Op-Ed: Hey, New Jersey's political leaders! Bicycling Means Business!

I am the mayor of a city.  As far as this discipline is concerned, it's about talent attraction.  It's about attracting business.  I have to create the kind of city that attracts talent.  And putting in bike lanes and trails is a part of that.  People in their teens, twenties and thirties are looking for bike lanes and trails.  They are looking for that kind of connectivity.  They are looking for multi-modal transportation and that's what we are trying to do.

Those are the words of the Republican Mayor of Indianapolis, Greg Ballard, who gave a key speech at this years National Bike Summit.  If you've been following the bike advocacy news this past week you know that the National Bike Summit happened last week.  Maybe you were even lucky enough to go and if you did, you knew that the theme of this year's Summit was "Bicycling Means Business."  To get a good understanding of the gist of the Summit, take a look at this great (as always) rundown video by Clarence at Streetfilms.  Mayor Ballard's speech is in there.


Unfortunately, most New Jersey political leaders remain completely unaware of how bicycling is transforming cities and towns all across the U.S.  Yes there are our darling towns of Hoboken and Ocean City.  Political leader in these towns seem to be "full in," but leaders in other towns that talk a good game on bicycle issues, I believe, don't have a complete grip on what will be require of them and of their towns to make them truly bike friendly.

One major indicator of how serious a community or town takes bicycling is the presence of a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator on full-time staff.  Save for Rutger's University, not one town, county or other institution has a full-time, exclusive bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.  Meanwhile, not far from New Jersey, the City of Rockville Maryland (population: 62,334), is hiring a full-time bike/ped coordinator.  Yes, with only 62,334 people Rockville has there very own full-time bike/ped coordinator!  There are many towns in Jersey that have at least that many residents, and many others with much more.

So why are New Jersey's towns and so late to the table?  Why don't any of our towns or even counties have a full-time bike/ped coordinator?  Why are bike lanes still a rarity in our streetscapes?  NJDOT is an innovator in policy, and Rutgers University hosts one of the few centers in the nation dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian research and Rutgers is also home to John Pucher, the nation's leading bicycle and pedestrian scholar.  Why the disconnect between the state and it's agencies and our local governments where bicycle and pedestrian improvements would be of most use?  

Well one theory is that those other states have nothing better to spend those Federal Transportation Enhancement monies (soon, if not already Transportation Alternative dollars), while New Jersey spends almost all of it to help run and fund the nation's only state-wide transit agency, NJ TRANSIT.  But I think its more fundamental than that.  I just think local leaders still don't "get it." 

There are glimmers of hope outside of the usually places, namely in Jersey City, Newark and New Brunswick but change has been still been slow.  Bike lanes are still rare in these towns but some good ones have popped lately.  However, none of these places have yet made an investment in that big indicator of bike friendliness, a full-time bike/ped director. Even Hoboken and Ocean City haven't yet.

Significant, tangible change needs to happen soon and it will need to happen fast if New Jersey and it's towns hope to catch up.  Other cities outside of New Jersey have woken-up long ago to the power of the bicycle to transform their cities and communities.  Those cities outside of New Jersey are not just riding away from us but are breaking into a full sprint while our leaders are just starting to look at the bicycle, trying to figure out how the thing works, so to speak.  If we don't change fast, New Jersey will continue to see the drain of its young best and brightest to out-of-state cities and towns that do "get it" and know that Bicycling Means Business.

Op-Ed: "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This July 4th, our Nation will celibate these greatest of Thomas Jefferson's words.  They are the cornerstone of our freedoms and were the thrust of our fledgling Nation's Declaration of Independence ratified 235 years ago today.  I think that it goes without question that all Americans will agree that nothing is more American than Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  These "inalienable Rights" that all "are endowed by their Creator" cannot not be infringed upon no matter what peaceful and legal endeavor one so chooses.

However as someone who regularly walks and rides a bike, I cannot help but wonder if these rights, do not apply to me when I travel using these modes.  As a free American, I hereby declare that I demand the return of my rights of "Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" no matter what legal form of travel I so choose.

Life - I demand the right to walk or ride my bicycle on the public right-of-way free of the real fear that my life is in imminent danger due to:

• roadway engineering that continues to ignore the practical needs of bicyclists and pedestrians.
• the poor driving skills of the operators of motor vehicles and the government agencies that continue to allow these incompetent persons to legally operate said motor vehicles with impunity.
• laws, police and a legal system that regularly ignore the rights and the sanctity of life of bicyclists and pedestrians, even when a bicyclist or pedestrian is killed or injured due to the carelessness or even wanton recklessness of a driver of a motor vehicle.

Liberty -

• I demand the liberty to walk or ride my bicycle from anywhere to anywhere, within reason, by a route using the public right-of-ways that is safe, convenient, relatively direct and that is at least of equal distance to that which the driver of motor vehicle may travel.
• I demand that the government agencies that are charged with developing and maintaining the public streets and roadways, build said streets and roadways with proper contemporary bicycle and pedestrian facilities that encourages the liberty of movement of those not driving a motor vehicle.
• I demand that no other person, law enforcement or other government official question this right of liberty no mater the location of were one is legally traveling on the public right-of-way, or the time of day or night that one chooses to travel on the public right-of-way.

