• Exclusive, Class II bike lanes were installed along Madison and Grand Streets
• Bicycling volumes increased noticably over the year
• The new Mayor Dawn Zimmer created a Department of Transportation and Parking that includes a heavy focus on resident pedestrian and bicycling needs
• Community members collaborated with city officials to craft a major pedestrian, bicycling, and traffic calming master plan proposal to NJDOT for a grant and it was approved
• The kick-off meeting of the above NJDOT grant program was held in December
• Meetings with NJTransit were held to discuss ways to increase bike parking at the Hoboken Terminal
• Class III “Sharrows” have been installed on several east-west cross streets, with more to come
• A preliminary bicycle parking plan was drafted with significant community input to identify locations where future bicke racks should be installed throughout the city so that bicyclists have a place to lock up
• Preliminary speed studies and comparisons along streets with/without bike lanes show significant speed reductions on streets with bike lanes, with most cars keeping below the speed limit on these streets
• Bicycle safety techniques and responsibilities became a major focus towards the end of the year as more residents complained about the city being “invaded by hordes” of bicyclists, even submitting letters to local newspapers
• Dicusssions with various restaurants with delivery services were started to encourage more bicycle deliveries versus cars

Bicycle Screenline Counts: We need to perform counts on streets with bike lanes versus streets without them to begin tracking how implementation leads to increased ridership.  The effort involves counting the number of bicycles passing an imaginary screenline along various segments of streets with and without bike lanes during peak periods.  Please contact me at i.sacs@hobokennj.org if you are willing to volunteer some time towards this effort. 

Speed Studies on Bike Lanes as Traffic Calming:  The original premise behind putting in bike lanes was that it would both encourage bicycling and slow vehicle speeds by narrowing the travel lane.  This has been documented in other cities, but we have not done the actual analysis yet.  The effort involves using a radar gun along various segments of streets with and without bike lanes to compare travel speeds.  Please contact me at i.sacs@hobokennj.org if you are willing to volunteer some time towards this effort.

Cool Bicycle Stats:  Although we’re still just getting started, Hoboken has made major progress towards being a more bicycle friendly community.  This is obvious in the increased number of bikes you see on the streets, but we need to do more to prove this in terms of quantifiable evidence.  In addition to ridership volumes, stats on the number of streets with bike lanes, the percent of all Hoboken streets, etc., would all be helpful.  It would be helpful to get input and ideas on different ways to demonstrate our progress.  Please contact me at i.sacs@hobokennj.org if you are willing to volunteer some time towards this effort.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2009/12/license_hobokens_bicycle_rider.html

This letter submission in yesterday’s Jersey Journal by a frustrated resident clearly indicates that the coming educational efforts regarding following proper bicycling laws, safety, and etiquette are prescient.  Meanwhile, the letter also tells us that the “build it and they will come” mantra regarding bike lanes is comign to fruition.  That’s great news for bicyclingin Hoboken, now let’s keep things in check!  Please don’t be a salmon (ride the opposite direction in a bike lane), and please ride slowly and cautiously when on the sidewalk!

As a final update, there is much to report:

Grand Street Bike Lanes Complete: We finished striping the Grand Street exclusive bike lanes all the way to 15th Street!  Screenline counts are needed to measure ridership increases.  We will also shortly be conducting speed studies to see how much these have slowed traffic.

Sharrows Going In Along Several Cross Streets:  Per the ordinances passed last year, the final streets that were too narrow for exclusive lanes are getting sharrows.   You can see them along 12th and 13th, 8th and 9th, 3rd and 4th, etc.  We need to get some stats together on these such as percent of Hoboken streets with bicycle lane markings.

City and Partner Community Groups Awarded Pedestrian/Bicycle Study Grant: We did it!  THrough the hard work of members of the umbrella group “Hoboken Sweet Streets”, we were awarded grant money inthe form of a consultant by NJDOT to study a wide range of pedestrian and bicycle needs.  Congrats to all who participated and let’s now get to work.  First meeting with NJDOT is scheduled for Decembert 14th!

Bike Parking Master Schedule En Route: I have been preparing a map of proposed bike parking locations as a first step i providing better parking accommodations for bicyclists.  After this slight budget thing currently going on at City Hall, we should be able to move forward.

Our plan is to work alongside the consultant so that the materials and output may serve as the “update” needed to these portions of the city’s master plan.  This study will also include traffic calming and “complete streets” focused analysis and recommendations, as well as follow-up fund/grant sources to assist the city in paying for recommended improvements.

We are thrilled to be spearheading this process, and are hoping to get active participation from the community in various forms.  If you are interested in assisting (meetings, organizational, precedence research, field observations, traffic counting, etc.), please let us know!

