Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

This is the final installment in this guest series from our friends at the East Coast Greenway Alliance. In case you missed the first two, you can see them here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

A recent ride along the greenway further South brought together almost 200 participants. ECGA plans to attract even more in New Jersey this coming year (photo by Jerry Markatos)

Dennis Markatos-Soriano
Executive Director

Even after the outstanding recent progress of our greenway through New Jersey, a great deal of work lies ahead. We need to make bicycling and walking universally safe and accessible throughout the Garden State so that they move from the margins of our transportation system to center stage. For the health of our economy, our people and our environment, we aim to make 2011 a breakthrough year for active transport in New Jersey.

A recent study comparing the 50 states placed New Jersey as tied with California for second behind New York in terms of active transport mode share. But as the most densely populated state, our potential is much greater than the ~12% share of all trips done by bicycle and on foot. The population density of the Garden State is highest in the country at more than 1,100 people per square mile. This density is even higher than the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark who all have active mode shares above 30%.

Therefore, using our density as a guide for active transport potential, we can triple the number of trips by bicycle and on foot. The key obstacle to such progress is a current lack of safe continuous corridors. The East Coast Greenway Alliance will help change that in 2011 and beyond.

Soon, the majority of our New Jersey route will be off-road, separated from traffic. And for the rest, as Mike Oliva mentioned last week, we plan to integrate more sidewalks, bike lanes, and sharrows (arrows with bicyclist symbols that encourage drivers to share the road) for safety and accessibility.

Some of the walkers enjoying last May’s Big Walk from Iselin to New York City. Many group walks are in store for 2011

Then our focus can go fully to public outreach so that the millions of people living within the East Coast Greenway corridor of New Jersey know about this resource in their backyard. Once our route is fully complete with signage from the Delaware River to the Hudson River (within a matter of months), we plan extensive media outreach. We want to ensure everyone knows about this route that can help them lower their transportation costs, increase their fitness, and help foster a healthy local and global environment.

Working with our many partners throughout New Jersey, we can make 2011 a breakthrough year for the state to assert its active transportation leadership on the national stage. Let’s take this opportunity to forge even more partnerships and achieve our common goals in the New Year!

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends, partners and colleagues. We are grateful every day for your contributions toward a society more humane and a world more livable.

The staff of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

This is Week 2 of our Guest Series from the East Coast Greenway Alliance. You can see last week’s post here.

By Mike Oliva, ECG Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator

The East Coast Greenway (ECG) connects 26 municipalities and five counties throughout New Jersey. And greenway development in all of these localities depends on strong partnerships with local and statewide decision-makers in government and the nonprofit sector who are able to help get the project done. Our nonprofit partners include the 6th Street Embankment Coalition of Jersey City, Weequahic Park Association of Newark, Brick City Bike Collective, Tri State Transportation Campaign, Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey, Trust for Public Land, D & R Canal Commission, New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, Trenton Cycling Revolution and many more groups which help make the East Coast Greenway a thriving reality throughout the state.

Funding partners, including our hundreds of Garden State members to Dodge to the Helen & William Mazer Foundation to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), make our advocacy and other efforts possible. For instance, recent NJDEP grants enabled us to build kiosks in each of the five counties our route connects.

This picture is from our most recent installation at Weequahic Park in Newark. Kiosks provide information on regional and national ECG topics. We also devote half the panel space for local entities to post information about their activities and events.

Another partner, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) produced a print guide to the ECG through New Jersey in 2008. The guide, the first state guide printed throughout our fifteen state route, contains detailed maps and cue sheets which allow users to travel our route with confidence. NJDEP has also been helpful in providing funding to reprint them since their popularity means we run out of guides regularly. A guide is downloadable here or you can order a print copy by calling our office at 401-789-4625.

Special Focus: Newark to Jersey City

The two largest cities in New Jersey, Newark and Jersey City, haven’t been safely connected for pedestrians and bicyclists for over 100 years. The only manageable way between this relatively short stretch of land (~8 miles) has been by automobile or train. We are working with our partners today to make a safe and accessible connection for this forgotten section and once again link these two important cities.

A generous grant from the Helen & William Mazer Foundation in early 2010 has allowed us to focus on the Newark to Jersey City segment. We have teamed up with the planning, engineering and public works departments of these two cities to develop and sign the route. We have also aligned with the Liberty Water Gap Trail through the region (a 130-mile developing greenway for walkers that stretches from the Delaware Water Gap to Liberty State Park). Working together over the last few months, we established a route that our two groups and the cities of Newark and Jersey City agreed upon.

