The Burlington County Bike Plan - Map Your Comments

Have you ever come across something in your travels and say to yourself - "They really need to fix this". If you bicycle on a regular basis you almost certainly have.  But who are "They"???

The Burlington County’s Bicycle Master Plan team wants your participation. Following public meetings held in January, Cross County Connection TMA has released an online comment map and survey for you to sound off on where you want bikeways in the county. They want to hear where you want to go, your concerns and suggestions. Both the map and survey can be found on the project homepage:

driveless.com/BurlingtonCountyBikePlan

Is there a road in Burlington County that can be made better for bikes? Just Map It!

The interactive map was creating using a new planning oriented crowd source mapping service called Wikimapping. The site was developed by the bike map specialists at Steve Spindler Cartography.

The project team would also like to thank everyone that came out to January’s public meetings.

For more information or to submit comments contact:
Graydon Newman, CCCTMA
newman@driveless.com
856-596-8228

Hawaii Bicycling League produces a perfect bicycle PSA for New Jersey

If you ride even a little bit on New Jersey's roads, it doesn't take long to realize that New Jersey drivers need a major education regarding the rights bicyclists' have to use the roadway.  They also need a good lesson or two on the safe and proper way to pass bicyclist riding in the road.  After seeing a motorcycle safety PSA play repeatedly all last summer on News 12 New Jersey, it dawned on me that a PSA focused on bicycling safety would be the perfect means to reach and educate the general public.

Fortunately, the Hawaii Bicycling League has already produced a close to perfect 30 second PSA that teaches exactly what New Jersey drivers also need to learn.  Take a look above.  All we would have to do is take out the "Aloha" greeting with the much more typically New Jersey "How ya' doin'?" and have cyclist ride past some iconic New Jersey landmarks and I think we would have a winner!

Maybe we could even get Prudential Insurance, headquartered in Newark, to underwrite the production.  SERIOUSLY!

Mahalo to Chad Taniguchi, Executive Director Hawaii Bicycling League for personally sharing the link to their most excellent PSA.

WBJ Exclusive: Driver charged with Chelsea Traynor's death ran red light

"I can tell you without a doubt that the truck ran the red light. It was a big 4x4 type pickup doing maybe 50mph."  That is what an eyewitness told WalkBikeJersey last week after we ran the story about Roger Hode being charged in the crash that took Chelsea Traynor's life.  Also according to the eye witness "she had the green light and that the truck ran the red light."

When WalkBikeJersey visited the site in December 2010, we looked at the signal timing specifically at how long it took to cross the intersection once the pedestrian signal button was pushed.  With this information it would seem likely that Chelsea took the time to wait until she had the proper signal and the right of way.  This new information makes her death all the more tragic.

Driver who killed Rutgers student charged in 2010 traffic death

The Star-Ledger is reporting that Rodger Hode of South River has been charged with aggravated manslaughter and death by auto in the December 2010 killing of Chelsea Traynor on Route 18 in New Brunswick.  On the morning of December 9, 2010 Traynor was crossing Rt 18 on her bicycle at the southern most intersection of George St when Hode's Ford pickup truck hit and killed her. 


View Bicyclist fatality Rt 18 and George St. 12/9/10 in a larger map

The then 21-year-old Californian Chelsea Traynor, of Concord, California was a sophomore, in the class of 2013, majoring in nutritional science at the university’s School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in New Brunswick, formerly known as Cook College.  She had previously studied at Humboldt State University in California and had recently transferred to Rutgers.

Site of the Traynor crash in December, 2010.

Traynor's death was the second reported bicyclist/pedestrian fatality on the newly renovated New Brunswick section of Rt 18.   The previous fatal crash was in October of 2009 when 15yo George Coleman was struck and killed just north of the George St intersection at Commercial Avenue.  WalkBikeJersey is thankfully unaware of any other pedestrian or bicyclist fatalities along this stretch of highway since Traynor's death.  WalkBikeJersey reverently visited the crash site in only a few days after the tragic events and investigated and photographed the facilities as they were at that time.

