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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
 
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I’m glad this thread is still going since I bike in JC often and there CERTAINLY are bike safety problems that need to be discussed. I chimed in above with my skepticicism about implementation and enforcement of bike lanes and I still stand by what I said ( it can’t work without a sea change in this city) but re-reading the points being made by others I am coming around to some of the logic of the proposal, particularly Dan L’s point that by simply having the lanes visible all the time to the drivers the drivers will slowly incorporate it into their heads that bikes exist and provision should be made for them on the road. But I DO doubt that cyclists would gain instant safe road access the moment a bike lane was painted on.
Posted on: 2012/4/25 9:42
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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There's no doubt that there are streets that could easily accommodate bike lanes - Columbus is a prime example. There are others that probably could without jeopardizing existing parking - York, for instance, could easily absorb a bike lane without changing the flow of traffic. Longer term though - it would be great for people to get past the parking entitlement mentality. If you bought a car, you made a conscious choice to do so - why do you expect to just be able to leave it on the street for free for days at a time? There is a cost associated with that and it's being subsidized by the uber-majority of the city that doesn't live on your block - many of whom don't even own a car. It's strange that free street parking was ever allowed to begin with - close to half the street is wasted on streets that allow parking on both sides. Clearly this is not a popularly held view, but it's disappointing that the poorly conceived status quo becomes the default starting point for conversations on bicycles, traffic control, pedestrian issues, etc. As a tax paying resident of the city who pays to park his car and would love to bike around town without risking his life, I'm frustrated by the complete lack of thought, creativity, will and concern by the city's leadership around this very important issue.
Posted on: 2012/4/24 23:36
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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I disagree. the last thing bikers need is for even more car drivers to hate them and thats whatll happen if you remove an entire streetside worth of parking. this city is tight for streetside parking as it is, and to remove street parking only hurts small business in an already high car/person ratio of a city. and no, you dont need that much space. There are many "superhighway" streets that have 2-3 lanes when they arent necessary, and some which are wide enough to accommodate parking and a bike lane without reducing any lanes at all.
Posted on: 2012/4/24 12:24
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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I just want to add my +1 in support of bike lanes. I ride my bike on the sidewalk on some blocks (I know it's illegal) because I'm just too terrified of the traffic. More amenities for bikers will have many positive side effects besides just making biking easier: Higher property values to name just one. But the idea of it being a traffic calming measure (as explained above) is also a great byproduct.
Posted on: 2012/4/24 10:12
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2012/4/23 22:36
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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I know it's hard to see the bigger picture, but basically when you bring in infrastructure for cycling it acts as a traffic calming measure and ultimately, over time, lessens the amount of traffic there is. Bike lanes encourage people to ride their bikes which means less people driving around. If, in a city, it becomes more convenient to use other modes of transportation over driving, people would be driving less, and it would be safer for all road users. Bike lanes are a start to that progress.
Posted on: 2012/4/23 15:57
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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One way to safely create bike lanes would be to eliminate parking on one side of the street and install the bike lane where the parking once was.
Posted on: 2012/4/23 15:21
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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There are projects that have been approved but not built. All of these projects will bring in more auto traffic. Most of the streets in JC are extremely narrow, I know there are exceptions. But I cannot see how cars and bikes can manage safely on our narrow streets.
Posted on: 2012/4/23 14:48
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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We need to start by paving our roads, they are atrocious. They are dangerous enough driving an automobile on them with all the potholes and torn up roads, how are you suppose to be safe riding a bike on them. Nice job by the clueless Healy administration. They drive on the JC roads too, you think they would have to common sense to realize how bad they are to drive on.
Posted on: 2012/4/23 11:01
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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ha, ok. let's just give up then. bike lanes are so expensive; driving and maintaing roads for cars is cheap, i forgot.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 20:14
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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Let's start by getting the sanitation department to care about all the garbage that misses the trucks and end up on the streets and sidewalks of JC. Why do I have to clean up after these guys? They suck!
Posted on: 2012/4/22 19:34
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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Hate to sound negative but I must point out that Jersey City at this time can't even maintain the painted double yellow lines on any of the streets I frequent in town- they are faded to near invisibility. Beyond this big point I want to contrast NYC's bike lanes and Hoboken's: NYC's are a success only due to the fact that they are physical lanes often with real barriers keeping the autos out. They cost way more than Jersey City can afford. The budget version is what Hoboken has, implemented with just the cost of painting a white line on the pavement. Notice that no auto pays them any heed and that they offer no safety at all to a cyclist.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 18:42
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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With cityhall always crying poor, I doubt they could afford the road paint and signs to implement the idea.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 18:01
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority.
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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i haven't read this whole thread but yes, they should implement bike lanes.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 16:47
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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Absolutely, they are terrible offenders.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 9:18
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Just can't stay away
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How about at least one sidewalk on every block through Powerhouse warehouse district. How long do we have to walk in the street to get to our homes or walk our dogs?!
Posted on: 2012/4/22 1:38
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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I don't know about licenses for casual riders, but definitely for delivery guys/messengers. I bike a lot in NYC and the worst offenders are the deliverymen and messengers. Most everybody else follows the rules decently.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 0:49
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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What about restaurant deliver guys using bicycles as their delivery vehicle ? I see disregard from them all the time. It also seems those with little to lose don't care of who they moe down they just leave a wake behind.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 0:13
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Get on your bikes and ride !
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2012/4/21 23:11
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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THey're planning them and next month there will be a "demonstration" lane on Grove St.
What I wish we could implement would be required licenses or something for adult riders- cyclists are often their own worst enemy. Riding on the sidewalk, salmoning (going wrong way on a one-way street), not obeying stop signs and traffic lights - all illegal and I like to hope people are uninformed rather than jerks.....
