Plans are moving forward to create a Two River bicycle route.
Monmouth County freeholders, who had initially been resistant to the idea for cost and liability issues, and area mayors have reached an accord to establish a pilot program that will provide the opportunity to start striping designated bike lanes on county roadways, for now in Fair Haven, Rumson and a small portion of Little Silver.
Freeholder Thomas Arnone announced the agreement at Monday’s Crossroads meeting sponsored by The Two River Times.
“It’s a great agreement,” this week said Freeholder Thomas Arnone, “and it’s a good plan.”
He also said if this pilot goes well, the bike paths will certainly be considered in other towns in the region.
“We’ve had a meeting of the minds,” said Fair Haven Mayor Benjamin Lucarelli, who has been spearheading the initiative to have bike routes installed as the county repaves those roadways.
This project will have Rumson and Fair Haven conduct their own engineering studies, which will be forwarded to the county engineering department for approval and to ensure the plans adhere to state requirements. The county and municipalities will each share 50 percent of the cost.
Lucarelli said Arnone “showed real leadership,” in stewarding this to acceptance with state Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and state Senators Joseph Kyrillos (both R-13) and Jennifer Beck (R-11) offering their support and helping broker the agreement.
“This will truly be a shared service approach,” for the local and county governments, Lucarelli said.
The county has already milled and paved much of Rumson Road, a county-owned thoroughfare, but has delayed painting the striping as freeholders and local officials debated the project. “They did us a favor by waiting until the final decision,” said Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl.
Plans are for the county to under take work for much of Ridge Road in the fall, according to officials.
Following that work the county and municipalities will work jointly to install mostly 4-foot-wide striped lanes with stenciled icon “sharrows” (share arrow lane markings for the route) and accompanying signage.
Lucarelli has been advocating for the last year for the county to institute designated bike lanes along some of its roadways in the area, looking to eventually establish a continuous path from the Rumson peninsula to Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport and making its way back to the Red Bank border.
Lucarelli and Ekdahl have secured the support of the 13 members of the Two River Council of Mayors in their push to get the routes. Lucarelli and Ekdahl have been maintaining this is the future in much of the world, with some area residents relying on bikes for transportation to and from work, others cycling for health, recreation and environmental interests.
The mayors hoped county officials would take the lead to ensure continuity along the designated route. And given the increasing use of the roads by cyclists, providing their own lanes does bring an added level of safety, the mayors have been saying.
County officials, on the other hand, were concerned about cost and liability but those issues have been resolved. Freeholders had made it clear to the towns the county couldn’t afford the project and if the towns wanted bike routes, even on county roads, they would have to foot the bill and assume liability, but not before the county had a chance to review the plans.
But with this plan, “everybody’s bought in,” sharing costs and legal liability responsibility, Arnone said. “I think everybody is satisfied,” the freeholder said.
– By John Burton