Our hearts at WalkBikeJersey reach out to the Traynor family and hope that justice carried out in her case.

Burlington County Bike Plan Project Goes Online

If you live, work or bike in Burlington County then let your voice be heard. The County in cooperation with the Cross County TMA is developing a bicycle master plan that will identify a proposed county bikeway network (on and off road) and will include implementation strategies for planning and funding. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and a website has been created for the plan.

http://driveless.com/BurlingtonCountyBikeplan

Bicyclists boarding the RiverLINE at Beverly Edgewater Park Station

The first two public meetings are scheduled to be held later this month where you can talk to the project team about bicycle corridors, barriers to bicycling and gaps in the existing and proposed county bikeway network:

Thursday, January 24th 4PM-7PM, 
Burlington County Department of Resource Conservation, 
624 Pemberton Browns Mills Road, Pemberton, NJ

Wednesday, January 30th, 4PM-7PM, 
Roebling Museum, 100 Second Avenue Roebling, NJ 
(Adjacent to the Roebling RiverLINE Station)

As a side note, any bridge or engineering fan should check out the Roebling Museum. Although the museum is technically closed until the Spring, you will be able to walk by some of the exhibits to get to the meeting room.

For more informaton on the Burlington County Bicycle Master Plan contact:
Graydon Newman, AICP
newman|AT|driveless.com
856-596-8228

Cyclist ticketed for riding in Chatham shoulder in serious left-hook crash

On December 19th the Chatam Patch reported a bicyclist suffering serious injuries in a crash involving a left turning motor vehicle while the cyclist was riding in the shoulder.  It is bad enough that the cyclist, Jose Batista of Cranford, was seriously injured in the crash but according to the Patch report, the Chatam Police intend on issuing a summons to Mr. Batista for "failure to exercise due care when passing a standing or slow-moving vehicle proceeding in the same direction."

In this case it would appear that Mr. Batista was riding his bicycle heading east in the shoulder while passing backed up motor traffic in the travel lanes to his left.  At the entrance to the CVS Pharmacy a driver heading east left a gap open so that Patrick McVeigh of Chatham, the driver of the vehicle involved in the crash who was heading west, could turn left and enter the CVS parking lot.  As the vehicle driven by Mr. McVeigh crossed the path of Mr. Batista, Mr. Batista then crashed into the rear of Mr. McVeigh's vehicle.


The first curb cut on the right is likely site of the Batista crash. View Larger Map

This case brings up a number of problems with shoulder cycling in New Jersey that continue to put cyclists at risk of injury, as well as prosecution from the law.  As reported by WalkBikeJersey earlier this year, The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit that involved a cyclist tragically killed while traveling in the shoulder.  That case had the court rule on the legality of shoulder cycling and the court declared:

Bicyclists do not have special privileges on a roadway’s shoulder. Indeed, a bicycle rider is directed to ride on the furthest right hand side of the roadway, not on the roadway’s shoulder. The Motor Vehicle Code does not designate the roadway’s shoulder as a bicycle lane. 

If one were to only consider the court's interpretation of Title 39 it would seem that Mr. Batista was in clear violation of the law.  However a commenter on the Chatham Patch story notes that, just a half mile to the west of the assumed crash site Main Street, also known as NJ 124, has a marked bike lane in the town of Madison. 2008 Google Streetsview imagery would seem to confirm this.  The commenter also notes that at the municipal boarder of Madison and Chatham Borough, which is the intersection of Division Ave/Brookdale Road and Main St, there are no MUTCD compliant "Bike Lane Ends" signs.  This too is confirmed on Google Streetsview.