Pursuit of Happiness -

• For those of us that choose to walk or bike for recreation and/or transportation, these activities are often for us, "the pursuit of Happiness."  For myself, few of the good things in life are more fulfilling and full of joy than a long and challenging bicycle ride on the public roads that pass through the beautiful New Jersey countryside.  Unfortunately, rarely does a ride go by where a stressful incident does not occur due to one or more of the reasons already listed above.  As such I demand that not only our government but our fellow citizens do all that is reasonable to preserve this right.  In return, I swear to do all in my power to defend this right for my fellow Americans as long as their pursuits are peaceful and do not have other detrimental effects upon our society.

Enjoy your Fourth of July but remember that the continued enjoyment of these three most basic American rights will only be preserve so long as citizens of this Great Nation continue to remain vigilant.

Op-Ed: Can Walking and Biking ever be safe in America with incompetent idiots behind the steering wheel?!?!

Yeah… I’m pissed! I normally don’t to let my emotions run wild on this blog and try to keep it professional but I’m gonna’ let loose a little on this one. I’m really sick and tired of dealing with brain-dead, narcissistic, antisocial, psychotic, distracted and just plain stupid drivers while I’m out riding my bike. They are absolutely clueless about how dangerous their driving behavior is not only to me, other cyclists, and pedestrians but also to themselves.

As many of you might know, I’m a League Cycling Instructor. I’ve been riding almost all of my 39 years and have been a serious cyclist for over 20 of them now. When I’m out on the road these days I do my best to use all my training and experience to perfect my own personal version of “vehicular cycling.” I adapt the classic vehicular cycling techniques depending on the bike I’m riding. If I’m casually tooling around town on the 3-speed, I tend to be a little less bold. However when I’m on my road bike riding for maximum speed, I’m more inclined to incorporate more if not all of the advanced vehicular cycling techniques.

Part of that technique is to take the lane on narrow roads, where the road conditions are bad and on blind rises or corners. Unfortunately after this winter, road conditions are REALLY bad and I find myself forced to take the lane even on roads with wide lanes, high speeds and heavy traffic volume. With a good percentage of drivers this is not a problem. They seem to understand my plight and patiently wait behind me until its clear and I give them a wave of appreciation when they have a chance to pass by. But this system of reason breaks down really quickly when it seems every forth driver is either totally clueless to a cyclists needs, just doesn’t care or even worse, hates you for even daring to exert your right to the road. Unfortunately when I went for a ride this past Easter Sunday, it seemed the later 25% were the only ones left of the road as all God fearing people were at church or home with their families.

So there I was on Fresh Ponds Road in East Brunswick just south of Milltown, cruising at pretty fast clip on my road bike. Thinking that traffic would be very light on this holiday, I was in for a rude awakening very soon after starting my ride.

Op-Ed: What should a statewide bicycle map have?

So last week I posted a general notice about NJDOT’s public forums to get some feedback in their efforts to put together a statewide bicycle map. This project leaves me very excited since I love maps and will even confess to having over 100 in my collection. I read maps like people read books, plotting adventures and rides many of which, unfortunately, will never come to pass.

As for bicycle specific maps that I’ve seen, results seem to be hit or miss. Some of maps are excellent, a number are mediocre but still useful, while others are downright useless for navigating by bike and aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. From decades of map use to travel by bike here in New Jersey, elsewhere around North American and in Europe, I would like to suggest some ideas that I feel are critical in producing a quality New Jersey Bike Map:

• Rate roads for bicycle suitability – This is by far the most important bit of information that a bicycle map can provide but is often not done at all or in a way that I think is incorrect. Many bicycle maps simply list the presence of a shoulder or a bicycle lane to rate the bicycle suitability of a road. Using this as the only or primary criteria in a rating system can make for a bad bicycle map. Without considering other factors, I’ve seen some maps give busy six-lane highways what appear to be a more appealing bicycle suitability ratings than the back roads that I know are fantastic to ride on. Yes, the highway has a shoulder but the little back road only gets 10 cars per hour making the shoulder all but unnecessary for bicycle travel. The most important factor in rating bicycle suitability of a roadway is traffic volume. A road may be narrow, with a 50mph speed limit and no shoulder but if only a handful of cars pass by on a given hour, that road would be far superior for riding than a 25mph arterial with a well engineered bike lanes but heavy and continuous traffic. Knowing if there is a shoulder or bike lane is still useful but that info will always be of secondary importance to a cyclist compared to knowing or conveying traffic volume.

• Keep it large-scale – Maps that include a very large geographic area are said to be small-scale. Such small-scale maps can make visualizing details difficult, again such as small back roads that cyclists seek out due to their low traffic volumes and superior scenery. To me a scale of 1:63,360 or 1 inch = 1 mile would be ideal. 1:100,000 would be acceptable (1cm = 1km) but anything beyond 1:126,720 (1 inch = 2 miles) and you start to lose the granular detail that cyclists need. If the scale is too small the map can end up becoming useless now matter how accurate and well presented the information on it. This would likely require the creation of more than two maps but I think this could be the difference of creating just a good map to an excellent one. For example Delaware’s useful bike map divides the state into three sections, one for each county, and Delaware is smaller than New Jersey.

