I know that Jersey City is supposed to have this rivalry with our neighbor to the west, but we can’t help but promote Newark’s Bike Tour. Set for Saturday, September 18th (with a rain date set for September 25th), the Bike Tour of Newark should be a blast. If a bike ride isn’t enough motivation, they’ll have free helmets for the first 150 registrants, free t-shirts (while supplies last), and a drawing for a Trek bicycle. Huzzah!
Download the PDF or visit the Newark website to sign up.
We showed up at the City Council meeting Wednesday to share our views on the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan, which provides for more bike racks, requires new buildings to have bike storage, and requires big offices to have showers. We like this, and we really like the optimism behind the suggestion of a new trolley on Bergen Ave. But we also hope that when things actually get built, the state DOT’s Complete Streets program and the city’s own Circulation Element of its Master Plan can be implemented. That means bike lanes on new roads, where practically possible. The Jersey Journal picked up our comments at the reading.
Though it’s been a live feature for a few months, determining a bike route with Google Maps still seems a little like a magic trick. Leveraging public records on existing and proposed bike lanes, information on traffic flow, dead-ends and one-way streets, Google Maps is well on its way to becoming the standard for determining the best bike route. In its current form, though, Google’s technical sleight of hand cannot mask unsafe or inefficient routes.
A recent article in the New York Times pits Google’s bike routes against local cyclists’ preferences and asks the question: does Google always recommend the most efficient route? The article focuses mainly on Brooklyn, and the reactions to Google’s services are mixed. The article has a couple fun quotes and I encourage anyone who spends significant time biking on the other side of the Hudson to check it out.
In Jersey City, Google’s bike routes rely mostly on the city’s proposed bike lane plan. That’s to say, 90% of the green lines on the map below are not real bike lanes. The dashed green lines are meant to denote “bike-friendly roads,” but most often just map out bike routes on the most-trafficked streets in the city.
Though the dashed green lines indicate proposed bike lanes, that doesn’t always mean the route is the safest option. Living in Journal Square, for instance, I know that the stretch on Newark Ave. connecting downtown and my neighborhood can be a panic-inducing ride (especially coming up the hill), or that Baldwin Ave. between Bergen-Lafayette and Journal Square regularly has speeding traffic coming off of NJ139.
It’s not all bad news, though. The fact that Google has an option for mapping bike routes further legitimizes bicycles as everyday transportation. And although some of Google’s bike routes in Jersey City can be a little dicey, it provides a visual reminder of how the city could be connected by bike. It’s up us, Jersey City residents (and politicians), to make those dashed green lines solid.
Just wanted to draw attention to an interesting take on bike-sharing in NYC. Leveraging an iphone app and any modified bike + lock, it may not be as slick as Paris, but it certainly seems as functional.
A group called SoBi is trying to bring bike sharing to New York. They’re putting special locks on their bikes and letting users unlock them with an iPhone app. It’s cheaper than most bike sharing programs, because they’re going to NY’s use existing bike racks to store the bikes.
They’re trying to win some Pepsi Refresh money, so if you like the idea, vote for it here.
via allthecoolkids
Nice! I was enamored with the Velib sharing systems I saw in Paris and Lyon. One Euro to rent a functional bike with lights and basket for an hour. These things were on every few street corners. I’d ride to and from work, and basically all over the place, if I wasn’t worried about what I’d do with my bike when I got there.
Driving up Grand this evening, around 6 pm, I saw a runner in an orange t-shirt shadowed by a cyclist. The print on their shirts said “Maine to Florida for the American Cancer Society.” I pulled over and waited for them to jog on up. “Where are you headed?” I asked.
It turns out that Roger and Hogan Marquis, father and son volunteer athletes extraordinaire, wanted to make Elizabeth by nightfall via Jersey City and Newark. ”How are you going to get there?” I asked. “We are not sure. We think Route 1.”