This "Bike Lane" symbol is located in the town of Madison and is less than 2500 feet from the likely crash site.
View Larger Map

Unfortunately for Mr. Batista, he likely assumed that either he was allowed by law to ride his bike in the roadway shoulder and/or that the shoulder was still a designated bicycle lane in the Borough of Chatham as it is in Madison. Also, the ambiguity of the signage and the roadway markings (the marked bike lanes in Madison are stripped more like shoulders and do not follow bike lane standards) and the lack of proper bike lane signage did not help clarify things for him.

The reality remains that shoulder cycling has been declared illegal and will remain so until this issue is addressed in the New Jersey Legislature.  Still, where shoulders have been designated as bike lanes, all effort must be made to mark them properly in accordance with accepted national standards.  It is simply not fair and even dangerous for cyclists to do it any other way.  Riding a bicycle on New Jersey's roadways is difficult enough.

Tri-State Transportation Campaign releases its Northern New Jersey’s Most Dangerous Roads for Biking report

Despite New Jersey's already great cycling and our states potential to be truly exceptional amongst its peers, the unfortunate reality is that the number of bicycle / motor vehicle crashes remains all too high.   The Tri-State Transportation Campaign took a simple and objective look at these crash numbers in northern New Jersey in a new report released this past Tuesday.  From the TSTC's blog:

TSTC’s new analysis, Northern New Jersey’s Most Dangerous Roads for Biking, highlights the 19,551 bicycle (bicycle and motor vehicle) crashes in 13 Northern New Jersey counties (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren) that occurred from 2001 through 2011. Of these, 81 were confirmed fatal. The analysis supplements the 2011 TSTC report, Southern New Jersey’s Most Dangerous Roads for Biking.

The brilliance of this report is that it does nothing but simply map out the crash locations in each of the northern 13 New Jersey counties and lets the patterns speak for themselves.
   

Bergen County Bicycle Crashes 2001 - 2011.  TSTC.

From the TSTC's analysis it would seem that the crash rate correlates very closely with the population density of each county.

Also, as TSTC noted, a large percentage of these bicycle / motor vehicle crashes are on arterial roadways whether that might be in Essex or Hunterdon County and all others in between. This is something that most experienced cyclists know instinctively and try to avoid those roadways whenever possible, even in the most sparsely populated parts of the state.

This report is solid evidence that two things should be happening to make bicycle transportation in New Jersey much more safe:

1 – When at all possible, efforts must be made to make these arterial roadways safe for cycling whether that be shoulders, bike lanes, road-diets, cycletracks, etc. As for road diets, a good number four-lane roadways simply do not have the traffic volume to warrant the need for four lanes.  These could very easily be put on a road diet and bike lanes installed.  Elsewhere, other solutions will need to be explored.

2 – Wherever practicable, bicycle routes should be created that guide cyclists off of the arterial roadways and onto safer rural tertiary and urban residential roadways. New Jersey, unlike most other states, has great interconnected residential and rural tertiary roadway networks. Experienced cyclists know this and use this network to safely navigate all around the state. A well thought out and marked, MUTCD compliant bicycle route network could aid less experienced cyclists and those new or just traveling through New Jersey, to find safer routes off the major arterials, that still provide reasonably direct routes to their final destinations.

Again, thank you Tri-State for crunching and geo-coding the statistics.

PS - Could you use red push pins to highlight the fatalities next time?

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!

Tacks found in shoulder of Rt 9W in New Jersey

Image courtesy and (c) Cyclists International

Cyclists International blog reported on December 4th of tacks being sprinkled on the shoulder over a 2 mile stretch of Rt 9W in New Jersey.  For those that do not know, this portion of 9W is the most popular bicycle route in the nation with as many as 1,500 cyclists and more using the route.

For more details regarding this incident check out the full story on Cyclists International.

