From:                    Tim Chelius, SJTPO
To:                        John Boyle, Bicycle Coalition of greater Philadelphia
Date:                     7/23/2007
Subject:                 Response to TIP Comments from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater                             Philadelphia

Thanks you for your e-mail commenting on the draft TIP, and our responses are below.  

General Comments

There are very few stand alone bicycle and pedestrian projects listed in the TIP. Individual

bike/ped projects in the pipeline should be broken out much like projects in the highway program.  

We have forward your comment to NJDOT Capital Investment Planning (CIP) and the Department’s Bicycle Advocate. 

The MPO, the Counties and NJDOT should adopt complete streets policies. A good complete streets policy would require that all projects include bicycle and pedestrian accommodation and would require exceptions to be signed off by a high leval agency offical.

SJTPO member agencies will review this comment, and we will also forwarded it to NJDOT Bicycle Advocate.   

We support projects descriptions that note whether they are bicycle and pedestrian compatible, we would like to see this as a standard part of the description.  

We would note that bicycle and pedestrian compatibility is relevant for a small subset of all TIP projects, and that bike-ped compatibility is often noted where relevant., Nevertheless,  we have forwarded  your comment to NJDOT Capital Investment Planning (CIP) and the Department’s Bicycle Advocate. 

NJDOT's bicycle and pedestrian program should be expanded to include regional bicycle and pedestrian coordinators.  

We have forwarded  the comment to the Department’s Bicycle Advocate.   

 Local competitive programs such as CMAQ and Transportation Enhancements should be decided at the
MPO level.  

We agree, and have forwarded the comment to NJDOT Capital Investment Planning (CIP) and the Department’s Bicycle Advocate.  We would note that $2.68M of the $139.70M of FY 2008 CMAQ funding allocated to New Jersey is suballocated to MPO’s, but we anticipate that the $19.2 M Transportation Enhancements projects will again be selected by the Commissioner of NJDOT.

T210 TRANSPORTATION ENHANCEMENTS (Transit Enhancements?)

Taking your bike on long distance coaches is difficult and sometimes impossible when passengers

are carrying lots of luggage (e.g 316 and 319 buses on weekends). NJT should offer better bicycle

accommodations, either with front loading bicycle racks or with new bicycle racks that hold

2 bicycles in the luggage compartment. 

We have forwarded  the comment to NJ Transit.  

X28B Park and Ride/Transportation Demand Management Program

T06 BUS PASSENGER FACILITIES

Bike Parking is inadequate and poorly maintained at most bus terminals, especially Atlantic City .

Bike parking should be highly visible and high quality (inverted u racks) and if possible under cover.  

We have forwarded the comment to NJ Transit  

T529 NJ TRANSIT COMMUNITY SHUTTLES  

All NJ TRANSIT Community Shuttle buses available to the General Public should be equipped with
Bicycle Racks.  

We have forwarded the comment to NJ Transit.

X065 Local CMAQ Initiatives

We support CMAQ project selection by the MPO.

Bicycle and Pedestrian projects do not fare as well they should under this program.  

CMAQ awards are limited to applications, and project selection depends on many factors, including ease of implementation and emissions reductions. No bike – ped stand alone projects have ever been submitted, so you may wish to contact the potential project sponsor (i.e., owner or operator of the service or facility) if you have a particular proposal in mind. 

00377 003770 Ferry Program  

*   DRBA should be encouraged to apply for a CMAQ project to make the Ferry Terminal accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians from the North Cape May street grid. Pedestrians are currently forced to walk into high speed traffic lanes to access the terminal.

*   The ferry shuttle to Cape May should be equipped with bicycle racks

*   Select NJ TRANSIT Route 552 buses should be extended to the Ferry Terminal especially when the shuttles are not available.

*   DRBA should create a bicycle pedestrian carriage policy for the Delaware Memorial Bridge , this could be in cooperation with Salem County Transit and local taxi providers.                             

We have forwarded  these comments to NJ Transit and DRPA  

X185 Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities/Accommodations  

*   These projects should be selected at the MPO Level and should only be allocated when a municipality completes a bicycle and pedestrian plan. We oppose the provision that excludes bike lanes.  

The line item description includes “the design and/or construction of bicycle/pedestrian facilities”, but we have forwarded this comment to NJDOT for clarification.  

*   This program is severely underfunded and should be increased to reflect the fact that bikes and peds account for a quarter of all traffic deaths in the state.  

We agree – funding shortfalls and other priorities have long been an obstacle to bike – ped program implementation, and we have forwarded this comment to NJDOT for clarification.