• The city has installed Class II bike lanes along both Madison and Grand Streets this spring
• Anecdotally, ridership has increased slightly in the city, cars are slowing down on striped streets; however, no data exists to support this and double parking in the bike lanes is a serious concern
• The “finishing touches” for Grand and Madison are to be put in place shortly
• Sharrows along the cross-streets, per the preliminary bike plan, are to follow
• Bike Hoboken members have begun to develop a list of agenda items we wish to bring up to the city.  The organizational categories established include Education/Outreach, Infrastructure, Funding/Grants, Business Development/Services, and Policy/Enforcement
• Next steps include prioritization of categorical items, outreach to other bicycle advocacy organizations/agencies at the county and state level, and finally meetings with appropriate city representatives

At this stage, we are trying to assemble everyone interested in the continued expansion and progress of making Hoboken a bicycle friendly city to join this group, sign-up for our emails, attend future meetings, and hopefully volunteer for an item that is particularly dear to your heart.  We have already made huge strides in Hoboken - we’re setting an example for many other cities in New Jersey and beyond - but we have a lot more to do, and you valuable input and participation is most important!

Our next meeting is Thursday, July 23 at 7pm.  If you are interested in attending, please email us.  Cheers!

Originally Posted on May 15, 2009

Grand Street Gets its Stripes!

As reported on Hoboken411 today!

Just in time for Bike Month, new bike lanes are being installed along Grand Street this week!  The new lane striping stretches from 9th Street all the way to 3rd Street at the moment, eventually heading all the way down to Newark Street.  Now there are bike lanes heading uptown (along Madison Avenue) and downtown (along Grand Street).  The bike lanes are designed to provide space along excessively wide streets for bicyclists while simultaneously slowing down cars (the narrower lane for cars makes drivers slow down but does not reduce roadway capacity).  Bike lanes are placed on the left side of the street because bikers are three times less likely to be “doored” (a car door opens up unexpectedly) riding on the passenger side of parked cars.  So get out on your bikes this weekend and take a cruise around your Hoboken streets!  Enjoy!

Originally Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009

Bike lanes are going in!  Come ride with us Tomorrow!

In case you haven’t noticed, the pilot bike lanes along Madison and Grand Streets have gradually begun being painted over the past weeks.  The dashed lines are preliminary guides, which are then covered with the solid white lanes with bike/man/arrow pavement markings.  Finished lanes are in along Madison from Observer Highway to Seventh Street.  The rest of Madison and then Grand will go in over the next weeks, weather permitting. 

Hoboken411 and HobokenNow both reported on the new bike lanes today.  Also, to celebrate the new shared use of our public space (a.k.a. our streets), we are going to ride along the new bike lanes and then continue around Hoboken tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 3:30PM.  Follow this link for Bike Ride details. 

Originally Posted in November 2008

Share the road signs installed

Hoboken411 spotted one of the “Share The Road” signs that are going up around town. They were installed as a result of legislation passed by the city council in October. Bike lanes and “sharrows” are still expected to be painted soon.

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Originally Posted on October 2, 2008

Bike lanes coming to Hoboken!

On October 1, 2008, the Hoboken City Council unanimously (9-0) passed an ordinance to create bicycle lanes on the left hand side of Madison and Grand streets. “Sharrows” are also planned for Bloomfield, Garden, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 12th and 13th streets.

After a few months of settling in, it’s time to address the biggest concerns/criticisms about our new bike lanes.  To that effect, below is a reprint of the original blog post on Planetizen that seriously addresses these concerns, also posted recently on Hoboken411:

I live in Hoboken, New Jersey.  It is a small (~50k residents), very densely populated city (fourth in the country), with high pedestrian volumes and some hairy traffic issues in certain areas.  With heavy rail, light rail, subway, bus, ferry, taxi, bicycle, pedestrian, and para-transit all converging at Hoboken Terminal, it is also home to perhaps the richest intermodal transportation facility in the world (in terms of modes).  It is often characterized as  feeling European, or like Brooklyn, take your pick.  Recently, we have been successful in implementing a nascent bicycle plan that includes bike lanes striped along the length of two north/south avenues in the heart of the city.  Cross streets are next with “sharrows” since these streets are too narrow for exclusive lanes.  The response has been overwhelmingly positive; however, there are very legitimate critical comments from the community about the new bike lanes as well.  Below are the top five of these that I have gathered via local blog posts, with responses that should be appropriate for many other cities undergoing similar discussions with doubtful members of their communities.

 

Comment #1: Bike lanes are a stupid idea and will be a failure.

Response: Encouraging bicycling is based on a simple fact: When more people choose to bike in Hoboken, fewer cars are on the street, and parking becomes more readily available.  The goal of bike lanes is to send the message that bicycles belong, and are welcome, on the city’s public streets as a viable form of daily transportation.  They also have the side benefit of reducing speeding by giving drivers a narrower lane in which to navigate. Introducing bike lanes is a major shift from the auto-dominated streets of yesterday; however, many cities in America and around the world have had similar initial concerns with very positive results.  The opinions of doubtful and skeptical residents are important; however, we also ask that the bike lanes are given a chance to demonstrate whether or not they are adopted by the general public.

 



Hoboken bikers take to the new lanes for an inaugural ride.

Comment #2: I can see cars double-parked in the bike lane from my window…they will never work. 