Bike / Ped investments critical as Hoboken PATH Station remains closed

News 12 New Jersey is reporting today that demand for bicycle parking at the Newport PATH Station has skyrocketed as the Hoboken PATH Station remains closed due to flood damage from Hurricane Sandy.  This is not surprising to us here at WalkBikeJersey.  With the opening of the Newport section of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway in 2009 the cities of Hoboken and Jersey City are connected for bicyclists and pedestrians like never before.  The Newport walkway has proven to be very popular with locals and exceptionally useful to commuters during normal circumstances.  In the Summer of 2011 the East Coast Greenway Alliance conducted trail counts and found that over 1,100 trips occurred on this section of the walkway between 4 and 7pm on one particular weekday.     

Locals walk and ride from Hoboken to Jersey City on the Newport section of the walkway, Summer 2011. (c) AJ Besold

With the Hoboken PATH Station remaining closed due to extensive damage, the walkway is now proving to be critical transportation asset.  By bike and using the walkway, the trip between the two stations is stress-free and takes about 5 minutes.  By road, cyclists would have to travel on treacherous Observer Highway, Marin Blvd and Washington Blvd (all roads even this LCI would rather not ride on) and its nearly twice as far (Note - WBJ realizes that those living in western Hoboken would find it more direct to use Marin Blvd to get to the Newport PATH Station).


View Hoboken PATH to Newport PATH in a larger map

This sudden emergency demand for bike parking at the Newport PATH didn't just materialize out of the blue after Hurricane Sandy.  Under the leadership of Mayor Dawn Zimmer, the City of Hoboken has been working hard to make the city and the Hoboken Transit Terminal much more accommodating for those looking to use a bike.  Back in October, Hoboken was named a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.  With the Hoboken PATH Station remaining closed, the Newport PATH Station has become an obvious alternative for those looking to access the PATH system by bike.  Without the Newport walkway the PATH system would have remained much more difficult to access for many Hoboken residents.

Do the DVRPC "Bike to Transit Stations" survey

The very nice yet exceptional sheltered bicycle
parking at the Hoboken NJ TRANSIT Station.

If you live in, or travel with your bike in the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) service area, please take a moment to fill out the Bike to Transit Stations survey.  In New Jersey DVRPC services Mercer, Burlington, Gloucester, and Camden counties and this survey is investigating bicycle parking conditions at all rail transit stations in these counties.  These include all RiverLINE and PATCO stations, SEPTA's West Trenton Station, and NJ TRANSIT's Princeton, Princeton Junction, Hamilton, Trenton, Cherry Hill, Lindenwald and Atco Stations.  This is a map based survey.  Simply scroll over to the station or stations that you use, click on the button and give your feedback about the bicycle amenities (or lack there of) at that particular station.

The survey is open until December 1st and when I looked at it today many New Jersey stations had not been surveyed even once.  So if you get board watching football between courses at Thanksgiving dinner, do the survey instead and fill in those blanks!

More about this survey can be found in this write-up by Silva and our friends at the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance.

The case for supporting bicycle tourism

At the end of the nation's most popular recreational bike ride, much of it in New Jersey, a business thrives.  Every weekend hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of exotic speed machines can be found parked outside he Runcible Spoon Cafe' in Nyack NY.  People who can afford to spend this amount of money on vehicle without a motor have money to spare and spend where they frequent. 
The New York Times explores this phenomenon in this article in the August 9th edition.

Dozens of high end road bikes along with a fun loving cyclist "occupy" a single parking space in front of the Runcible Spoon is Nyack NY back in 2008.  Photo - Jenn Benepe

Little Delaware to spend $13.25 Million on Walking & Biking

The following comes to use from our friends at Bike Delaware.  Delaware ups the ante in the bike/ped arms race in the Bicycle Friendly States rankings.  Can New Jersey keep up to little bitty Delaware?

