OCEAN CITY – At the Community Center Aug. 23, a throng of biking enthusiasts of all stripes, serious pedalers, recreational, and families with children, took advantage of a public meeting organized by BikeOCNJ, whose website is: www.bikeocnj.org.
This Ninth Annual Public Forum was organized to inform the community about the organization’s and city’s accomplishments to-date, elaborate on current projects, share opinions and solicit ideas for the future.
Per its mission statement, the group aims to “help create a more bicycle-friendly Ocean City; help educate and promote awareness on the issue of safety, provide bike route information, and foster a fun and enjoyable biking experience in our community.”
As a result of that public meeting, participants could state “mission accomplished.”
Tom Heist, association president, welcomed the large group in attendance and noted, “We believe communities should be planned, designed and managed to ensure that people of all ages can bike easily, safely, and regularly. We believe that we can cost-effectively make the changes needed, to make our community a more physically active and livable place.”
Heist pointed out the city has put most of the pieces in place for a safe bicycle route that runs the length of the island north-to-south.
The route features marked bike routes, various features that slow vehicular traffic, the HAWK signal that helps bikers cross the busy Ninth Street corridor, and a reconfiguration of West Avenue at the island’s south end to create buffered bicycle lanes.
In addition this past year BikeOCNJ had a successful bike light giveaway program, updated its bike brochure, and created a DOT (Department of Transportation) video showcasing the well-received West Avenue road improvements.
The group is working on more improvements to the bicycle corridor including the creation of safer corridors for biking east to west on the island. New bike lanes are planned for East Atlantic Boulevard to Beach Road to the Boardwalk and from First and Simpson to Fifth, behind the Primary School connecting to Fifth and Haven to Eighth Street.
Comments from those attending ranged from appreciation for the opportunity to learn more about Ocean City’s biking resources to eagerness to make their opinions known to the association which pledged to communicate them to City Hall.
Several in attendance voiced concerns with bicyclists not obeying traffic laws and pointed out that the crossings both at 34th and 35th streets at Haven Avenue were very dangerous.
For the coming year, the association will work with the city for its support to implement several priority goals: the safe crossing at 34th and 35th streets at Haven Avenue; redesign of Ninth Street from West Avenue to the Boardwalk to include bike lanes; and completion of a federal grant to install 10 additional on-street bike corrals in the business district and 30 bike racks at new additional beach locations. The bike corrals are expected to be in place for summer 2017.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.
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