Over the last few weeks, we installed East Coast Greenway signs along the Newark and Jersey City sections of the route from Newark Penn Station to the Hudson River. Once NJDOT completes two miles of sidewalk improvements in the City of Kearny, this region will have a safe and accessible link for pedestrians and bicycles for the first time in 100 years. Imagine what this seamless connection could do for the people of Newark, Kearny, and Jersey City. It could spur less automobile congestion, less pollution, more healthy and active residents who could use these low-cost routes to get to work, school or other daily activities. Safety and accessibility encourages development. An influx of new residents brings construction and jobs which in turn spurs more local businesses to open up. It is an endless cycle. But this all starts with creating safe, livable communities. This is the work we have started in Newark and Jersey City, but by no means is our work finished.

We hope to improve this connection even further by making on-street improvements to the route that could include bike lanes, sharrows or shared lane marking and other on road safety improvements.

Improving various intersections will also be a major priority. We hope our work encourages the cities of Newark and Jersey City to increase the ease and safety of mobility for bicyclists and pedestrians. Unlike larger automobiles, there is nearly no limit to the numbers of bicyclists and pedestrians a city can accommodate. The addition of a bicycle on a roadway often eases traffic by taking a car off the roadway. Establishing just one safe and accessible route such as the East Coast Greenway through the two cities will give people an option for active transportation and make Newark and Jersey City less car dependent.

The Short-Term and the Long-Term

As major renovation projects come up throughout the region, we actively advocate for improved biking and walking safety. For instance, we are pushing for a dedicated biking and walking lane to be included on the new Portal Bridge. This bridge will cross the Hackensack River and be a safe potential crossing of this river for bicycles and pedestrians. ECGA gathered letters of support from our members and the region’s leaders such as Congressman Sires, Rothman and Senator Lautenberg asking NJ Transit to incorporate the improvements. Until NJ Transit makes this a commitment, we will continue our advocacy on the matter.

While the Portal Bridge will accomplish our long-term routing goals, there is a need to make a safe connection for bicyclists and walkers from Newark to Jersey City today! Imagine if the connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan was closed to bicyclists and pedestrians for the last century. How different would the two cities look? They surely wouldn’t have developed as much of the positive social and economic interdependence visible today.

Through continued partnerships with our allies in government, nonprofits, foundations, businesses, and the public, we will advance our greenway’s progress through the great state of New Jersey and foster the development of more livable, sustainable communities.

This series continues next Wednesday.

Images: East Coast Greenway Alliance

Since 1991, the East Coast Greenway Alliance has been working toward creating the first long-distance, East Coast urban greenway corridor from Florida to Maine for walkers, cyclists and other non-motorized users. Perhaps you have seen the signs designating the Greenway trails throughout New Jersey.

As the Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability noted in their blog post on Monday, our state is ranked 46th in size, but #1 in population density and is projected to be the first fully “built-out” state by 2050 – which means fewer and fewer opportunities for New Jerseyans to connect with open space and nature. The East Coast Greenway Alliance is working to restore those connections, with partners like the New Jersey Department of Transportation, by adding recreational trails as well as paths for commuters as a low cost transportation alternative, among many of their other initiatives.

New Jersey is an especially important link along the Greenway, as it lies within the urban corridor from Washington DC to Boston which is home to millions of potential commuters and outdoor enthusiasts. As we focus on issues of sustainability in our work at Dodge, accessibility to green spaces is a vital component of more livable communities. For the next three Wednesdays, the East Coast Greenway Alliance will be sharing the work they are doing and why it matters to all New Jersey residents.

East Coast Greenway section from George Washington Bridge to Jersey City

Dennis Markatos-Soriano
Executive Director

The East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile network of multi-use paths from the Maine border with Canada to Key West, Florida, was just a dream 15 short years ago. Now, thanks to leading states like New Jersey, a corridor for walkers, joggers, bicyclists and the like connects cities and communities throughout the East Coast.

An “urban Appalachian Trail,” the East Coast Greenway provides both a green recreational network and a low-cost daily commuter path between neighborhoods, workplaces, landmarks, and schools. The project’s leading advocate is the East Coast Greenway Alliance, a long-time partner of the Dodge Foundation. The Alliance plans to move its headquarters to New Jersey in the coming year while maintaining regional staff situated within New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the South. On top of its four and a half staff, the Alliance has a base of over 8,000 members and volunteers — many of whom live throughout the Garden State.

