Bike Lanes Roll Out In Three Towns

Contractors late last week and this week striped recently milled and repaved portions of Rumson and Ridge roads running through the three communities. As part of that work, the contractor, Traffic Lines, Inc., Farmingdale, is stenciling a cyclist silhouette – in traffic engineering lingo called a “sharrow,” a shared lane designation providing space for cyclists and those on foot – along the roadway.
According to Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas Arnone, the freeholder board’s liaison for public works and engineering, the work along these county roads will continue through the week and will include accompanying bike lane signage.
This is a major step forward for Fair Haven Mayor Benjamin Lucarelli and Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl, who advocated for the bike lanes and worked with county officials to win their support.
“I think at the end of the day the idea is good,” to have these lanes, said Lucarelli.
Since the sharrows first began being installed, Lucarelli said “ten people have come up to me to say thank you…They’re going out of their way to say thank you.”
Lucarelli added, “What is really gratifying is seeing people use it.” With the unseasonably warm weather last weekend, he observed cyclists pedaling in the lanes. And with the formal designation “It raises awareness with cars and drivers,” he said.
With the county’s plan to resurface those roadways early this fall, Lucarelli and Ekdahl saw an opportunity to get county government to allow the roads’ shoulders to have the official designation.
The communities struck an agreement with county officials to equally share the engineering and installation cost.

Lucarelli said Fair Haven budgeted $49,000 for its share.
On average, he explained, it costs roughly $1,800 to stripe a mile and about $285 for each sharrow, with signage an additional expense.
Lucarelli is a cycling enthusiast who has been advocating for a Two River bike lane connecting from Red Bank east through the Rumson peninsula, on to Sea Bright and Ocean Avenue/state Highway 36. It would run through Monmouth Beach and Oceanport and loop back around to the Red Bank border. His support also had a personal and profound resonance, given Fair Haven Borough Councilman Jerome Koch was killed a little over a year ago when struck by a vehicle while out cycling in the borough.
The state Department of Transportation will install bike lanes on Ocean Avenue throughout Sea Bright when it repaves the roadway in the near future, Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said previously.
The Two River Council of Mayors, an informal collection of 13 municipalities, which includes Rumson, Fair Haven and Little Silver, threw its support behind the efforts.
Lucarelli and supporters see their effort as intended to encourage people to get out of their vehicles and take to bikes for transportation, recreation and for health and environmental considerations. That is the trend through much of the country and abroad, Lucarelli said in the past. But cyclists are entitled to the designated lanes for the safety of all using the roadways, advocates have stressed.
Indeed, there is a considerable body of research that indicates that clearly marked lanes have a traffic calming effect. In general terms, even when no cyclists are present, drivers instinctively slow down, and cyclists, when on the roads, tend to stay in the lanes.
Of those who have approached Lucarelli, “I think they all realize our leafy suburb is ripe for this,” he said.
The local officials approached the county freeholders about supporting the project for the county roads, hoping the county would cover the expense. County officials were initially resistant to the idea, citing costs, liability and the complexities of having it cross multiple municipalities. Finally, both sides hammered out an agreement to share expenses, supported by Arnone who secured the remainder of freeholders’ support.
“The county appreciates the commitment by the boroughs of Fair Haven, Little Silver and Rumson to advance the bicycle routes by committing to the engineering design and funding on the county roads in their towns,” Arnone said in an email response.
Fair Haven resident Gail O’Reilly, a volunteer working with Lucarelli on garnering support for the lanes, said this week of this development, “I think it’s profoundly significant now that area residents have an option to travel more safely through and between our communities.”
Cycling has yet to become the norm for most people’s transportation, O’Reilly acknowledged. “But it shouldn’t be the exception.”
“And that’s one of our goals,” she said of the group working with Lucarelli, “to make it more readily available.”
Bike lanes, under federal and state guidelines, are expected to be from 4-to-5 feet wide, depending on whether there is curbing on the road. Sharrows should be installed every quarter- to half-mile, and at every intersection, accompanied by signage.
The lines and stenciling are done with a thermo-plastic compound that’s expected to last approximately three years, said Dave Cuje, a Traffic Lines, Inc. foreman overseeing their installation this week.
– By John Burton | The Two River Times 
John Burton can be reached at jburton@tworivertimes.com