VICTORY FOR CYCLING: Delaware General Assembly Votes $13.25 Million for Walking and Bicycling

Senator Robert Venables (left), Governor Jack Markell (center) and Representative Helene Keeley (right)

Both the Delaware House and Senate voted unanimously last night to approve a capital budget for the state of Delaware, including an unprecedented $13.25 million for walking and bicycling, a 90% increase over last year’s state commitment to walking and bicycling.
Ironically, the unanimous vote in the Delaware Senate at around 8PM came just a little more than 24 hours after the United States Congress voted to eliminate the main federal programs for walking and bicycling.  As there was not enough time to amend the bill, Delaware’s capital budget also still includes authorization for a state contribution (a much smaller sum of $388,000) to the Transportation Enhancements program, even though that program now no longer exists.
Governor Jack Markell, Senator Robert Venables (D-Laurel) and Representative Helene Keeley (D-Wilmington) all played key leadership roles in this victory for walking and bicycling.  Senator Venables was recognized last year as the 2011 Bike Friendly Elected Official for his leadership.

“Our Governor, his Cabinet, and both sessions of the 146th General Assembly have made historic progress for Delaware in improving the built environment of Delaware,” said John Hollis of Sussex Outdoors and Nemours Health and Prevention Services.  ”These nationally recognized improvements will give all Delawareans opportunities for a healthier lifestyle through walkability and bikeability.”
Calling last night’s vote an “historic accomplishment”, Bike Delaware Vice President Bill Osborne said it “would not have been possible without the confluence of several independent forces. First and foremost is the vision and leadership in both the Executive and Legislative branches of Delaware. Add to that the passion and commitment of the consumers/constituents who evidenced their support. Plus we had the essential benefit of an improved economic forecast that made this a decision of inclusion rather than substitution.”
The $13.25 million total commitment by the state is made of up two separate line items, $10.25 million in the Delaware of Transportation and $3 million in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.  Both Departments are cooperating to create an interconnected network of shared-use trails and pathways that will support non-motorized travel and recreation opportunities for Delawareans and visitors.

The Delaware General Assembly approved $10.25 million for DelDOT to make “Bike and Pedestrian Improvements”

Fort Lee police ticketing legal turning cyclists at GWB

A member of the New York Cycle Club is reporting being ticketed for making what most cyclists would consider a perfectly legal left turn at the approach to the George Washington Bridge at Hudson Terrace. 

BHafkin reports:

My friend and I were ticketed on the NJ side of the GWB today (along with at least 2 other cyclists). We were heading south on Hudson Terrace. Shortly before the GWB underpass we got to the left side of southbound traffic to make the left after the underpass. We were NOT salmoning. We're still trying to understand what the correct way to make that turn is. The way we understood it from the cop, we were supposed to stay all the way to the right until the turn?!?! So, um, we were supposed to make a left turn from the right lane? If possible, we're going to fight this, mostly to try to get some clarity. For the record, he was ticketing the salmoners also.

From his description, it would appear the BHafkin made a legal left turn is exactly the way the League of American Bicyclists teaches and in 100% compliance with New Jersey Statute 39:4-14.2. Section "a".  That law states:

Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable... however, that any person may move to the left under any of the following situations:

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

If one looks at the intersection in question below via Streetsview you will see that the 4 lane road has no signage prohibiting left turns onto the access road to the GWB and the south side walk/bikeway.


View Larger Map
 
Since left turns are not prohibited at the intersection, the left lane is a legal left turn lane and using it by bicyclists to make a left turn is therefore legal under New Jersey Statute 39:4-14.2. Section "a".

Beyond just NJ 39:4-13.2. bicyclists under New Jersey Stature 38:4-14.1.Section "a" , "shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by chapter four of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes..."  This law gives bicyclists the right to operate just like a motor vehicle as long as they are in compliance with other sections of Chapter 4 of Title 39.

