Bike Paths Add ‘Green’ Ways To See County

COURT HOUSE – How does fun change into funds? As a tourist destination, Cape May County’s economy greatly depends on learning what vacationers do for fun in their time here. The task of business owners is to make those fun trends profitable. As Freeholder Will Morey explores ways to improve the county’s economic base he hopes to find solid, year-round ventures that will retain and expand for those who visit, as well as find opportunities for residents that will turn into solid employment.
What part do bike paths play in the county’s overall economic plan? As spokes support a bicycle wheel, many facets are needed to support the local economy. As residents and visitors seek many healthy, “green” ways to enjoy vacation days or spare time, bike paths are a low relatively lost-cost “spoke” in that wheel. Bike paths afford quiet, safe places to ride, relax, walk, jog or skate while offering alternative ways of getting around a county that is experiencing a greater amount of highway traffic and gridlock, especially in season.
With an increased number of bike paths and lanes, vacationers may be more likely to spend several days, instead of just a one-day visit. If they know they can have fun riding from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry to the County Park and Zoo, why not stay extra time? Those overnight stays, as county Tourism Director Diane Wieland noted at the recent Tourism Conference and to the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce May 15, have a multiplying effect on restaurants, motels, and stores. To paraphrase Wieland, today’s day-tripper is next year’s overnight visitor.
Major bike path additions were built within the past few years throughout the county. Providing the funds for most of those bike paths was federal ISTEA money. That’s the acronym for Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. Signed into law by President Bush in December 1991, it created a new concept for American ways to get around.
According to a statement by former U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner, the bill “will create jobs, reduce congestion, and rebuild our infrastructure. It will help maintain mobility. It will help state and local governments address environmental issues.” The funding is helping create a bike path system in the county that, while not directly connected to each other, is possible to ride for those who so desire.
County government, in concert with municipalities and the Delaware River and Bay Authority, is working to make that regional bike path network a reality. Such paths have a direct impact on tourism, spanning the heart of the county where many campgrounds are located, and offer easy links to shopping areas. Additionally, as the paths become widely known, it is likely more workers may opt to bicycle to work for cost savings as well as health benefits.
An important tourism facet to the county’s regional bike path network is to be able to advertise easy, safe bike links from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry to the Cape May County Park and Zoo.
On Five Mile Beach, the County Park Department successfully proposed to the Open Space board for funding that will extend the Wildwoods’ bike network by developing a path into Diamond Beach where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge is located. That portion to the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge will result in an island-long “rock pile to rock pile” or Hereford Inlet to Cold Spring Inlet bike path and pedestrian walkway.
On the mainland, the concept of linking paths in Lower and Middle townships took a step closer to reality with the announcement in late April that both municipalities had received letters from freeholders that funding from the Open Space Board had approved $412,311 to link their paths. That will extend the bicycle path south to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal in North Cape May.
When completed, that would mean bike access from the ferry terminal to the County Park and Zoo.
Bike paths have been constructed in phases of perhaps several hundred thousand dollars each. That was how Middle Township constructed its first 1.1-mile bike path from Court House-South Dennis Road to Goshen Road. That path makes easy, safe access to Cape May County Park and Zoo without the need to go through the busy center of the county seat. That path also leads to Atlantic Cape Community College campus.
On May 15, Middle Township announced that it had received a letter from Gov. Chris Christie notifying it that Phase 5 of its bike paths, linking Main Street, Whitesboro to Satt Boulevard in Rio Grande, had won approval for $360,000.
Once at the County Park, a short ride east on Crest Haven Road places bikers at the James S. Cafiero Eco-Walk adjacent to the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce headquarters. Once the overpasses are constructed on Garden State Parkway, bikers will also have easy access to the Crest Haven Complex, Cape May County Technical, Special Services and Compact schools and county offices.
As vacationing and resident bicyclists increase and become more familiar with bike paths, ease of getting around without gasoline (or other fuel) will become more apparent. The hope for the future of these paths is that they will be viewed as assets that are an integral part of the overall Cape May County experience.
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