Posted on: 2012/4/21 21:37
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Biking in JC |
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Newbie
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There's ZERO bike lanes in Jersey City! While all other NYC metro areas/boroughs are moving on and implementing biking lanes rules and regulations Jersey City has nothing. So sad!! The so called ‘Complete Streets’ policy that just passed says that it should be implemented “whenever feasible.” What a joke! Shame on you mayor Healy!
Posted on: 2012/4/21 20:33
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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yes, I am very familiar with the history, efforts and failures since the late '90's to advance bicycling and bike infrastructure in Jersey City.
for many of the concerns and issues raised, please consider getting involved with Bike JC - http://bikejc.org/ as they met with the PA and have tried to work with JC and county government. and I strongly believe in and support bike lanes - making streets that look like bicyclists are using them and that have dedicated space for riders will increase bicyclists on our streets and in turn be safer (safety in numbers). this is a city council issue and our city council can approve a network of bike lanes - which I suggest we start with a skeleton network of obvious and easy to implement streets. I will support this on the council and you can support this by getting involved with Bike JC.
Posted on: 2011/10/19 0:08
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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There's no way to control which direction a passenger with a bike is going to roll. Insurance regulations dictate to the PA what is allowed and what will cause problems. Having a folding bike has solved this situation for me. It's all in the closure !
Posted on: 2011/10/18 13:50
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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At 3:31 pm, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to take my bike into Manhattan. There’s absolutely nobody on the train. Hell, there’s nobody on the Manhattan-bound train at 6PM. The blackout periods don’t need to be for 3 hours, and they don’t need to be in both directions.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 13:37
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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never gonna happen, unfortunately. But if you had a folding bike, those are allowed on during rush hour.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 13:35
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Re: should Jersey City create and implement on-street bicycle lanes? |
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Home away from home
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To clarify for you and Seagull, the problem with bikes and PATH is the physical system is maxed out during rush already. They can't add any more trains, or cars to the existing trains. It would take creativity and the cooperation of the PA to do more. Here's a couple of ideas that'll never happen: 1: tunnel bike shuttle. A bus that's half bike rack that just shuttles back and forth through the Holland. Biggest structural problem is there's no bus lane through the tolls. Could be solved with PA cooperation, but they have no interest in our plebian problems. 2: A secure bike storage area at WTC so you could take the PATH and hop on your bike that you keep there. At $5/day it wouldn't take long to pay for the extra bike.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 12:11
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Home away from home
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Bike Lanes would be great but people who live here and others who travel our streets in cars barely obey the existing traffic laws. I am a little shocked at the lack of outrage by parents of young children when it comes to this problem. Only bloody death will open the eyes of our city administrartors. Even then we get that stupid blinking 25MPH sign for a couple of weeks. This is not a pedestrian friendly city nor will it ever be safe for bikes.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 11:40
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Just can't stay away
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It would be nice if the path had a Bike only car (use an old car) at the end of the train for commuters. I would love to ride my bike to work and save the $5 a day i spend on the subway once i get into the city. Charge me an extra 5bucks per month to use this bicycle/passenger only car if you want but please give me the option of getting my bike in during rush hour.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 10:24
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Newbie
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Sorry folks but until Healy and the like are out and some forward thinking, bike friendly council members are elected this bike lane talk will fall on deaf ears. Columbus is a perfect example of a wide road that could have easily accomodated bike lanes.
To give you an idea of what JC cycists are up against - I was at a fund raising event a couple of years ago and was talking to Healy about commuting on bike to and from work and I asked him about this very topic and he thought I was crazy biking in JC and that he wanted people on public transportation. Look, I am in favor of public transportation as well but to dismiss my concern for bike lanes had me stunned. He then went off to sing Sinatra's, "New York, New York." Pretty decent voice actually....but seriously, the closest Healy has got to any sort of bike related cause in this town is the ribbon cutting at Grove Street Bikes. I know Dan Levin and I know he and his family are avid cyclists. He is one of the voices who actually want to see a vibrant and safe biking community like other cities enjoy. Why is Jersey City still in the stone ages when it comes to biking? Just ask Healy. Vote for Dan on November 8th for Jersey City Council At-Large Seat.
Posted on: 2011/10/18 8:15
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Quite a regular
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Yes. I think Jersey City should start somewhere and implement a few lanes. See what the response is.
Dan, Do you know the history on the "bike route" signs and how that concept evolved within the city plan? My understanding was that those routes were, at one time, intended to have dedicated lanes, but something fell apart in the implementation of the actual plan. My feeling on the existing bike route signs is that they are misleading, as these routes are not particularly safe. In fact I often take slightly less direct safer routes. Another concern I have is that these routes appear on Google Bike route searches. Could these meaningless distinctions be leading someone into an unsafe situation? After all, the bike routes of JC are no more than regular streets (with giant potholes and metered parking) with signs on them bearing pictures of bicycles. Baldwin, for instance, is the "bike route" I take often. I would not take this street during busy times if I had a child on my bike or if I was a less experienced rider or didn't have reliable equipment, including a helmet. Compare how many cyclists you see on sidewalks in Jersey City versus Manhattan. There are far more cyclists in Manhattan, but they find safety in the streets. I believe bike lanes would make for safer sidewalks. Another point to remember is that bike lanes can be successfully shared with bus lanes, as they sometimes are in Manhattan. Not ideal, I suppose, but could work some places including . . . part or all of Montgomery (a conduit between uptown and downtown), JFK Blvd. (I know this would be a battle over the meters, but there seem to be more and more riders on the sidewalk and the street), and Palisade in the Heights. Save oil! Ride your bikes! Jersey City is still a great place to ride, even if we don't have lanes yet. Hopefully Hoboken's progress will provide an inspiration.
Posted on: 2011/10/17 23:47
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