If you live, work, or study in Bergen, Monmouth counties, or the urban areas of Passaic, Essex and Union Counties, EZ Ride TMA is your Transportation Management Association (TMA) funded by NJDOT and NJDHTS to provide free safety programs. EZ Ride seeks to improve pedestrian and road safety, transportation access, and to reduce congestion, air pollution and traffic injuries by working with business, government agencies, schools, and other partners to address transportation challenges. EZ Ride’s wide-ranging services include shuttles, transportation for older adults and those without cars, as well as a full range of bicycle, pedestrian and driver safety programs focused on education, pedestrian and street safety campaigns, and infrastructure audits and improvements.
EZ Ride’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Team regularly provides bike and walking audits of neighborhood areas to assess and make recommendations for safety. Their team makes biking, walking and driving safety talks for schools, senior groups, scout groups and other community groups and can teach people how to ride a bike or how to ride safely. They also work with schools and municipalities to adopt Complete streets and SRTS policies to promote biking and walking and make roads safer for all users. They also promote Walk and Roll days and Golden Sneaker events for students in October and a NJ Walk & Roll campaign and biking events in May.
They recently partnered with the City of Asbury Park, Rutgers Bloustein School, local schools, police, and the Complete Streets coalition on some special bike safety events. As part of the event, Rutgers Bloustein students created temporary bike lanes on Cookman Avenue between Heck Ave and Asbury Avenue. This pilot event was designed as a way to demonstrate a safer way for local residents, tourists, and children to bike and scooter in the area safely. By visually narrowing the roadway, drivers slow down creating a safer driving, walking, and bicycling environment for all. As part of the event, the student organizers collected input from residents about their experience using the temporary bike lanes as well as other safety concerns in Asbury Park. The hope is that by incorporating community feedback and gathering support, the bike lane project can become a permanent solution to provide a safer space for cyclists and e-scooter users to travel on Cookman Avenue. EZ Ride partnered with two schools to deliver 30-minute bike safety talks and a safe skills biking course on April 11-12th. As a part of the Community Bike Safety event, EZ Ride staff led a group of children and adult cyclists from the west side of Asbury Park to the temporary bike lanes on April 12th and provided free helmets, bike bells, bike lights and reflective string bags to participants.
To learn more about the pop-up bike lane or the many other programs offered by EZ Ride TMA, be sure to visit their website https://ezride.org/transportation/bikepedestrian-program/
If you don’t live or work in Bergen, Monmouth counties, or the urban areas of Passaic, Essex and Union Counties don’t worry, there is a TMA in your area ready and willing to help you make your community safer for walking and bicycling. To find your TMA, visit https://www.saferoutesnj.org/find-your-srts-regional-coordinator/
