If you live or work in Bergen or Monmouth counties, or urban areas of Passaic, Essex and Union Counties, EZ Ride TMA is your Transportation Management Association (TMA). EZ Ride seeks to improve access, reduce congestion and promote economic growth by working with business, government agencies, schools, and other partners to address transportation challenges throughout their service area. EZ Ride’s wide-ranging services include carpools, vanpools, shuttles, transportation for older adults and people with disabilities, and a full range of bicycle and pedestrian programs focused on education, encouragement, and planning.
EZ Ride’s Safe Routes to School Team recently partnered with The Township of West Orange, the West Orange Pedestrian Safety Advisory Board on a two-day Community Bike Safety event that allowed them to put some of their safe bicycling recommendations into action. As part of the event, the partners created temporary bike lanes along Woodland Avenue between Forest Avenue and Pleasant Valley Way. This pilot event has been designed as a way to demonstrate a safer way for local children to bike to school safely. While focused on children, this pop-up bike lane demonstrates how such a project could help improve safety for the entire community. By visually narrowing the roadway, drivers will slow down creating a safer driving, walking, and bicycling environment for all. As part of the event, the organizers collected input from residents about their experience with the pop-up bike lanes as well as other safety concerns they may have regarding other streets in West Orange. The hope is that by incorporating community feedback and gathering support, the bike lane project can move forward and bike lanes can become a permanent solution to help slow traffic on woodland Avenue and make the road safer for everyone. Every participant who took EZ Ride’s survey reported that they thought the temporary bike lane should become permanent!
In advance of the event, EZ Ride partnered with schools to deliver 30-minute bike and pedestrian safety talks virtually for Elementary Schools and 60-minute interactive virtual talks for the high school driver’s education classes about how to safely drive around pedestrians and cyclists. As a part of the Community Bike Safety event, EZ Ride staff also led free Safe Bike Skills sessions and a Learn to Ride workshop, providing free youth bicycle helmets 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/
If you don’t live or work in Bergen or Monmouth counties, or 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/