Unfortunately this is not the first time cyclists have reported being ticket by Fort Lee Police for operating their bicycles in compliance with New Jersey law.  Several years ago a cyclist told WalkBikeJersey that he was issued a ticket by Fort Lee Police for riding two abreast while he and his wife were riding side-by-side in the shoulder.  Obviously not "impeding" motor vehicle traffic they were still issued the summons despite the fact that Section "e" of the same New Jersey Statute 39:4-14.2.  explicitly allows "to travel no more than two abreast when traffic is not impeded."

In their defense, Fort Lee Police is not the only police department reported to have a weak understanding of the rights and duties granted to cyclists by New Jersey law.  While better outreach and education are needed to teach New Jersey police departments the finer points of traffic law with regards to both bicyclists and pedestrians, a big part of the problem may be due to the greatly abridge handbook officers are given to carry on their person.  I've seen parts of this handbook and the extreme truncation of the laws in this book is confusing and leads well meaning police officers to issue tickets to bicyclists who are actually in compliance with the law.  It would not be surprising if that is what happened here.

WalkBikeJersey would gladly work with state and local officials to help rectify this problem.

Call Senator Menendez now to save Federal Bike/Ped funding

Call Senator Robert Menendez right now and ask him to save Federal bike and pedestrian funding!

(973) 645-3030

The below comes from America Bikes and is a very short script that they want you to use when you call your senator / congressperson.  Short and sweet!

• Hi, my name is [[your name]] and I live in [[city/town]].
• I’m calling to ask that Senator Menendez maintain the Cardin-Cochran agreement in the transportation bill. Please ensure that states not be permitted to opt-out of local control over biking and walking funds.
• Over 50,000 pedestrians died preventable deaths on American streets between 2001 and 2010. Having saddled communities with unsafe streets, it would be the height of cruelty for Congress now to take away resources from local communities trying to improve those conditions and save lives.
• The bipartisan Cardin-Cochran agreement in the Senate transportation bill would ensure that local governments can access 1 – 2% of federal transportation dollars for local projects.
• Will Senator Menendez ensure that local governments have control over funds for biking and walking improvements?

Riding in East Orange? Come with bells on

Word comes to WalkBikeJersey from our friends at the Brick City Bike Collective, that the East Orange Police are enforcing the following New Jersey state law: 

39:4-11. Audible signal 

No person shall operate a bicycle unless it is equipped with a bell or other device capable of giving a signal audible for a distance of at least one hundred feet, except that a bicycle shall not be equipped with nor shall any person use upon a bicycle any siren or whistle.

Amended by L.1951, c. 23, p. 70, s. 12.

Darryle of the BCBC told us that, "That is why I got pulled over. He said he stopped me because I didn't have a bell. It wasn't like he stopped me for something else, and wrote me up for the bell in the process, it was only because I didn't have a bell."  Luckily for Darryle, he was only given a warning.

In New York City, the police often use the bell requirement as an excuse to pull over and ticket otherwise law abiding cyclists.  It would appear that the New Jersey law is being used for essentially the same purpose. A much better use of limited New Jersey law enforcement resources would be for officers to pull over cyclists who operate their bicycles illegally and dangerously, or ride at night without lights.  Riding without a bell is none of that.


While a bicycle bell is a polite way to notify pedestrians that a bicycle is approaching, bells are totally useless when warning cars drivers or superfluous as ones voice is often just as effective when warning pedestrians and usually much louder than a bell. 

When looked at it in this light, it is clear that this 1951 law is truly archaic and needs to be repealed as it provides no real safety benefit and is only ever used by police as a means to pull over well behaved cyclists.


On a side note:
A BIG tip of the ol' bike helmet to the Mexican / Central American guy who passed and then dropped me on a climb in Atlantic Highlands on Wednesday.  He had a decent road bike but what was truly  amazing was that he was wearing jeans a long sleeve t-shirt in the midday heat!!! Obviously riding for transportation. I was in my finest Italian kit, shoes and bike (yes, everything Italian) and I just couldn't keep up and I'm in pretty damn good shape.  I told him how impressed I was and rooted him on.  He laughed and was soon gone.

