Thread by @MikeLydon

1/x: One year since the adoption of the 2020 #LetsRideJC Bike Master Plan, we’ve led / contributed to implementation plans for more than 7 (street) miles of protected bike lanes, with most of these miles built in or set to be installed in 2020. Here’s a quick review.

2/x: Let’s start w/ Grove St, the 1st segment built, a two-way PBL, fittingly in front of City Hall. As I tweeted Friday, the conversion of the southbound travel to outdoor dining has made this one of the best streets in JC. And Grove now connects to directional PBLs on Grand St

3/x: Washington Blvd followed in 2019, but was not finished before the City decided to repave the full street, which allowed us to learn from shortcomings in the initial design. These directional lanes extend to Marin Blvd, and will soon connect to Observer Highway in Hoboken.

4/x: Montgomery Street was also a 2019 project, from Greene to Marin, and perhaps the quickest of the “quick-builds,” as evidenced by the striping over of the initial door zone lane. Montgomery is now being extended all the way up to Bergen Avenue.

5/x: Final 2019 project: the Bergen Avenue 2-way PBL, linking Montgomery in McGinley Sq. to Sip in Journal Sq. We tested a 4-to-3 Ross diet with a directional protected bike lane in fall 2018 as a demonstration. Lessons learned and ongoing design led to the 2019 project.

6/x: An interesting result of the Bergen Avenue road diet is vehicle travel time through the corridor sped up, as much as 62 seconds during the PM peak, a positive result if reducing vehicular delay is your thing. CitiBike ridership was also up 18% at the 2 corridor stations.

7x: early 2020 brought the much anticipated Grand Avenue directional PBLs, which switches to a 2-way PBL at Monmouth to continue down Pacific Street. Like most of these early projects, this project required converting multiple vehicular lanes to PBLs and more ped space.

8/x: Grand St is the first project to have a number of protected intersection designs, as well as the use of Jersey Barriers along a particularly gnarly stretch. Resolving the Grove Street connection was also challenging as a number of infrastructure designs connect there.

9/x: the one block Grove Street south of Grand is a particularly fun connection to Morris Canal Square Park, which features a curbless design.

10/x: Following Grand St is the 2-way PBL on the side of Merseles St, a particularly challenging corridor to cycle because of the entrance to the Jersey Turnpike. We biked this during the Handlebar survey portion of planning process; the need to reduce vehicular lanes was clear.

11/x: The north-south Merseles 2-way PBL turns into an east-west shared use path, as there is no sidewalk along the north side embankment. The south side also features a painted sidewalk extension. This link will be extended east all the way to Greene in downtown JC this fall.

12/x: While the Merseles link may not feature super high ridership yet, it will soon link east-west protected bikeways along Christopher Columbus Drive, Montgomery, Grand, and Pacific Street, forming an important network backbone on the west side of downtown.

13/x: Speaking of Montgomery, directional PBLs are just now being finished, extending the corridor west, up the hill to the Bergen Avenue PBL. Here you can see some of the bike, walk, and bus design details emerging.

14/x: A focus on separation and network connectivity is bringing utility to cyclists, and is providing a safer environment for all street users, especially pedestrians. While we don’t have comprehensive data yet, initial data from Grand shows cycling is up 380% 6/19 to 6/20!

15/15: Expanding the network while ensuring good maintenance practices will be important moving forward; Quick Build materials certainly have a limited lifespan too, so using more durable materials will be needed at some point but right now the focus is on reclaiming space.

Hey all, I made a calculation error. The cycling increase along Grand is 205% (still great!), not 380%.