Them and every other cyclist or pedestrian trying to get from Jersey City to Newark. I told them I know a few who have tried and survived. “Thank you,” said Roger. “That makes us feel much better.” I didn’t feel great though as I pulled away, imagining them fighting the trucks and Friday night drivers on the shoulder-less bridges. I will let you know if they made it. In the meantime, you can follow them and donate to their cause.
And long term, we want to make that route viable, along with Newark cyclists and East Coast Greenway folks. Roger and Hogan are essentially inventing their own Greenway on the fly.
The Jersey City Hoboken Subregional Transportation Study is underway. http://jerseycityhobokenstudy.com/
The help the study leaders understand the needs of area cyclists, please take two minutes to fill out the following short survey as soon as possible (and no later than August 20). We want to be able to inform them as accurately as possible about actual patterns and needs of Jersey City cyclists.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/67GFVDZ
Thanks very much.
BIKE JC policy working group
We’ve been busy post-Ward Tour planning future events and directions. We will have a general meeting in September. In the meantime, here are some items of note:
-The Jersey City Hoboken Subregional Transportation Study is underway. Bike JC is working on a survey for all members to speak collectively about their preferred routes between Jersey City and Hoboken. Look for it in your inbox. If you are not yet a Bike JC member and want to make sure you receive mailings like this, email hello@bikejc.org.
-The Journal Square Redevelopment Plan was approved by the planning board on July 27. It calls for bike storage and racks throughout the plan’s area. You can download and read the entire plan here. We will study it as a group and try to help the city enact its best facets. Any comments or suggestions, email carly@bikejc.org. UPDATE: Current plan with key revisions is here: JOURNAL SQUARE July 27 - PB Meeting to Council.pdf
-BICYCLES AS TRANSPORT: FROM ALTERNATIVE TO MAINSTREAM
Caroline Samponaro, Advocacy Director for Transportation Alternatives, will be talking mode shifts and the bicycle’s move from alternative to mainstream at the American Institute of Architects on August 12th. At the panel, organized by AIA (American Institute for Architects) New York’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the NYC DOT and the director of the NYC Department of City Planning will join Caroline in a discussion of the bicycle’s impact on New York City’s transportation. While you’re visiting the AIA, be sure to check out the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s exhibit, Our Cities Ourselves, on view until September 11th.
Bicycles as Transport: From Alternative to Mainstream
Thursday, August 12th
6-8 pm
Center for Architecture
536 Laguardia Place
Manhattan
$10 for anyone not a member of the AIA
Bike JC meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, June 15th) at Zeppelin Hall. Outside if dry, inside if wet. See you there!
Help us make next year’s Ward Tour even better by taking 3 minutes to fill out a quick survey.
This past Sunday at 11 am, around 530 bicyclists, from families with two kids ferried in various manner of bikeseats to fixie stunt riders on hot-pink Bianchis, pushed off onto Montgomery from Exchange Place and took over the streets of our fine city for nearly two hours.
One pre-ride news report had said a goal of the ride was to demonstrate that cars and bikes could co-exist on the streets—and that’s true. But there were so many riders that we took over one full side of the street, making it less a demonstration of co-existence than, for one or two hours, a moving display of Jersey City cycling power. The Jersey City Police Department did an amazing job of helping us through lights and calming traffic. We couldn’t have done it without them.
The Tour’s End Festival also was a huge success. No rain, lots of lemonade and coffee and music and BMXing and free helmets from the JCPD and sharing of news about the Jersey City Food Coop, the Embankment Coalition, the Friends of Liberty State Park, Connect the Parks, the Liberty Humane Society, the Hudson TMA, the HDSID, the Jersey City Independent, Hamilton Square, and the US Census Bureau.
Thanks again to our sponsors EasyRiders (also the principal organizer), Herald-Madison Consulting, Grove Street Bicycles, Madame Claude cafe, IPG, Lucky 7s, Skinner’s Loft, and White Star. And thanks to Iron Monkey for hosting our After Tour party.
