Welcome to the fourth issue of New Jersey Walks and Bikes, a newsletter for anyone interested in bicycle and pedestrian issues. In this edition, our first of 2008, we bring you a variety of timely feature stories, including: “NJ Bicycle and Pedestrian Advocacy”, which explores the varying goals and approaches utilized by bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups in NJ and beyond.  The “Why Drive 25 MPH” piece presents the efforts and related successes of ‘Drive 25’ campaigns, including the innovative work being accomplished in the NJ communities of Riverton Borough, Freehold Township and Bergen County.

This edition of New Jersey Walks and Bikes will also inform you of strategies to “Increase Pedestrian Safety in Suburban Areas,” which tackles the issue of sidewalks in suburban locales and discusses the benefits of pathways and multi-use trails, highlighting the progress being made on this front in Bernards Township, as well as in Gloucester County, NJ. Our final feature in this issue details the successful collaboration of the Cross County Connection Transportation Management Association and two communities in Burlington County. Partnering together, they have focused on a regional approach to developing bicycle paths in their communities.

The “News in Brief” section highlights the new NJ Driver Manual, published this past January; reports on the completion of the County Road Sidewalk Inventory webpage developed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which includes useful data for walkers and bikers on over 13,000 miles of NJ’s roadways; and details some of the extremely interesting findings of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Biking in the Delaware Valley in 2005 survey, which represents one of the most extensive bicycle rider surveys undertaken in the nation.

In our effort to make this publication as useful to you as possible, we request that you please visit and complete our brief reader survey, even if you have done so previously. The link to the survey is accessible from the newsletter frontpage. As always, we thank you for your interest and support in making New Jersey a safe walkable and bikeable state!

 

—Sheree Davis
NJ Department of Transportation Bicycle and Pedestrian Program           Coordinator