Live Photos of Street Completers at the NJ Bike Walk Summit
There’s no such thing as a bike lane fairy! Each one of us can make a difference. Together we can change the world!
February, 2012
Bike&Walk Montclair Organizational Capacity Building Workshop
On February 11th and 12th, Trustees, Officers and Committee Members of Bike&Walk Montclair came together for a Capacity Building Workshop to actively shape a sustainable future for our organization. The workshop was made possible through a grant from the Partners for Health Foundation, as active supporters of our organization’s growth, and was facilitated by Jeremy Grandstaff of the Alliance for Biking & Walking.
This day and a half workshop was a chance for the leaders of our organization to foster a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing Bike&Walk Montclair with respect to advocacy, outreach strategies, board development, feasible revenue sources, and other issues. It also gave us the opportunity to celebrate where we are today, as an organization, and to create a unified vision for where we want to be in order to ensure the future success of Bike&Walk Montclair and its efforts in our community.
During this time, we learned ways to strengthen our Board, our committee work, and explored the various roles of our organization’s current and future leadership. In the end, we fleshed out a strategy which embodies a clearly defined mission, vision, goals, and guiding principles. At the core of that strategy is an action plan that will help take our goals from vision to reality as well as performance measures to keep us to task.
At the close of the workshop, we left with a renewed sense of organizational purpose and a mission that we were proud to stand behind which simply states, “Bike&Walk Montclair advocates for a community that embraces safe biking and walking for all.” This workshop was a benchmark in the organization’s 10-year history as we’ve grown from functioning as a fluid grassroots advocacy group to a structured non-profit with a board, comprised of officers and trustees, and several committees. As a result, we’ve taken Bike&Walk Montclair’s grassroots beginnings and given them a solid root structure to grow and be nurtured by our current and future members and supporters.
View photos from the Organizational Capacity Building Workshop.
Now is the time to contact Lautenberg, Menendez and your Congressional Representative on Transportation
Last time, we asked you to contact representatives on the Transportation Committee. This time, it’s time to ask both chambers of Congress to save our streets.
The current Senate transportation bill dilutes walking and biking programs. To improve the bill, we’re asking senators to vote for the Cardin-Cochran amendment on the floor to guarantee local governments a voice in transportation decisions, allowing them to build sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that keep people safe.
In the House, we are asking representatives to oppose the House transportation bill. Despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is a low-cost investment that creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking.
Please contact your Representative and Senators today and ask them to save our streets. Click here to send a message to your members of Congress through the League of American Bicyclists’ Action Center.
- In New Jersey, 25% of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians and bicyclists.
- The elimination of dedicated transit funding will decimate NJ TRANSIT resulting in higher fares, fewer routes and decreased service levels.
As written, the Senate’s transportation bill removes dedicated funding for walking and biking and allows state DOTs to opt-out of safe street programs. The Cardin-Cochran amendment would improve the bill by ensuring that local governments can apply directly for funds to build walking and biking infrastructure.
Tell your senators:
- Local governments deserve a voice in transportation. The Cardin-Cochran amendment ensures that cities and counties have a voice in making transportation decisions for safer streets in their communities.
- Safety matters. Bicycle and pedestrian deaths make up 14% of all traffic fatalities, but only 1.5% of federal funds go towards making walking and biking safer. These programs provide funding for sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that make streets safe for all users.
- Active transportation is a wise investment. Walking and biking infrastructure is low-cost, creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, and is critical to economic development for main street America.
On the other side of Congress, the House is considering a transportation bill (HR 7) that reverses 20 years of progress in making streets safer for people. Despite the fact that walking and biking make up 12% of trips but receive only 1.5% of federal funding, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking. It’s time to defeat this bill.
Tell your representative:
- HR 7 takes us back to the 1950s. HR 7 takes us back to a 1950s system by eliminating dedicated funding for biking and walking AND kicking transit out of the highway trust fund. We need a transportation bill to meet 2012 needs, not 1950 needs.
- HR 7 doesn’t invest wisely. Federal transportation laws should invest our finite resources in cost-effective, efficient infrastructure solutions that create jobs and keep the economy moving. The House bill eliminates walking and biking, despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is low-cost and creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway funding.
- HR 7 makes streets more dangerous for kids. By repealing the successful and effective Safe Routes to School program, the House bill makes the streets more dangerous for kids on their walks and bike rides to school.
