Commissioner Simpson Reaffirms Commitment To Complete Streets But Route 35 Bike Lanes Still In Limbo

In a stunning Op Ed piece in the Star Ledger. NJ DOT Commissioner James Simpson reaffirms the Christy Administration's commitment to complete streets. The Commissioner goes on to cite pending and recently completed projects, including the proposed road diet of Route 71, which is the Main St for several Monmouth County Beach Communitie and the Department's crown jewel - the Ocean City Causeway, which is already beginning to see a major return on investment. He also talks about the equally important task of bringing counties and municipalities on board with their own complete streets policies, because chances are that when you walk out of your front door you will be on a local street. We agree, when it comes to complete streets NJ DOT is walking the walk.

The Commissioner notes in his editorial that complete strategies are being implemented on Route 35 such as ADA curb ramps, continuous sidewalk and pedestrian countdown signals, however when it comes to bike lanes he becomes more ambiguous.

Incorporating accommodations for bicyclists is more of a challenge because the department is not purchasing land from private property owners to widen Route 35, and it does not have the funding to do so. However, the department and its design teams are creating plans to improve accommodations for bicyclists within the existing right-of-way where feasible, and will be discussing these ideas with local communities in the coming weeks and months.

This is what project managers have been telling Complete Streets advocates since the spring, yet public meetings have been held and comments have been submitted by hundreds of citizens. But in mid August the construction contracts were awarded without provisions for bike lanes. The Commissioner is advising the public that it is too early to expect design plans for bike lanes, but the actions of the DOT suggest that the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted on this project.

What's disheartening about the whole process is the missed opportunity to create a first class bikeway from Point Pleasant to Island Beach State Park. While there are major challenges on the north end they are not insurmountable and farther south we were able to fit in a protected bike lane using Streetmix for the Lavallette business district without making any changes to the parking configuration (head in angle parking on both sides of the street). Compare it to the cross sections that NJDOT is implementing.

Rendering created at http://streetmix.net/. All images from Streetmix come with Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.

Clearly, there is available road space along most of the route to add bike lanes without impacting private property or taking existing parking from businesses.We know the leadership at NJDOT and its skilled staff can combine its Complete Street expertise with practical application to find a way to safely accommodate bicyclists along Route 35.

Route 35 Followup - Keep Asking For Bike Lanes

Between 2009 and 2011 49 reportable bike crashes occurred on Route 35 with the majority of them resulting in injuries to the bicyclist. The road width of the state highway varies but for most of the central and southern sections the width of the available shoulders is up to 24 feet in each direction (12 feet on each side of the road). Yet at the well attended public meeting held at the Lavallette Elementary school earlier this week engineering drawings show no bike lanes anywhere on  the 12 mile project.

Send an email to Commissioner Simpson

Show your support to return bikes to NJ TRANSIT trains

Show your support for the recommendations to restore bicycle access to NJ TRANSIT trains at all train stations by attending the next NJ TRANSIT board meeting on Monday, June 11th at 9am at the NJ TRANSIT Headquarters in Newark. 

...once again with a bicycle?

Thanks to over 300 cyclists who signed our petition to restore access bicycle access at low level platform stations, a very responsive and concerned NJDOT Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Chairman, James Simpson quickly formed a taskforce to see what could be done to restore full access to the trains and other ideas that could help integrate bicycles more efficiently with NJ TRANSIT trains. 

While the recommendations are likely to pass the full NJ TRANSIT Board at the June 11th meeting, it would be a great gesture if we could get at least 10 cyclists to attend the meeting to that the Commissioner and the NJ TRANSIT Boards

Commissioner Simpson hears your demands for restored access to NJ TRANSIT trains

NJDOT Commissioner
James Simpson

On Wednesday March 14th, WalkBikeJersey took a bike and train ride up to Newark to speak before the NJ TRANSIT Board of Directors and Commissioner James Simpson to followup on our email petition that seeks to restore bicycle access to all NJ TRANSIT train stations and has garnered just shy of 300 signatures (see the original August, 2011 story here).  When I got up to speak, I started by quoting a key part of the NJ TRANSIT Bicycle Program Rules as they were published on the NJ TRANSIT website in March, 2009:

Cyclists or Segway users must be able to lift their bicycle or Segway up and down stairs while boarding and detraining rail cars.

I told the Commissioner that the last time I spoke before the board I was told that the policy eliminating access for bicyclists to low-level platform stations was a simple clarification.  I told Simpson and the Board that I took great exception to the notion that this policy was a mere "clarification" as it was exceptionally clear that prior policy gave emphatic permission to bicyclists to board NJ TRANSIT trains at low-level platform stations due to the above policy statement.  As such we at WalkBikeJersey felt that we were given no choice but to start the petition to reverse this policy that has since packed the Commissioner's inbox with nearly 300 messages.

When I apologized for the flood of messages in his mailbox, Simpson was very gracious and told me there was no need.  He was very sympathetic to the situation and even told me that he was committed to seeking a solution to the problem that would be satisfactory to all parties and even offered that I sit on the committee that would look into this and possibly other issues related to bicycle access to NJ TRANSIT.  I assured the Commissioner that I had also given this problems great thought and felt confident that there is a solution that will actually benefit cyclists and eliminate the liability issues that concern NJ TRANSIT.

While we are not yet close to a reversal of this policy it is clear that that we are headed in the right direction. We at WalkBikeJersey could not have gotten this far without the hundreds of you who signed our petition and made it clear how much this policy change at NJ TRANSIT has adversely impacted those bicyclists that signed the petition but also the thousands of others who haven't.

Thank you for supporting our petition.  We couldn't have done it without you.

Bikes on NJ TRANSIT now a leading transportation issue

After breaking the story here about NJ TRANSIT's policy change that no longer allows bicyclists to board or de-board NJ TRANSIT trains at low-level stations, nearly 300 of you signed our petition asking NJDOT Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chairman James S. Simpson to overturn this new restriction.

According to an article from this past Sunday's edition of the Record about the NJ Bike and Walk Summit, Commission Simpson has heard your voices and is now keenly aware of the hardships this new policy is causing bicyclists particularly in Bergen and Passaic Counties where few train stations have high-level platform stations:

At NJ Transit’s Feb. 8 board meeting, Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson said his office had been bombarded with letters from bikers. He directed the agency’s advisory committee – the North Jersey Transportation Advisory Committee – to review the policy and provide recommendations to the full board.

 It would also seem that our friends at the Voorhees Transportation Center have been tasked with trying to find a solution that would be amenable to both cyclists and the safety concerns of NJ TRANSIT.  In an email on Monday, staff members of VTC asked if select members of the bike/ped advocacy community if any of us had any ideas of how to solve this problem.  I believe that there is a possible solution and responded immediately with an in-depth examination of the problem with a possible simple solution.

More to follow as we at WalkBikeJersey will follow this story until its resolved.