Bicycle and Pedestrian
New Jersey ranks third among states in the percentage of households not owning a vehicle (11.4 percent) and fourth for households owning either one or zero vehicles (45.1 percent).
Yet, since 1970, vehicle miles traveled in New Jersey has increased at a rate four times faster than the state’s population—thanks in large part to the sprawling, auto-dependent development that has prevailed in recent decades. This increase has helped make transportation the largest, and fastest-growing, contributor to the state’s overall carbon footprint.
With these numbers in mind, it makes sense to encourage pedestrian and bicycle behavior by constructing safe roads and routes that accommodate all users. New Jersey Future is an advocate for “Complete Streets,” ensuring that roadways are designed and operated to enable safe access for pedestrians, bikes and the disabled, not just cars.
Riding a bicycle or walking represents an affordable and convenient way to get around, particularly for short distances, and travel by bike or foot can also help people get more active. Our environment—physical, social and cultural—affects our daily behavior. If we want to encourage healthy choices every day about eating and physical activity, we need environments where such choices are available, affordable and easy. As New Jersey strives to reduce emissions from the transportation sector in order to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals, turning these short auto trips into a walk or a bike ride would be a good place to start.
Despite all the health benefits of biking, walking or using transit, the House of Representatives’ proposed transportation re-authorization bill falls short on these key transportation needs.
What’s the difference between a street and a road? Focusing on the different primary purposes of each could help bring clarity to the discussion over how to address the traffic congestion on major arteries like Route 1 in Mercer County, and how best to implement a bus rapid transit system there.
Hoboken’s adoption of a Complete Streets approach — which shifts the emphasis from accommodating more cars and parking to making roadways more convenient for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and automobiles — has earned the city a Leadership Award from Sustainable Jersey.
Presentations and other documents from several sessions at the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association’s annual conference.
Complete streets, safe routes to school and joint-use policies can help change the built environment and increase access to existing facilities, thereby offering multiple additional opportunities for physical activity.
An assessment of how comprehensively New Jersey’s Department of Transportation has implemented its Complete Streets Policy. September 2011.
The Englewood renewal plan for the West Side-and the Group USA building which serves as its anchor-conforms to many of the core principles of intelligent design and growth, and suggests how they are at once interdependent and distinct.
Oct. 11, 2011 — A new statewide poll commissioned in part by New Jersey Future shows that New Jersey residents think the way the state has developed over the last 20 years has made it less affordable and more difficult to travel. They support more compact communities with greater transportation choices, protection of critical resources like drinking water, and regional coordination of land-use planning efforts.
Created places, defined space, created visual interest, and promoted pedestrianism in Willingboro, NJ.
Promoted pedestrianism, respecting the local vernacular, maintaining an appropriate scale, and creating visual interest in South Orange.
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