Holiday Reminder - No Bikes on NJ TRANSIT Trains for Memorial Day

In case you haven't memorized the rules:

Bicycles are not permitted on trains (with the exception of the Atlantic City Line) on New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, day after Thanksgiving, Sunday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Bicycles are not permitted on the day before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but are permitted on the holidays themselves.

So if you didn't read this in time and you wind up stranded somewhere remember that you can take your bike on most buses, ferries, PATH, NJT light rail. Bolt Bus will accept bicycles if space is availabe but Megabus will not carry your bike. And if all else fails then you can summon the UBER car service which has just expanded service to all 4 Jersey Shore Counties .

Bike on Rail Access Calendar Update Helps Decode Complicated Time Restrictions

As we reported in June of last year NJ TRANSIT made major changes to bike on rail access policies. While the policy did address the issue of low level platform stations and expanded weekend bike capacity on select lines it also created weekend time new restrictions and further defined (and muddled) some holiday restrictions. The access policy is so complicated that conductors and NJ TRANSIT supervisors have a hard time correctly enforcing the policies.

In response we created a calendar page that allows viewers to look at the bicycle policy for the day they wish to travel. We also added the restrictions for the Hudson Bergen Light Rail and the Newark Subway. Today we added bike on rail time restrictions for PATH and SEPTA Regional Rail (for Trenton and West Trenton Stations).

The published bike on rail rules are not always a catch all for exceptions. For example PATH's restrictions do not account for holidays, it seems unlikely that operators will be kicking off cyclists on Christmas. On the opposite end Hudson Bergen Light Rail does not have bike restrictions on state holidays. Most alarmingly NJ TRANSIT has posted on their printed timetable that bicycles are not allowed on the "Last Business Days Before Holidays". The language used to describe the holiday restrictions on the website and the printed timetables are different . Our calendar assumes the worst, that you cannot bring your bikes on those days. We will be asking NJ TRANSIT to clarify this.

Consider yourselves lucky South Jersey, there are no time or holiday restrictions on the PATCO High Speed Line, RiverLINE and the Atlantic City Line. All the buses have bike racks or luggage bays.

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.