• Quality Cartography – I’ve gotten spoiled from my days traveling in Europe because the maps you buy over there are true works of art. These maps are mostly hand drawn (or so they seem) and the iconography and detail they use allow for an amazing amount of information to be clearly and concisely conveyed to the map user. As a traveler of non-motorized means one will quickly appreciate the detail and information a good map can convey, particularly as the light of day begins to fade while traveling on unfamiliar roads with many miles still to go.

• Label all roads (at least the through streets) – One of the greatest shortcomings of some bicycle maps that I’ve used was the failure to label small roads. Experience has taught me to seek out the small roads and residential back streets to avoid the high traffic volumes on arterials. While it is useful to indicate that the labeled arterial street is unsuited for bicycle travel, it would be nice to have the local side streets comprehensively labeled to help navigate around that arterial.

• Show topography by some graphic means – A bicycle map doesn’t need topographic lines but some sort of shading to show terrain relief is just about an absolute necessity. I also like the system that many European maps use to show the grade of a climb. Chevrons are pointed uphill with a number of chevrons used to indicate steepness in grade percentage (> = 5 to 9%, >> = 10 to 14%, >>> more than 15%). Also reference elevations of significant mountains like High Point, Bearfort, Jenny Jump, the Sourland Mountains and even Apple Pie Hill in the Pine Barrens should be given, just to name a few.

• Include and indicate unpaved roads – From the draft I looked at on-line last week, many of the gravel and dirt roads in Hunterdon County are shown on the map. This is good since these roads, by nature have very little motor vehicle traffic and are very useful to cyclists. However the map should somehow indicate that these roads are unpaved so unsuspecting roadies aren’t caught off guard. On the flip side, some significant sand roads in the Pine Barrens were omitted even though there were no other roads in that area on the map that would be competing for space. In the same vein, it would be nice to indicate graphically if multi-use pathways are paved with asphalt or some unpaved surface.

• Locate camping icons directly where the campsites are located – For example, from the draft I’ve seen, camping is indicated in Stokes State Forest but the icon is just placed randomly in the green area indicating the state forest. Stokes State Forest is rather large, at least a dozen miles across or more in some parts. Having an accurate idea where the THREE campgrounds are actually located throughout the forest would allow for bicycle tourists to more accurately estimate travel distance and time. Also it would be nice to include county (Morris and Monmouth, maybe others) campgrounds as well as private ones (mostly located in South Jersey).

• Include all NJ TRANSIT train stations and major bus terminals.

• Finally, do not forget that some of the users of this map will be tourists from out of state or even out of the country. Do not assume they know anything about New Jersey and that they outcome of their trip may be entirely dependent on the information provided on the map. I’ve been there on a road far away from home, relying on the map to get me safely to my destination so I know how important an accurate map can be.

From what I’ve seen of the draft New Jersey bike map, NJDOT and its consultants are off to a good start. Still, they must remember that there are already plenty of other good map sources that this map will be competing against. Google Maps with its “Bike There” instructions has shown itself to be a very useful tool and Map My Ride will even calculate vertical profiles as it maps your ride. As for printed maps however, I still find myself grabbing for my Hagstrom and ADC county maps over any county bicycle map published for a New Jersey county so far (the new Mercer County bike map is really good but it’s only an online source as far as I know). Still, I have high hopes for this map project and look forward to the final product.

Op-Ed: Be careful were you cyclocross

I came back from a road ride one day last week and a cyclocross race broke out! I was returning to my car near sunset after putting in a few dozen miles in beautiful western Somerset and eastern Hunterdon Counties. As I approached the park parking lot with my car I was shocked to find the once empty lot full of cars and cyclists getting ready for a ride. What I had stumbled upon was a friendly pick-up after work cyclocross race and the group of 25 or 30 competitors started soon after I arrived. I watched them as I was packing up, for 15, 20 minutes or so.

For the most part the race seamed like good, clean (irony!) fun. The majority of the race went through fields and paths that could be best described as a managed meadow and did so without any noticeable lasting impact. However the course designers took the race around the parking area by using the raised landscaped areas around the parking lot and within the short amount of time that I was there, the racers had done what only could be called significant damage to this landscaped area.

I understand that mud is part of the sport and that cyclocross races are supposed to have off-camber turns and traverse slops to add technical challenge. That is all well and good but damaging public property and doing so in an area that all park users cannot help but notice is sure not to win over the general public with regards to cycling. It’s one thing to create a bit of mud on the trail in the back of the park but to chew up the landscaping into a muddy mess around a parking lot, where no one was ever really intended to walk or ride, is another thing all together. It’s a real shame too because the area of landscaping that the racers chewed up probably consisted of less than 5% of the entire race course. This area could have easily been avoided and it really wouldn’t have made a difference to the race.