Press Release: July 8, 2008
For Information Contact: Jim Rutala, Administration 609.525.9333
Ocean City to Host Bike Safety Event
Ocean City , New Jersey - Ocean City has become a bike rider's paradise with the new Haven Avenue Bike Route and improvements to West Ahttp://walkbikejersey.blogspot.com/venue to expand bike access. Always known for its famous Boardwalk and a variety of bike-a-thons, more people are using bikes to get around this island community.
Pam Fisher, the Director of the New Jersey Division of Traffic Safety, has appropriately selected Ocean City to kick off a new statewide campaign on Bike Safety. Ms. Fisher and other dignitaries from the South Jersey Traffic Safety Alliance and AtlantiCare will kick off this campaign at Noon on Tuesday, July 15 at the intersection of Haven Avenue & 9 th Street - the beginning of the Haven Avenue Bike Route.
The event will feature guest speakers who will discuss the importance of bike safety and Tuckahoe Bike Shop will provide 20 bikes so Director Fisher and other dignitaries can ride Haven Avenue after the event.
The Haven Avenue Bike Route is a two mile long City Street where the speed limit has been reduced to 15 mph and stop signs have been added to increase safety. The new Route 52 Causeway bike route will tie into the Haven Avenue Route making it possible to ride from Ocean City to a network of bikeways that extends all the way to Mays Landing. Additional safe bike routes are being planned throughout Ocean City to interconnect every section of the community.
Sgt. Charles Simonson of the Ocean City Police Department noted, " Ocean City is committed to making infrastructure improvements that safely incorporate bicycle transportation into our existing roadway network. An important part of this integration is to properly educate motorists and riders about the state laws concerning safe biking and to increase traffic safety awareness throughout the entire community. This effort should help to establish Ocean City as one of the premier biking destinations in the region."
Bicycle riders are reminded to ride on the right, obey all signals, ride single file and ride with traffic.
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2 comments:
Meanwhile shortly after I posted this on the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia listserv the anecdotes started rolling in.
Bruce wrote:
I had three cars on Haven Ave pull in front of me at the fish market at 10th Street to make ILLEGAL U turns...counted another four cars going MUCH faster than the street painted 15mph speed limit...which brings us once again to education...
that would include the majority of cyclists at the shore who ride with no helmet, ride on
the sidewalk...and my new observation...the rudeness of bikers who don't have bells or some other warning device as they overtake "slower" cyclists...the most guilty are the "serious" bikers riding the fancy rigs with the latest expensive bike clothes
Tom wrote:
... an issue a member of our bicycle club has encountered with the bicycle police in Ocean City. She has talked and written to them about not riding on the job with helmets fully attached. they claim it is so an attacker could not use the helmet to strangle them or something. bicycle police i see everywhere else ride with helmet secured .
as role models, police riding with detached helmets in ocnj leaves the wrong message. i hope these police are more aware of the public image they are leaving as the town grows with recreational and vehicular bicyclists.
Chris's (from West Windsor Bike Ped Alliance) suggestion:
Sounds like Ocean City could use a public participation Bikeability map, which would validate exactly how bicycle friendly or unfriendly it really is.
Check out our Bikeability map [http://www.mappler.com/wwbpabikeability] and be sure to scroll down and select the Layers (I'm working on making it default to actually showing the layers rather than not) and also zoom out and see some of the Near Miss and Collision points.
And here is my two cents:
Ocean City has enough cyclists to support the start up of bicycle safety check points, similar to a program in Rehoboth Beach Delaware
Ocean City shouldn't toot their horn too loudly about their Haven Ave bike facility. From what I've seen of it it encourages wrong side of the road riding behavior!
It is a two way side-path that is on one side of the road and essentially makes north bound riders ride on the WRONG SIDE!! Now from what I could see from MSN Live Maps Birdseye images, they have done a lot to mitigate most of the conflicts but their are still some section where north bound cyclists are being asked to cross roads out of position where drivers would not be looking for them.
I know I've almost hit cyclists in my car and even on my bike quite a few times when they've crossed intersection's traveling on the left against the flow! You just don't expect vehicles to be traveling against the flow of traffic, bikes or cars!
I don't like the facility and would suggest that most cyclists avoid it in most locations. I wonder how much money was spent on this folly anyway when much safer bike lanes cost less than $5,000 a mile?
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