Montclair SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone) and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) bicycle and pedestrian planning assistance project will host an open house on Wednesday, March 8 from 7 pm – 9 pm to present a draft plan for making Montclair streets safer and more accessible for people walking and biking. The event will take place in the second floor conference room of the Montclair Municipal Building, 205 Claremont Avenue.
Township Engineer Kim Craft encourages anyone interested in improving the walking and bicycling experience in Montclair to attend.
“Montclair is already a walkable town,” says Craft. “This is a great opportunity to enhance accessibility for all by making our streets even better for getting around on foot or by bike.”
The NJDOT awarded Montclair this planning assistance grant to develop a menu of options for improving our streets for pedestrian and bicycle travel in the community. Working with a steering committee of township volunteers and staff, NJDOT’s consultant, NVS, developed the draft plan. An earlier workshop and survey provided the public the opportunity to share thoughts and opinions on current roadway conditions which helped produce the recommended priority network and street typologies.
The March 8 open house is a final opportunity for the public to review the proposed plan to improve the future of walking and biking in Montclair. Select details of the draft plan are available below:
- Methodology
- Priority Streets
- Typology I: Minor Arterial Street
- Typology II: Minor Arterial Street
- Typology III: Collector Street
- Typology IV: Collector Street
- Typology V: Local Street
- Typology VI: One-Way Streets
- Typologies by Street List
- Network Map
Bicyclists should be able to use most 2-lane streets here. We should encourage road sharing practices via signage. But, I do think Upper Mountain Av is inappropriate as a designated Safe Street Bicycle Route.
The UMA roadway segment designated is now mostly one-side only parking. The speed limit is 30-35mph with two tight curves. One curve has a heavy duty guardrail because of its accident history. Unless we are willing to remove all parking in Mountainside Park and lower the speed limit on Upper Mountain to 25mph, the Montclair SAFE own recommendations can’t be met. It certainly wouldn’t be safer for younger and inexperienced bicyclists. Since the program objective is safe routes for all skill levels, it would be better to drop this segment.
Great Frank, let’s remove the parking for the public pool, tennis courts and park for the benefit of a few clueless cyclists. I hope that you were being facetious. For the record, I am a lifetime cyclists, and can be found regularly risking life and limb on the streets of Montclair and adjacent communities.
Allow me to co-opt a well known prayer that can be applied to the issue of safe cycling in Montclair: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,”
First of all, Montclair traffic is heavy and not limited to residents running errands. There are many drivers passing through and a steady stream of delivery trucks and commuter buses. These are the empirical facts. There is distinctly urban edge to riding here. Additionally, there are many area with poor lighting. Cyclists shouldn’t feel entitled, or ever assume that they will emerge better off from a collision or fall. Be aware! Ride with traffic. This is where drivers expect to see you. Anecdotally, I pulled onto a major E/W thoroughfare the other evening with my turn signal on and clear of traffic, only to have a close call with a young boy on the wrong side of the road with no lights or reflective items of any sort. He proceeded to curse me out. Thankfully I saw him, but if I hadn’t…
I wasn’t being facetious. I was making a point that we can’t remove any of the limited parking there is now in the park area for bicyclists. We already have a problem there with parking overflow being pushed onto side streets, e.g. Laurel Place. The fact of the matter is that stretch is a choke point by design and Montclair SAFE is ignoring its limitations because bicyclists don’t want to be routed up to Highland Av or down to Valley Rd.
The only way that part of Upper Mountain can be used as a designated bicycle route is having bicycles share the travel lanes with vehicles. That is what happens now and to encourage more of that is a bad idea.
Ever wonder why there are no crosswalks on Upper Mountain by Mountainside’s tennis courts, playing fields, basketball courts and playground? It’s because the 30mph speed limit and the sightlines, per the County engineers, don’t allow for safe stopping distances to protect pedestrians. So, by the same measure, a vehicle coming around the curve will not have sufficient time to react to bicyclists. I disagreed, but was overruled.
Interesting. Thanks Frank.