Dear Editor:
Did you know that bike use is rising among the young, falling amongst children (parents drive them everywhere), and skyrocketing among the fastest growing 60-79 age group?! Today, with the rapid drop in car use among the millennials, it is assumed that they have been behind the nationwide boom in bike trips, but that is not so. The Civil Rights Generation and the Baby Boomers are defining who is riding a bike these days. Those between the ages of 18-39 make up the smallest segment of riders, while those aged 40-59 are the largest group, and the 60-79 age group are nearly twice as large as the car-shunning millennials.
Many Hoboken bike riders are the earth-friendly boomers wanting to stay fit while perhaps making amends since their generation contributed to automobile pollution in their youth. Millennials who don’t yet drive use mass transportation, drivers, and bikes. Since most millennials can’t afford to rent or buy in Hoboken with all their student debt and the increasingly expensive residential market, I don’t expect to see them in droves riding bikes down our busiest thoroughfare.
At the Oct. 8, 2014 City Council meeting, the RBA Group presented their idea of a redesign of Washington Street, basing most of their proposed changes on one aspect – putting a bike track, not bike lanes, on the street. If painted bike lanes were used, running north and south with the car traffic, this would prevent restricting the bike riders to a side area which causes many problems.
A bike track is two bike lanes side by side on one side of the street. This track is separated by a concrete median which prevents the buses from pulling up to the curb to receive or drop off passengers. Bus riders must cross the bike track to reach the bus. Curb extensions are always added at the intersections along with the track and all parallel parking is eliminated on the street. With our main street in town so problematic with flooding, water pipes breaking, sink holes, extreme cold temperatures with snow and ice, (we are not San Diego where you can ride a bike all year round), the bike track and curb extensions will be occasionally torn up since our infrastructure has not been maintained.
The Nov. 30, 2014 Star Ledger reported the logistical problems confronting Newark as a result of their newly-created single bike lanes: businesses losing revenue, bike lanes can’t be cleaned because the street sweeper isn’t small enough, garbage pickup is challenging, snow can’t be plowed, buses have difficulty turning around the bulky medians, and for emergency vehicles to turn at the senior complex, they have to make an illegal U-turn. 93 percent of the residents polled do not want the bike lanes and now they are trying to figure out how to get rid of them. Let’s not make the same mistake on Washington Street. Please let us think through, logically and realistically, the consequences of the proposed bike track for our town!
Mary Ondrejka