The Philadelphia Mayor’s Office has hired Charles Carmalt, a member of the NJ Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Council, as the city’s new Pedestrian and Bicycle Coordinator. Carmalt has 35 years of transportation planning experience in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, he had been managing his own consulting firm, where the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists have received special emphasis for each project. An active volunteer in his community, Carmalt has represented Lawrence Township on the Mercer County Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force.

 

Carmalt spoke with us about walking and biking in New Jersey, as well as his new job with the City of Philadelphia.

 

1.) How did you get involved in transportation planning?  More specifically, how did you get involved in bicycle and pedestrian planning?

As a child, I was always fascinated with transportation.  When our family went on trips, I loved to look out the window of the car. I could never sleep while we were driving around, no matter how late it was, because I wanted to look out at the road. Traveling was a very exciting thing. I even had a road map collection as a kid.

 

As to how I got involved with bike/ped planning, I grew up in a very

walkable town in Westchester County, New York. I walked and biked everywhere as a kid and never did get into cars during high school. While taking a year off from working on my degree in landscape architecture at NC (North Carolina) State, I got a job developing bikeways and pathway networks as a greenway planner.  During the mid-1990s, I was working as a consultant and was brought in to help Bill Feldman manage the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for NJDOT. While working on this project, I really felt like I was returning to my original interests.

 

2.) What do you feel are some of the top barriers to bicycling and walking in New Jersey?

#1 The State Highway Network: It was built to be pedestrian-unfriendly; especially routes with central median barriers.

#2 Suburban Development: The curvilinear streets of residential layouts make walking distances very long.

#3 The difficulty involved in making people, especially at the county and municipal level, invest in these travel modes. Decision makers assume that everyone is supposed to get in the car; this mentality pervades the state.

#4 Lack of bicycle parking in commercial areas. Bicyclists can cope with most roadways, but with no parking options, cyclists have no safe places to secure their bikes upon