I'm totally not worthy.

Courtesy of Green Renaissance via Bike Delaware:

Lambertville Man Ticketed In Route 1 Bike/Car Crash

Following up on the Route 1 crash that killed Aguedo Cruz on May 7, the Lawrenceville Patch reports that a 59 Year Old Lambertville Man has been charged with failing to obey a traffic control device. Cruz was travelling the wrong way at the Route 1/I-295 Interchange when he was struck by the driver.

The driver was cited for not staying in the lane by crossing over the painted channelization area as he was merging onto Route 1.

The stories on this crash have constantly been questioning the motive of the bicyclist to travel the wrong way down Route 1 through this dangerous merge.

• Let clarify one thing, this section of Route 1 is open to bicycle traffic. Bicycles are banned from the Trenton Freeway which begins about 1 mile south where Route 1 splits with Business Route 1.
• This entire stretch of Route 1 barricaded, that is to get from the northbound side to the southbound side you have to climb over the jersey barriers. The nearest crossover is more than a half mile north at the Quakerbridge Mall.
• Route 1 is a retail and restaurant hotel corridor, many of the jobs there are filled by low income workers, the same jersey barriers that inconvenience bicyclists make it nearly impossible for people who walk to transit to access those jobs. 
• The nearest alternate route between the Quaker Bridge Mall and the Trenton area for bicyclists involves a 5 mile detour via Quakerbridge Road (another monster interchange) and the Delaware and Raritan Canal). 

So the answer to the rhetorical question "Why was he there?" is because there were no other options.

Cruz and other cyclists who have been killed by motor vehicles were honored by last nights "Ride of Silence" events.

Are more cyclists getting hit from behind than ever before?

The following story first appeared on the Bike Delaware Blog and appears here with the author's permission.


Who is telling the truth?

Is it this one, claiming that 7% of bicycle-related accidents are hit from behind, or this one, saying cars run into bicyclists from behind only 3.8% of the time, or this one telling us getting hit from behind is extremely unlikely?

Or, is the League of American Bicyclists latest fact finding initiative “Every Bicyclist Counts” going to prove them all wrong, with current statistics showing that 1 in 4 crashes involve drivers hitting bicyclists from behind?

Since there is little about this on-line or in LAB’s website as of yet (nothing searchable, anyway) below is page 3 of a letter that came in the mail today, appealing for funds:

 

 

We already know how woefully inadequate the police and media are at reporting these tragedies. Do they accurately reconstruct the accident or crime scene before defaulting to bicyclist at fault? Most often, a hate-filled verdict is already delivered against the bicyclist in the comments section of a newspaper, even if the evidence clearly shows otherwise.

In reviewing the materials and website, we applaud the League for taking on this enormous challenge, to bring these depressing statistics up to date.

Reminder:  May 16th, 2012 is the Ride of Silence. The mission of the world wide Ride of Silence is to honor bicyclists killed by motorists, promote sharing the road, and provide awareness of bicycling safety.

This report first appeared in The Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News and appears here with their permission.

The Princeton Patch reported that a 58-year old Trenton man was struck by a motorist while cycling and killed on US-1. The crash happened just after 9:30 on Monday morning at the merge with the off ramp from I-295. Aguedo Cruz, 59, died shortly after the crash at Capital Health System Regional Medical Center in Trenton.


View PA/NJ Bicycle Crashes 2011-2012 in a larger map

Like many US Highway arterials in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, US-1 is inhospitable for bicyclists and pedestrians. However, Route 1 is also a commercial corridor where people work, visit the doctor, and shop. Thus bicycle and pedestrian traffic persists despite previous efforts of highway engineers to make it nearly impossible to do so. This tragedy is another reminder that re-configuring our existing suburban road network to make Complete Streets is not only desirable but a matter of life and death.

We mourn the death of Aguedo Cruz and offer our sympathy to his family and friends.