Bike and Walk Morristown wins bike corral in national contest!

This is likely old news to many of you but I've been busy.  If you haven't already heard, Bike and Walk Morristown has won the Saris bike corral after a long fought national contest hosted by Saris.  Thanks goes out to all of you that voted via Facebook to help Bike and Walk Morristown win.

Final Score:
645 Morristown, NJ 
595 Concord, Ma 

Yay!!  Their huddled bikes will have a secure place to rest.

112 Wheat Ridge, Co

Besides it just being plan cool that Bike and Walk NM Morristown won this contest, that they garnered so much support from all around New Jersey proves that there is a very passionate, strong, active demand in New Jersey for bicycle transportation amenities.  Bicycle parking is an important part of a bicycle transportation system but it is only one part.  Bicycle lanes and modern, well marked bicycle routes need to be a part of the solution as well and when it comes to on-street bicycle amenities.  Unfortunately, when looking at most towns across the county, in this regard New Jersey communities and towns lag far behind.

Congrats again to Kendra and the Bike and Walk Morristown gang!

Vote early and often for Morristown bike corral

If you haven't done it already, get your Facebook account humming and place your vote for BikeWalkMorristown's quest to win a bike corral in a national contest from Saris Bicycle Racks.  To their credit already, WalkBikeMorristown is one of only three finalists in the contest.  Vote soon for our BikeWalkTown friends, as the contest ends on April 5th.

Look at that motley crew and their forlorn hapless bicycles yearning to be safe and secure with a nice bicycle corral.  Why don't you help make sure that their bicycles have a safe place to rest as their owners go grocery shopping?

As of the time of this post Morristown was trailing a bunch of Yankees from Concord Massachusetts 215 to 196.  Are we going to let a bunch of baked bean eating, Red Soxs and Patriots rooting, "Paaaark da chaaahhh  in Haaarvard Yaaaard" Concordians beat our New Jersey,"How ya' goin'" compatriots?!?!  No way! 

Morristown passes its own Complete Streets Policy

Our good friend, Kendra Arnold of Bike and Walk Morristown informed us just a few minutes ago that Morristown has passed its very own comprehensive Complete Streets Policy.

One of the most telling parts of a government entity's commitment to it's Complete Policy is in the Exceptions.  While the policy is otherwise very good, the exceptions are a little vague and could be manipulated to scrap otherwise worthy / needed complete street projects. "d" is particularly concerning as there is no definition of "disproportionate cost." The standard is that bike/ped improvements not exceed 15% of the total project cost.  The vague exceptions of concern are below.

c) Detrimental environmental or social impacts outweigh the need for these accommodations.

d) Cost of accommodations is excessively disproportionate to cost of project.

e) The safety or timing of a project is compromised by the inclusion of Complete Streets.

Putting that aside another mutual friend, Gerald points out that the policy places emphasis on planning for future bicyclists and pedestrians.  A good cool point.  Also the checklists are pretty neat and make it simple for implementers in the future to follow the policy.

Good job Morristown!

Bike Fest in Morristown on Memorial Day Friday

This comes to WalkBikeJersey from New Jersey Bike Summit sensation, Kendra Arnold of Morristown Pedal Pushers.  If I can make it WalkBikeJersey will be there.  - Andy B.

Hello!

Bike Morristown is planning a big party for the end of Bike to Work Month after Morristown's monthly ride in May (Friday, May 27), and it is going to be inside the old BMW dealership at 55 Bank Street. We are planning on having the Cinnamon Snail veggie food truck return and several bands and fun stuff going on, but it is gigantic space with 2 showrooms. In the smaller showroom (which is still pretty big), we are going to have room for lots of other bicycling groups to come and push their own agenda. Also any sort of bike-related art or whatnot is welcome to some space to sell their stuff or just show it off.

Morristown Planning Board to discuss bike plan addendum

I caught this from Kendra on Morristown Pedal Pushers:

Tomorrow December 2nd, the Morristown Planning Board will be discussing an addendum to their bicycle plan. This addendum gives some actual proposals for street improvements to aid cyclists and where those improvements should go. A copy of the Morristown Bicycle Plan Addendum can be found here.

My quick, ten minute review of the plan seems to indicate that the consultant has come up with some good ideas to improve cycling around the town. Morristown is full of wide multi-lane roads, many of which seem ridiculously overbuilt for the traffic that they handle and are also engineered for high traffic speeds (Lafeyette and Madison Avenues are perfect emamples). Others are really busy much of the time, like South St and Speedwell Ave and would seem to pose more difficulty to accommodate both cyclists and the high motor-vehicle traffic volume. Oddly enough this addendum seems to find solutions at this time for the narrow roads with higher traffic volumes than the overbuilt ones. This isn't at all bad since the busy roads also happen to be in areas that seem to have more bicycle traffic and/or take local cyclists to places in town that they need or want to go.

I must admit however that I am concerned about the proposed use of "Sharrows" on Speedwell and Sussex Avenues shown on page 43 of the document. The image of the intersection seems to place the Sharrows dab-smack in the door zone of parked cars. If they propose to use "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs then the Sharrows should be placed in the center of the lanes or at least out of the doorzone. Still, this might be a detail better clarified in the text and I do again confess to having only spent little more than 10 or 15 minutes reviewing the plan.

What was really interesting was the crash analysis. A high percentage of crashes seemed to have been caused by cyclists riding on the sidewalk and when using the crosswalks. This seems to fully support those who espouse Effective Cycling techniques and who say that riding a bike on the sidewalk is a very dangerous.

Again, if you live in Morristown or in the area, make sure you show your support of the plan but also don't be afraid to bring up your concerns. Just make sure you do so politely and in a way that won't result in a scuttling of the entire proposal since there really seems to be some really, really good stuff in this plan.

Bike Morristown presents Bike-O-Rama Week

Good friend of WalkBikeJersey, Kendra from Bike Morristown forward to me some of the hip and groovy bicycle fun happening up in Morristown all week starting this Saturday and culminating in the Third Annual, Art of the Bicycle show. Check it out below and also checkout the details in these two stories (ONE, TWO) from the Morristown Green.