Congress needs to know that that finding effective, efficient transportation solutions to keep people safe on the streets should be a national priority. Please contact your representative and senators today. Please find attached template letters for contacting your senators and representatives. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for all that you do to keep the streets safe!
—-
Thanks to Alliance for Biking and Walking and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia for providing the text for this notice.
New Jersey Transportation Officials announce Rail Safety Blueprint
New Jersey Transportation Officials announce Rail Safety Blueprint
Report emphasizes engineering, education and enforcement
(Trenton) – NJDOT Commissioner James Simpson today announced a range of initiatives designed for quick implementation to promote safety and reduce accidental deaths along the state’s busy railroad tracks.
The announcement caps three months of work by a Safety Along Railroads Leadership Oversight Committee and its three subcommittees that were formed in the wake of two incidents in October, 2011. Those incidents, in Wayne on October 2 and in Garfield on October 3, claimed the lives of three teenagers and injured a fourth.
The report released today, which builds on a solid foundation of existing NJ TRANSIT safety programs, represents the work of dozens of federal and state officials and other stakeholders. They explored options and developed an action plan that has been endorsed by NJDOT and NJ TRANSIT.
“Nothing at NJDOT or NJ TRANSIT matches the importance of safeguarding the lives of those who use New Jersey’s extensive, multi-modal transportation system,” Simpson said. “We dedicate the efforts that will spring from this safety initiative to all who have endured tragedy along our railroads and to all who we will protect in the future.”
“It’s a great privilege to partner with Commissioner Simpson and the committee and subcommittee members who brought energy, focus and determination to this critical safety initiative,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein. “Our collective efforts will build upon NJ TRANSIT’s extensive safety programs and will help create a safer future for our customers, our employees and for all New Jersey residents and visitors.”
Recommendations contained in the report primarily revolve around three complimentary safety spheres: engineering, education and enforcement. Twelve high-priority action items are proposed to be carried out or at least started within a year or, in some cases, much sooner.
The report also lists a dozen safety efforts that NJ TRANSIT has started or committed to since the formation of the oversight committee in November.
Engineering action items
Among engineering action items is a commitment to launch a pilot program to evaluate the effectiveness of gate skirts and “Second Train Coming” warning signs.
Gate skirts create a barrier below an activated grade-crossing gate to deter pedestrians from ducking under. “Second Train Coming” signs are designed to provide an additional warning to pedestrians to remain behind gates even after the one train they may be aware of has left the station. This pilot program will be carried out by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center under an agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration.
NJDOT and NJ TRANSIT will deploy Dynamic Message Signs, rotating them among high-risk grade-crossing locations, to remind pedestrians of the importance of obeying warning and safety devices.
The two agencies will also expand the Diagnostic Team program to proactively assess conditions at crossings and stations, in addition to responding to crash incidents.
Education action items
NJ TRANSIT has already begun to re-tool its Rail School Safety Program that it presents to schools and community groups. The new age-appropriate programs now include compelling accounts from police officers and train engineers who have been involved in or have responded to trespasser-related incidents on the NJ TRANSIT railway system.
To expand the reach of this program and complement the efforts of NJ TRANSIT staff, members of statewide Transportation Management Associations will be trained as presenters of the safety message to school and community groups.
The report also calls for the development and implementation of a public education campaign that includes new Public Service Announcements, the increased use of social media and other virtual and physical formats designed to spread essential safety information to targeted audiences.
NJ TRANSIT will also work with the Motor Vehicle Commission to insert rail and grade-crossing safety information in the driver’s manual and to include at least one rail safety question on driver’s license written tests.
Additional educational and safety signs will be installed at targeted rail stations to provide basic information about laws that prohibit trespassing or ignoring warning devices.
Enforcement action items
NJ TRANSIT police will conduct high-profile enforcement actions at targeted high-risk locations, to enforce the laws that prohibit ducking under crossing gates or other acts to disregard warning devices. Efforts will be made to time these enforcement actions to coincide with Public Service Announcements as a way to amplify the safety message.
The oversight committee consisted of Commissioner Simpson, Executive Director Weinstein and officials from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, New Jersey State Police, New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey Motor Vehicles Commission, the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, and the NJ TRANSIT Police Department. Approximately 30 transportation and safety professionals comprised the three subcommittees.
# # #
A link to the full report can be found here.