New Jersey’s roads are among the most deadly for pedestrians and bicyclists in the country – a blemish that the New Jersey Department of Transportation would like us to believe is being erased.
In early June, the NJDOT published its first newsletter on bicycle and pedestrian safety, celebrating Governor Corzine’s $74 million Pedestrian Safety Initiative and offering an assortment of safety tips to community planners and to commuters. New Jersey has been identified as one of 13 “pedestrian focus states” by the Federal Highway Administration, and the NJDOT newsletter claims New Jersey to be “the first of the 13 focus states to have a plan ready for implementation.”
2006 represented an 8% increase in New Jersey pedestrian fatalities – 168 deaths, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (www.tstc.org). While New Jersey may be the first to complete the task of setting a plan, Governor Corzine’s Pedestrian Safety Initiative may not be the most thorough or robust. For fiscal year 2006, the state transportation planning budget was $2.74 billion – bringing Governor Corzine’s plan to a mere .5% of total annual capital commitment.
“That won’t buy a whole lot,” said Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists. He explained that anything less than 1% of state DOT budget is not considered significant. The spending offered in Governor Corzine’s plan “does not represent the percentage of pedestrian accidents in the state. It also does not represent the percentage of bicycle and pedestrian trips made in the state.” New Jersey is not serious about tackling the problem of its dangerous roads, Mr. Clarke concluded.
But how can New Jersey’s motorist community absorb the necessary infrastructure changes needed for bicycle and pedestrian safety, and can local municipalities realistically implement the changes? While the NJDOT newsletter claims the plan “won accolades throughout the state,” Governor Corzine’s plan does not intricately explore the specifics. The plan extends a few vague guideposts, such as the assembly of a “pedestrian impact team” and “small-scale engineering treatments” and an effort to “emphasize and clearly explain the roles and responsibilities of drivers and pedestrians.”
Mr. Clarke is more specific. “When states and counties routinely rebuild roads, they need to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian safety into the design. Most four-lane roads can be converted to three lanes – with bike lanes of proper width on both sides. Traffic patterns need to be studied, but in the vast majority of cases the three-lane conversion has no impact on traffic flow.”
The problem centers also on excessive motor vehicle usage. “People make short trips in their cars for simple errands and to get to mass transit. Most trips are two miles or less,” he said. “The education portion of any state plan should encourage people to incorporate bicycles more regularly into their trips.”
Mr. Clarke has seen communities around the nation benefit from these programs. “Making these changes has a significant impact on economic development. Cities and municipalities that have implemented these programs have become attractive destinations for families.” Bicycles are zero-emission vehicles, and increased bicycle usage decreases air, water, and noise pollution in the community. But before New Jersey can become an eco-friendly utopia, this issue of bicycle and pedestrian safety has to be settled.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New Jersey experienced a 3.7% growth in population from 2000 to 2006 – more than 300,000 new residents. Traffic congestion certainly mirrors this growth. For the state to have a realistic chance of being removed from the federal government’s dubious list of 13 most deadly states for pedestrians and bicyclists, it appears that Governor Corzine will need to break out the calculator again.