“New Jersey’s network of county and local roads and mix of urban and rural landscapes has made it an ideal state for cycling,” said Spencer. “But as more people try to take in this scenery on their bicycle, state law needs to be on their side. By taking to the road together, cyclists from across the state can send a strong reminder that our roads belong to everyone, whether they travel on two wheels or four.”
The Newark-based Major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey is named in honor of Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, an African-American cyclist who held the world mile track cycling championship title from 1899 to 1901. The club sponsors numerous distance rides throughout the year.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Pedestrian Safety Editorial in the Press of Atlantic City
Pedestrian safety / Dangerous confusion
People die in wars. They die of illness and old age. They die violently and all too routinely in the nation's drug-plagued big cities.
But 21-year-old college students aren't supposed to die on late summer afternoons in Ocean City while walking across a street on their way to a waitress job on the Boardwalk.
That's what happened to Casey Feldman, a Fordham University student from southeastern Pennsylvania who was struck by a van and killed July 17 at Central Avenue and 14th Street - a four-way intersection with stop signs at each corner.
Feldman's tragic death is now one more sad statistic in a troubling trend - 86 pedestrians were struck and killed in New Jersey in the first half of 2009, an increase of 30 percent.
Police say Anthony Lomonaco, 58, of Middle Township, came to a full stop at the intersection but didn't see Feldman in the far crosswalk. He was charged with careless driving and failing to yield to a pedestrian.
Traffic experts aren't sure why pedestrian deaths are up. We don't know why either. But we do know this: New Jersey's law requiring cars to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks - and the sharply increased enforcement of that law in some towns, but not others, in recent years - has created a tremendous amount of dangerous confusion. And maybe that has something to do with the increase in pedestrian deaths. No one - driver or pedestrian - is completely sure anymore what the other is going to do.
The law says motorists must yield to any pedestrian who is "within" a crosswalk, marked or unmarked (unless the intersection is controlled by a traffic signal). But pedestrians can't count on motorists in all lanes knowing the law; one might stop, but will the others? Motorists who do stop can't count on the driver behind them stopping; do the right thing, and you can end up getting rear-ended.
And all the painted crosswalks and signs telling pedestrians they have the right of way are giving them a false sense of security.
Furthering the confusion is that some towns enforce the law more stringently than others, and some towns enforce the law more stringently in some parts of their municipalities than in others. The whole situation is absurd - and dangerous. Traffic safety is about predictability, about knowing what the other guy is going to do. But this has turned intersections into free-for-alls.
We understand that pedestrians have as much right to the road as vehicles. And motorists are the ones inside a ton or two of steel capable of killing a person. The cars should yield. But pedestrians need to remember that they might not.
The law says pedestrians still have an obligation to exercise due care for safety. In the wake of Feldman's death, Ocean City Police Lt. Steven Ang sensibly urged pedestrians to make eye contact with drivers. The real answer, however, is for state lawmakers and traffic-safety officials to rethink the issues of pedestrian safety and pedestrian rights in New Jersey.
Posted in Editorials on Sunday, July 26, 2009 3:10 am Updated: 2:42 pm.
But 21-year-old college students aren't supposed to die on late summer afternoons in Ocean City while walking across a street on their way to a waitress job on the Boardwalk.
That's what happened to Casey Feldman, a Fordham University student from southeastern Pennsylvania who was struck by a van and killed July 17 at Central Avenue and 14th Street - a four-way intersection with stop signs at each corner.
Feldman's tragic death is now one more sad statistic in a troubling trend - 86 pedestrians were struck and killed in New Jersey in the first half of 2009, an increase of 30 percent.
Police say Anthony Lomonaco, 58, of Middle Township, came to a full stop at the intersection but didn't see Feldman in the far crosswalk. He was charged with careless driving and failing to yield to a pedestrian.
Traffic experts aren't sure why pedestrian deaths are up. We don't know why either. But we do know this: New Jersey's law requiring cars to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks - and the sharply increased enforcement of that law in some towns, but not others, in recent years - has created a tremendous amount of dangerous confusion. And maybe that has something to do with the increase in pedestrian deaths. No one - driver or pedestrian - is completely sure anymore what the other is going to do.
The law says motorists must yield to any pedestrian who is "within" a crosswalk, marked or unmarked (unless the intersection is controlled by a traffic signal). But pedestrians can't count on motorists in all lanes knowing the law; one might stop, but will the others? Motorists who do stop can't count on the driver behind them stopping; do the right thing, and you can end up getting rear-ended.
And all the painted crosswalks and signs telling pedestrians they have the right of way are giving them a false sense of security.
Furthering the confusion is that some towns enforce the law more stringently than others, and some towns enforce the law more stringently in some parts of their municipalities than in others. The whole situation is absurd - and dangerous. Traffic safety is about predictability, about knowing what the other guy is going to do. But this has turned intersections into free-for-alls.
We understand that pedestrians have as much right to the road as vehicles. And motorists are the ones inside a ton or two of steel capable of killing a person. The cars should yield. But pedestrians need to remember that they might not.
The law says pedestrians still have an obligation to exercise due care for safety. In the wake of Feldman's death, Ocean City Police Lt. Steven Ang sensibly urged pedestrians to make eye contact with drivers. The real answer, however, is for state lawmakers and traffic-safety officials to rethink the issues of pedestrian safety and pedestrian rights in New Jersey.