City of Newark staff installing East Coast Greenway signs near Newark Penn Station

The past year has brought record growth for the East Coast Greenway’s (ECG) trails, adding over 100 miles or 20%. Thanks to such growth, the ECG is already 26% off-road, separated from car traffic. Over the next decade, we aim to upgrade the safety and accessibility of the remaining 74% (on-road portion) of the 3,000 miles by fully signing it and either converting it to off-road trail or integrating bike lanes, wide shoulders and other amenities.

New Jersey is setting the bar high for other states. Our state is the most developed in terms of signage – over 90 miles of signs mark the East Coast Greenway between the Delaware River and the Hudson River. And New Jersey is one of the three states among our fifteen whose route is at least 50% off-road greenway. We also host the second longest stretch of continuous greenway on the ECG, 35 miles of the beautiful D&R canal towpath from Trenton to New Brunswick.

We host many group walks and bike rides on our New Jersey sections, like the lovely Princeton-Trenton loop ride this past summer. Regional elected leaders joined the 75-person ride as we celebrated 1.5 new miles of greenway through Trenton. This is one of several events we host every year along the ECG corridor to laud route progress and raise public awareness of this resource which enhances the livability of our communities. New Jersey activity is led by a strong volunteer committee that works alongside ECGA Mid-Atlantic Coordinator Michael Oliva (farthest to the right in the picture).

And East Coast Greenway progress throughout New Jersey would not be possible without our solid partnerships with regional foundations, municipal and state government, and area nonprofits. Next week, Michael Oliva will share a blog with more details on these collaborations and the outstanding progress they are making throughout the Garden State.

Onward to a Sustainable & Healthy New Jersey!

Executive Director Dennis Markatos-Soriano lives in Princeton, having received his Master’s in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School as the 2008 David Bradford Prize recipient for Academic & Civic Achievement in Science, Technology & Environmental Policy. He has been a leader in the nonprofit sector for more than a decade, mainly as Executive Director of Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE) based in North Carolina where he received UNC-Chapel Hill’s first annual Robert Bryan Public Service Award and Duke University’s Certificate in Nonprofit Management.

David Grant, President and CEO

My first entry on the Dodge Blog last fall described a bike ride on the East Coast Greenway from the Rahway Train Station north into Union Township.  The route meandered through municipal parks and along uncrowded residential streets, and it was reassuring to know one could move through that crowded section of central New Jersey under one’s own power.

This beautiful Sunday afternoon, my wife Nancy and I biked from Franklin Township, just north of Princeton, south to the outskirts of Trenton and enjoyed a long stretch of the East Coast Greenway along the D&R Canal towpath.  If you haven’t had the experience of waving to boaters and appreciating the fall colors while pedaling slowly underneath I-295, you should give it a try.  You won’t be alone either, as walkers, hikers, bikers, boaters, fishermen and joggers with strollers have all discovered this historic path.

My own sense of how one can move through New Jersey close to the ground took on an added dimension on Monday, though, when Nancy and I decided to spend Columbus Day afternoon biking on the Patriot’s Path in Morris County.  We noticed a new logo – new to us, that is – deep in the woods, and we stopped to study it and read about it.

We realized we were on the relatively newly created Liberty Water Gap Trail, which connects the Delaware Water Gap in the West to the Hudson River Walkway behind the Statue of Liberty in the East.  It incorporates four existing trails: the Lenape Trail in Essex County; the Patriot’s Path in Morris County; the Sussex Branch Trail in Sussex County; and the Paulinskill Trail in Sussex and Warren Counties.  Eventually it will cover 156 miles and pass 15 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, cross over 36 rivers and streams, and connect you to 46 national, state, county and municipal parks including America’s first county park—Branch Brook Park in Newark.

Why hadn’t I heard of this trail?  When I got home, I checked the website of Rails to Trails and found out why – the coordinating Committee for the Trail is still engaged in a four-year Public Awareness Project.  So let me help.  For all of us interested in a sustainable and healthy New Jersey, for all of us who think physical connections between places foster social and cultural connections as well, for all of us who know the physical beauties of our State when you get off the highways, isn’t it nice to think we can walk from the New York/New Jersey Harbor to the Delaware Water Gap?