West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance

Bike to Work Week

Sunday, May 15 by silvia

National Bike to Work Week is this week!

Did you know that a mere?30-minute ride to and from work?at a leisurely pace burns?500 calories?!

You can find the WWBPA at three events:

A bikers’ breakfast at the Princeton Junction train station on Tuesday, co-hosted with Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association. Stop by between 6:30 a.m. (we’ll aim to be there closer to 6) and 8:30 a.m. for a cup of coffee and some food. It’s our way of saying thanks for biking! You’ll find us on the southbound side. We’ll be happy to chat even if you’re not on your bike.

A Ride of Silence at 7 p.m. on Wednesday that leaves from the Municipal Center parking lot. This is a one-hour, 10-mile ride to honor those injured or killed on the road. Many thanks to Mather-Hodge Funeral Home and Peter Hodge for providing a funeral hearse for our procession of riders! You can read more about it in this Princeton Packet article. The ride will be cancelled if it’s raining. If the weather looks questionable, check the website and Facebook page for updates.

A “Learn to Bike” class aimed at kids 5 years old and older on Saturday at the West Windsor Farmers’ Market on Vaughn Drive. This uses a safe and effective method that doesn’t involve clutching the back of a bike. The class is free but space is limited, so we suggest pre-registering via [email protected]. Please bring a working bike. A helmet is required (the WWBPA will be selling them for $10). Sessions will run continuously during farmers’ market hours; please arrive between 9 a.m. and noon.

In addition, GMTMA is hosting a bikers breakfast at the Trenton train station from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Monday and? a “lunch and learn” session at the Princeton library on Friday to spotlight what Hoboken is doing to promote walking and biking. The session runs from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. and includes lunch refreshments. Space is limited, so pre-register by emailing [email protected].

Through a variety of innovative planning, transportation, and parking strategies, Hoboken, New Jersey is rapidly transforming itself into one of the most bikeable and pedestrian-friendly municipalities in New Jersey. The consulting firm Civic Eye Collaborative recently produced a film that documents some of the strategies that have been implemented to reduce the need for automobile ownership, and to enhance and promote access to transit and other non-motorized transportation modes. The film shows how fundamental smart urban planning is to the quality of life of citizens, and how important these issues are to a town’s vitality and sustainability. After the movie, Ranjit Walia from Civic Eye Collaborative and Hoboken?s Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs will speak about the importance of community outreach and sustainable transportation, and help guide the audience through a “visual preference survey” to engage in a discussion about where, how, and if similar transportation strategies could work in our communities. Lunch refreshments will be served, and attendees will be eligible to participate in a free raffle!

Tags: National Bike Month
Posted in Bike Skills, Farmers' Market, Hoboken, National BIke Month, Princeton Junction train station, Safety |

Bikeways and Master Plans

Tuesday, December 7 by silvia

Two New Jersey towns are working on some big bicycle-friendly improvements.

New Brunswick is close to building a 1.9-mile bikeway. As WalkBikeJersey explains, it should help residents of Highland Park reach the train station and will connect Rutgers’ Douglas campus with downtown, among other things. The bikeway will go from the intersection of Lafayette Street and College Avenue near the Route 18 John Lynch Bridge at its western terminus, to George Street and Bishop Street at the edge of the Douglas Campus to the east. From Lafayette Street, the bikeway would run on College Avenue to Huntington Street, then down George St to Albany St (NJ Rt 27). At Albany, there will be a spur that will run south to the train station while the main route would head north to Neilson Street. Then the bikeway would head east along the entire length of Neilson Street to Bishop Street, where it will turn right for a few hundred feet back to George St. This is more than just paint on the road, and one feature will be on-street, contra-flow bike lanes. See BikeWalkJersey’s blog for more details.

Hoboken is developing a bicycle and pedestrian master plan that includes narrowing extra-wide car lanes as a way to calm traffic and adding bike boxes, which put cyclists in front of cars at a red light for safety reasons. There also would be more police enforcement of speed limits and of laws requiring motorists to yield to pedestrians. The plan is now open to public comment. Read more on Streetsblog.

The WWBPA will be watching developments in both communities with interest and to see what might work in West Windsor.

Finally, an idea from Pennsylvania that can be easily copied: writing to our elected officials in Trenton and Washington asking for effective legislation to ensure that those motorists who injure, maim or kill pedestrians and cyclists are properly punished. This letter notes that all too often, they don’t face criminal charges.

Tags: bike box, bikeways, Hoboken, New Brunswick
Posted in Complete Streets, Hoboken, New Brunswick |