Response: As bike lanes become more actively used by bikers, some drivers will learn to respect these lanes and keep them clear.  Nonetheless, others may choose to deliberately use these lanes for double parking or other purposes.  This can be addressed in different ways.  Enforcement of double parking laws is certainly one way to discourage this, but does not get to the heart of the problem.  The root cause of double parking is, of course, not having enough curbside parking spaces available.  It is clear that this issue will be looked at by the city more seriously in coming months, hopefully to the relief of both drivers and bicyclists.  That being said, our streets are used by many, many people each day and it should be expected that different uses (i.e. parking and biking) will occasionally overlap.  The best course of action as a community is to share the streetspace when possible using respect, caution, and deliberate care.  In that vein, drivers who choose to illegally double park would best demonstrate their respect for bikers and bike lanes by doing so on the side of the street opposite the bike lane, so that passing motor vehicles are forced to slow down and carefully enter the bike lane to negotiate around a double-parked car, rather than vice-versa.

 



Local blog Hoboken411.com posted this photo earlier in the year to make a point

Response: Bikers are expected to ride with due care, caution, and concern for themselves and others around them.  They are also expected to follow the same laws and rules as motor vehicles, including staying alert, driving defensively, changing lanes with caution, and stopping at signs and signals.  If a biker needs to change lanes (from the bike lane into the vehicular lane), she should do so as if she were driving a car (except for the turn signal) by checking first that she will not be pulling in front of faster moving traffic coming up from behind, carefully and deliberately changing lanes (from the bike lane into the vehicular lane), passing the object that forced the switch, and then similarly changing back into the bike lane as soon as is practicable.  Swerving and careless riding is punishable by law just as it is in a motor vehicle.  At intersections, riders are similarly expected to obey all traffic signs and signals. 

Comment #4: Bike lanes are more dangerous than simply sharing the street. 

Response: Bike lanes should never be touted as offering safety or protection from drivers; rather, the goal of bike lanes is to send the message that bicycles belong, and are welcome, on the city’s public streets.  There is truth to the idea that a bike lane can provide a false sense of security, but it is up to the biker to behave with due care and caution so that they protect themselves and people around them.  On the other hand, bike lanes also send a clear message to drivers that they are not supposed to be in (or near) the bike lane.  You can already see this message being followed along Madison and Grand Streets, where most cars position themselves in the center of the new lane created between the cars parked on the right side of the road and the newly marked bike lane.  Just as Hobokenites are much more aware of pedestrians than drivers in other New Jersey cities, increased safety for bicyclists will come with greater numbers of bikes on the street and, hence, a greater awareness of bikes by drivers.  Examples from cities all around America and internationally have shown that as drivers become more familiar with greater numbers of bikers on the street, the risk of accidents between the two decreases.  

Comment #5: The bike lanes are on the wrong (left) side of the street, isn’t that illegal? 



Response: Precedents in other American cities (New York City, Minneapolis) have shown that on one-way streets with parallel parking on both sides, bikers benefit from a much lower risk of being “doored” (unexpectedly hit by a car door opening) when the bike lane is on the left side of the street adjacent to the passenger-side door (instead of the driver-side door).  This is particularly true during peak traffic periods when many vehicles have no passenger (solo commuters).  Also, since drivers sit on the left side of cars, they have better visibility of bicyclists of all sizes.  On streets with bus stops, left-side bike lanes prevent bicyclists from jockeying with buses (currently not the case in Hoboken, but also a design factor).  Nonetheless, bikers should watch out for passenger doors opening, keep a reasonable distance from doors by staying in the far right portion of the bike lane, and remember to slow down or stop to avoid swerving into the vehicular lane if a door appears to be opening.  New Jersey Statute 39:4-14.2 requires bicyclists to “ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable”; however, there is no specific regulation pertaining to the placement of exclusive bike lane markings.  Therefore, bicyclists have a choice of riding either in the designated bike lane or to the far right.  It is reasonable to assume that such nuances in the state law are absent due to the relative absence of bike lanes throughout New Jersey until very recently, and that these regulations will likely need to be updated for clarity to reflect the changing character of urban streets throughout the state.  Until that time, bicyclists may choose to ride in Hoboken bike lanes placed on the left side of one-way streets for the reasons described above.

According to Hoboken411, the “Peachtree Hollow” Strip Mall includes 47 parking spaces. This will further encourage car use in town which will increase already high demand for parking and lead to more traffic, congestion, pollution, and noise in Hoboken.

How did this happen? Who thought it would be good to make Hoboken a less walkable and pedestrian-friendly place by adding a strip mall?

Peachtree Hollow Strip Mall (photo by Hoboken411)

Thanks to Hoboken Councilman and Assemblyman Ruben Ramos, eight new bicycle racks (holding 16 bikes total) have been installed at the Hoboken PATH station.

Ramos requested the racks last month after numerous constituent requests, he said. And kudos to NJ Transit for their speed getting them up. But with the bike situation so overcrowded, they might not be enough.

New Bike racks at PATH station (Carly Baldwin, Hoboken Now)