Posted in Editorials on Sunday, July 26, 2009 3:10 am Updated: 2:42 pm.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bike to All Points West Festival at Liberty State Park
Not the most important topic I could be blogging about at the moment but I thought this was pretty cool and worthy of a mention.
The All Points West Music and Arts Festival is advertising that they will have bicycle parking available at the festival and are encouraging people to arrive be bike. From their webpage:
Hopefully they'll have more than this but I'm confident they will since they barely mention driving to the festival. It's the last means to get there that they mention on their website.
Do you know why its called "All Points West?"
The All Points West Music and Arts Festival is advertising that they will have bicycle parking available at the festival and are encouraging people to arrive be bike. From their webpage:
It's now easier than ever to walk, roll or ride from the Jersey City/Hoboken area to Liberty State Park! You can drive or ride the Light Rail, too, but the most scenic route is along the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway. Biking along this route leads you past many landmarks, such as the LeFrak lighthouse, Marina Park, and the old Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse.
There will be bike racks at the main festival gate; all you need to do is bring your own lock!
Hopefully they'll have more than this but I'm confident they will since they barely mention driving to the festival. It's the last means to get there that they mention on their website.
Do you know why its called "All Points West?"
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Monmouth County's Trail Network Coming Together
Monmouth County is edging towards becoming a bicycle tourism Mecca. Just three small gaps need to closed to create a nearly continuous trail from Freehold to the northern tip of Sandy Hook, much of it offering views of the seascape and the bay shore. The two segments in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands will place bikes on low traffic streets.
The Route 36 Bridge which should be complete by early 2011 will feature a fly over bike/ped bridge that will connect directly from the Bridge to the Sandy Hook and Sea Bright multi-use paths.
Following the beach road and/or local boardwalks you can ride to Manasquan and connect to the Edgar Felix Bike Path over the Garden State Parkway to historic Allaire Village. Experienced cyclists could then pick their best route back to Freehold to complete a full circle. In the distant future the Capital to Coast Trail would connect the Edgar Felix path to the East Coast Greenway in Trenton. Transit connections are fairly good with ferry service and train service to Manhattan and could be improved even more with bike racks on buses.
Bob Lucky has a fantastic bike photo tour of the loosely connected routes in Monmouth County. Hopefully the County will fully harness this potential regional attractor by adding signage and creating a route system.
View Monmouth Heritage Trail in a larger map
The Route 36 Bridge which should be complete by early 2011 will feature a fly over bike/ped bridge that will connect directly from the Bridge to the Sandy Hook and Sea Bright multi-use paths.
Following the beach road and/or local boardwalks you can ride to Manasquan and connect to the Edgar Felix Bike Path over the Garden State Parkway to historic Allaire Village. Experienced cyclists could then pick their best route back to Freehold to complete a full circle. In the distant future the Capital to Coast Trail would connect the Edgar Felix path to the East Coast Greenway in Trenton. Transit connections are fairly good with ferry service and train service to Manhattan and could be improved even more with bike racks on buses.
Bob Lucky has a fantastic bike photo tour of the loosely connected routes in Monmouth County. Hopefully the County will fully harness this potential regional attractor by adding signage and creating a route system.
View Monmouth Heritage Trail in a larger map
Friday, July 3, 2009
Atlantic City Plans for an Auto Friendly Community
As reported in the Mobilizing the Region Blog Atlantic City's Regional Transportation Plan "trumps" sprawl over sustainability and virtually ignores bicycle and pedestrian improvements in a city where 40% of the households do not have access to a car.
Much of the plan calls for widening of major highways, new interchanges, the blowing out of intersections and local city streets as well as the addition of even more parking garages. The total for these improvements is an eye opening $3.7 Billion Dollars.
The $23 Million Dollar proposal for bikeway on the boardwalk can't be more than a joke and the report even acknowledges the shortcoming of bike planning in the City. The lack of designated bicycle routes, lanes, or trails anywhere in the City suggests that safety for bicyclists and other slow speed vehicle users has not been given sufficient consideration.
No Kidding....
Time to go back to the drawing board and come back with an environmentally just and sustainable plan that envisions a livable Atlantic City. Perhaps the planners should take a look at the cities rich past for some clues.
Much of the plan calls for widening of major highways, new interchanges, the blowing out of intersections and local city streets as well as the addition of even more parking garages. The total for these improvements is an eye opening $3.7 Billion Dollars.
The $23 Million Dollar proposal for bikeway on the boardwalk can't be more than a joke and the report even acknowledges the shortcoming of bike planning in the City. The lack of designated bicycle routes, lanes, or trails anywhere in the City suggests that safety for bicyclists and other slow speed vehicle users has not been given sufficient consideration.
No Kidding....
Time to go back to the drawing board and come back with an environmentally just and sustainable plan that envisions a livable Atlantic City. Perhaps the planners should take a look at the cities rich past for some clues.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Camille Savoy's Killer Gets off Scot-Free
Benepe's Bicycle Blog is reporting that the killer of NYC cyclist, Camille Savoy got off scot-free in a New Jersey court even though the evidnece indicated that the driver was a foot and a half over the fog line when she hit him in the shoulder of Rt 9 in Alpine.
Even a pathetic careless driving ticket couldn't stick to this killer!
Would the results have been the same if she killed the driver of another car?!?!
Even a pathetic careless driving ticket couldn't stick to this killer!
Would the results have been the same if she killed the driver of another car?!?!
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