Friday, July 13, 2012

Atlantic City's Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Comes on the Heels of a Tragedy

This blog has reported (here and here) on the deplorable walking and biking conditions in Atlantic City. On Monday July 9th this concern rose to the top of the local news when wheelchair bound Daniel Tavarez was killed trying to cross US 30 at Pennsylvania Ave by a hit and run driver.



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This tragedy has put the issue of traffic safety fresh on people's mind, but maybe this time the call for change won't disappear with the next news cycle.

 On Wednesday the Press of Atlantic City published an article on the most dangerous intersections in the City and provided the handy graphic below.

Click to Enlarge

The timing for the creation of a bicycle and pedestrian plan couldn't be more appropriate. This Spring NJ DOT under its bicycle and pedestrian planning assistance program appointed Michael Baker and Associates to began work on a bicycle and pedestrian plan for the city.

On Tuesday August 14th a public meeting will be held at the Atlantic City Convention Center to present the finding for the plan and offers interested residents, employees and visitors to provide input on improvements that they would like to see. The meeting is informal so you don't have to spend 3 hours there.

Some ideas that have already been circulated include increasing bicycle hours or building a parallel path to the Boardwalk and reducing travel lanes and adding bike lanes on a major crosstown street (Atlantic? Pacific? Arctic?), the reduction of crossing travel lanes also has the benefit of making it easier for pedestrians to cross.

The planners are providing updates on the Active Transportation for Atlantic City Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/activeac/. The group is intended to be a forum to present ideas and offer members an opportunity to organize a bike/ped safety campaign in the City.


Bike and Pedestrian Plan Public Meeting
Tuesday August 14th 5-8PM
Atlantic City Convention Center and Rail Station
Room 304
1 Convention Blvd (at Michigan Ave)
Atlantic City, NJ








3 comments:

Andrew J. Besold said...

Thanks John for this post. I fixed the link (added two) regarding the latest tragedy in AC.

castors said...

Biking is a great hobby that would you up with a greater body build. Not only that, you can do something about your hobby just like painting it.

James said...

Great to see bicycles becoming a more familiar way of transport! Good exercise, green approach too! Cheers for the post!