Jersey City Repaves Bikeway Streets But Fails to Implement Approved Bike Facilities

It looks like Jersey City is backing off of its commitment to a handful of new bike lanes that were due to be implemented starting June 2013.

When I wrote to new Jersey City Mayor Fulop in July 2013, I had thought that new bike lanes were probably just delayed. I live in downtown Jersey City (Hamilton Park neighborhood), less than a block from the bike lane planned for Coles Street. The new one-way bike lane will extend from 2nd Street to 7th Street when Coles is resurfaced this summer. I’ve been keeping an eye on Coles Street and it hasn’t been resurfaced yet, so I figured that maybe all the bike facilities might be delayed with resurfacing not completed yet.

This afternoon I bicycled through the southern part of Jersey City (Greenville and McGinley Square neighborhoods) and looked for any signs of new bicycle infrastructure. It was worse than I thought. Resurfacing projects have been completed, but there’s no sign of bicycle markings.

Jersey City planned to do the following bike facilities in southern Jersey City this summer: (see the full map of bikeways planned for 2013 resurfacing below, see the 2012 document announcing these bikeways here.)

Fulton (from Garfield to Ocean – 0.2-mile one-way bike lane)

Fulton (from MLK to Bergen – 0.1-mile one-way bike lane)

Woodlawn (from West Side to Kennedy – 0.4-mile one-way bike lane)

Old Bergen Road (from MacAdoo [sic] to Merritt – 0.9-mile two-way sharrow bike route)

Bergen (from Communipaw to Montgomery – 0.6-mile two-way sharrow bike route)

I rode all five of these segments – and they’ve all been repaved. There are new crosswalks, new travel lane markings, but no bike lanes and no sharrows. I suppose it’s possible that these resurfacing projects are incomplete… and bike lane markings are still on the way… but I fear that the projects are done, and the window for doing bike markings along with other road markings is closing or closed. Though bike markings are relatively inexpensive infrastructure, they’re even cheaper when done in the context of resurfacing.

I am not sure exactly who’s responsible for this lapse. It could be Jersey City’s Department of Public Works or City Planning Division, perhaps a contractor or inspector missing or misinterpreting something, or who knows. Regardless of who’s responsible, I think it’s a good time to let Mayor Steven Fulop know that cyclists and others are supportive of this new bike infrastructure, and that it’s important that Jersey City not miss opportunities for implementation. My earlier letter to Mayor Fulop is here. At this point, I’d recommend emailing him… though I couldn’t find an email address on the City’s website. Perhaps call the mayor’s “Action Bureau” at (201) 547-4900 or (201) 547-5555 and let them know that you want the city to implement bike lanes announced for this summer.

Here’s a google map of bikeways planned to be implemented with Summer 2013 street resurfacing:

Lastly, another photo showing another re-surfaced street missing the planned bike facilities: