Cities from coast to coast stepped up to build world-class protected bicycle infrastructure in 2022.
With more protected bike lanes and low-stress bike networks being built across the country than ever before, People for Bikes had a tough time picking 2022’s best new bike lanes. While numerous projects deserve recognition, they rounded up the top nine projects worth emulating – and Street Plans was proud to work on #9 – the Marin Boulevard Bikeway in Hoboken and Jersey City in New Jersey.
EXCERPT:
In November, Jersey City and Hoboken completed construction on the Marin Boulevard and Henderson Street bikeway, which was first called for in the “Let’s Ride JC Bike Master Plan” as a way to better connect the two cities. The expansion of CitiBike into Hoboken also increased demand to ride between the two cities, says Mike Lydon of Street Plans, who worked on the project’s design. In 2022, CitiBike’s most popular route was between Hoboken Terminal and Jersey City’s Hoboken Avenue and Monmouth Street, which saw a total of 5,500 bike share trips. With the completion of the Marin Boulevard project, those rides can now be made entirely on protected bike lanes.
The bikeway is separated from traffic with plastic curbing and flexible posts, and it includes a textured painted surface that makes the bikeway more visible and improves traction. As a “quick build” project, the cities chose to move forward with somewhat temporary materials to expedite the project and improve safety, something that wouldn’t have been feasible with more permanent materials that require sidewalk reconstruction and drainage work, not to mention a longer timeline. According to Lyndsey Scofield, senior transportation planner of Jersey City, this approach “provides us with more flexibility to iterate on the design over time as we learn what works well and what could be improved.”
Check out the full piece here.
The Best New U.S. Bike Lanes of 2022:
1. Car-Free Streets – Multiple locations
2. Capital Crescent Surface Trail – Bethesda, Maryland
3. Bigelow Boulevard – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
4. Naito Parkway – Portland, Oregon
5. The 7-Line – Bloomington, Indiana
6. Hub City Hopper Trail – Spartanburg, South Carolina
7. Green Lake Outer Loop – Seattle, Washington
8. Broad Street – Providence, Rhode Island
9. Marin Boulevard Bikeway – Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey
