New Jersey moves up to 8th in Bicycle Friendly Rankings: Also receives Bronze Level Award

Watch out #5, Oregon! Were coming for you next!

I don't know how the heck we managed to rank so high in the League of American Bicyclists, Bicycle Friendly States 2010 Rankings but we did. I'm just flabbergasted. Heck! Even California ranked a mediocre 19th.

Well, actually I do have idea why we ranked so well and here's how.

To start, NJDOT continues to work hard to make walking and bicycling safer in New Jersey. NJDOT has a full-time staff of 5 working on bike/ped issues and good track record over the past decade or so in helping local communities fund and plan bicycle and pedestrian projects. As an additional part of the Bike/Ped Program, NJDOT also has 3 consultant firms under contract to aid local communities come up with bike/ped plans and help NJDOT review highway projects for bike/ped friendliness. Even in our current budget mess and with a new administration, it seems like these NJDOT programs might be spared any trimmings from the budget axe. And not to be forgotten, late in 2009 NJDOT issued a Complete Streets Policy which is a really big deal and is something very few states can say.

Along with what NJDOT does in Trenton, it also helps to fund (with the aid of federal monies) the New Jersey Bicycle & Pedestrian Resource Center and the New Jersey Safe Routes to School Resource Center at Rutgers University which employs the equivalent of about 5 full-time staff working on these issues. Part of what these two centers do is research and education along with hosting the New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Council amongst many other tasks.

To complement the work and improvements at NJDOT, there was the formation of the New Jersey Bicycle Coalition in 2009 and the first New Jersey Bicycle Summit this year that they helped to host with NJDOT. Both were critical in helping boost New Jersey's rankings. Without the Coalition and the Summit I'm convinced that New Jersey would have fallen in the rankings despite the Complete Streets Policy promulgated in December.

Overall, bicycling in New Jersey is better today than it was in 2009 or any year before anyone was keeping score. However, bike lanes are scarcer in New Jersey than zits on a supermodel's backside (but somehow we ranked 3rd for infrastructure) and New Jersey is one on only a handful of states that still don't have a single Bicycle Friendly Community even though there are at least one or two that could attain it if only they applied for it. If we have any hope to maintain or even improve our spot in these rankings these two area will need to see improvement which will require the full cooperation of both municipal and county governments. Also, we will need to move forward on a bicycle legislation agenda (something the NJBPAC has been hard at work putting together already) and work more closely with local law enforcement to better educate the police on the finer points of bicycle law along with proper and safe bicycle operation.

Here is New Jersey's 2010 BFS Rankings by Category:

Legislation - 15th: Tie with 10 other states (Ranking seems fair)
Policy & Programs - 3rd: Tie with 8 other states (Ranking seems fair, well deserved)
Infrastructure - 3rd: (Really?!?! I don't know how we ranked so high)
Education - 31st: Tie with 3 other states (Really?!?! That low, even with NJ BIKE SChOOL running in 2009?)
Evaluation - 9th: Tie with 9 other states (Ranking seems fair)
Enforcement - 25th: Tie with 12 other states (Ranking seems fair, I guess)

Below are the Top 20 (of 50) Bicycle Friendly States:

1. Washington - Silver*
2. Wisconsin - Silver*
3. Maine
4. Minnesota - Bronze*
5. Oregon - Silver*
6. New Hampshire
7. Iowa
8. New Jersey - Bronze*
9. Arizona - Bronze*
10. Delaware - Bronze*
11. Maryland
12. Florida
13. Kansas
14. Colorado
15. Massachusetts
16. Michigan
17. Wyoming
18. Virginia
19. California
20. Nevada

New Jersey Bicycle Friendly State Survey

The League of American Bicyclists is asking New Jersey bicycle advocates their opinions regarding the bicycle friendliness of out fair state. If you can complete the survey by May 10th at 9am give it a shot at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22ALF89ACFX.

The survey asks advocates to critique what's good and bad about the state of cycling in New Jersey. Completing the answers had me thinking and since it forced me to articulate what I feel is good and bad here in New Jersey, I figured I'd share my answers with you on the most critical questions.

Q - What is this state’s greatest strength or accomplishment in its efforts to promote bicycling?

The state government has many people working towards advancing the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians. There are 5 dedicated FT persons at NJDOT, 5 FT persons at the Voorhess Transportation Center at Rutgers University and 3 consultant firms under contract with NJDOT consistently including the RBA Group and 2 others.

Also the recent implementation of a state DOT Complete Streets policy. The formation of a New Jersey Bicycle Coalition (Finally!) and our first NJ Bicycle Summit.

Q - What are its weaknesses in its efforts to support bicycling?

The many layers of NJ government have stifled the construction of on-road bicycle facilities. While NJDOT may "get it" and has passed a Compete Streets policy, they only maintain federal and state highways which are often not the preferred routes of travel by bicyclists in New Jersey. Our county governments maintain and design all county roads while our individual municipalities do all local roads. Unfortunately almost all of NJ's county and most municipal governments are still totally clueless about meeting the needs of cyclists and as a result on-road bicycle facilities like bicycle lanes are nearly nonexistent.

Q - What should this state focus on in order to better serve cyclists?

Requiring all state funded, local roadway projects to meet NJDOT's Complete Streets policy guidelines.

Moving forward on modernizing our state's vehicle code to include more favorable and clearer language on the proper operation of a bicycle. Also we need to work on a "Vulnerable Users" bill to protect road users not surrounded by 2 tons of armored steel.

That's my 2 cents. What do you think?

New Jersey moves up to 9th most Bicycle Friendly State

New Jersey is back up to number nine in the League of American Bicyclists, Bicycle Friendly States rankings. The rankings for 2010 were recently released along with Bicycle Friendly Communities and Businesses in LAB's latest edition of its magazine American Bicyclist (only available in print at the moment). New Jersey once held the number nine spot two years ago in the first Bicycle Friendly States rankings but was pushed down to number ten last year by a then surging Delaware (now ranked at 32).


New Jersey's continued high ranking is clearly due to the strong support by state agencies and NJDOT's recently adopted Complete Streets Policy. Not to be overlooked was also the creation of the New Jersey Bicycle Coalition and the New Jersey Bicycle Summit they helped to organize last month. These factors clearly helped New Jersey stay and advance further into the top ten in 2010. However, New Jersey still does not have any Bicycle Friendly Communities or Businesses and on-street bicycle facilities are still few a far in-between.