Seeing advertisements for Thanksgiving, and remember gut-busting feasts of years past, I thought of all good times with family I have had on this special day, and all of the calories I must have consumed over the years of turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and pie (ohh the pie!!). I found this link from about.com (walking.about.com/library/cal/blthanksgivingcalories.htm) that lets you calculate the total caloric intake from the thanksgiving festivities. I plugged it what I normally ate for Thanksgiving day and the total was . . . remember I am a growing boy . . . 2995 calories. The website readout then said, “You will need to walk 29.95 miles, 48.30 kilometers, or 59900 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.” If I walked at the average pace of 15min/mile it would take me over seven hours to walk off Thanksgiving! However, if I biked at a moderate pace, burning 800 calories an hour, I could burn the same meal in less than 4 hours. So my advice is that this friday, if you have woken up from your tryptophan-induced coma, andyou are not fighting with someone in a Wal-Mart over a flatscreen TV on sale for $15, go for a bike ride, enjoy the fall air, and the watch the savory Thanksgiving pounds melt away.

After our guest speaker for the Voorhees Transportation Center’s Common Grounds Bikeability Seminar, discussed in yesterday’s post, there was a Q&A session with three notable figures in bicycling and public policy in New Jersey. The panelists were Jerry Fired, Recently elected Mayor of Montclair Township and avid cyclist, Liza Betz, Planner for Union County, and Micahel Dannemiller, NJ-East Cost Greenway volunteer and Senior Planner for the RBA group. Each member of the pannel brought very interesting information and opinions to the table. Here is a brief summary of each panelists talking points.

Jerry Fried got involved in politics through his organization, Bike Montclair. He shared with us how he sees biking as a way to create a more intimate community within his township. Mayor Fried shared some of his ideas for promoting bicycling, such as a Township wide bike day in early spring, making biking less intimidating by avoiding spandex (something in direct conflict with me and my wardrobe, but a good idea), and a a scavenger hunt throughout town pitting car vs. bike (showing township members can get around town much faster on a bike).

Liza Betz is a planner for Union County and took us through the steps her department has taken to increase bikeability in Union County. One major focus of her talk was creating an extensive bike map for Union County residents so that they have a way of knowing what bike routes are safe, as well as what bike routes and improvements will be made in the future.

Michael Dannemiller primarily discussed the completion and NJ-NY connection of the East Coast Greenway (ECG), a trail running from Maine to Florida. Michael talked about all the improvements to the ECG, and how supportive the local and NJ state government organizations have been of the ECG, building a multimillion dollar bridge to connect the ECG over a major highway.

After leaving the Common Grounds Seminar, I felt optimistic about the future of cycling in New Jersey. With the passion, motivation, and skill of the presenters and attendees of the seminar, I think bicycling will continue to grow as a way to connect people and communities in New Jersey.

Bikes Belong is an orgnization that has taken on the the simple yet daughnting goal of increasing the number of bikers by supporting groups throughout the country that want to increase bikability in their area. I thought this was really great and wanted to highlight a local project in Jersey that has worked with Bikes Belong. However, when I went to the Bikes Belong Grant Page and looked at the map of previous grant recipients, the S-shaped which most call New Jersey, and I call home, was void of any grant recipients. The most densly populated, and arguably the most heavily trafficked, state in the nation has not had a single project to increase its bike ridership. I hope that in the coming months one of the organizations I am working with, or another brave bike crew along the NJ Turnpike, will take the lead and put New Jersey bicycling on the map!

To read more about Bikes Belog click here

To view the map of Bikes Belong Grant recipients click here

Nearly a million bicyclists and pedestrians in the US went to emergency rooms last year for bike and walking -related injuries. A surprising amount of these injuries came from improper sidewalk and crosswalk conditions. Improper crosswalk markings, or faded markings, can lead to a miscommunication between bikes and pedestrians and cars, leading to severe or deadly injuries.

To get an idea of the sidewalk conditions in their neighborhood, the people of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance (WWBPA) surveyed over 200 crosswalks in West Windsor, NJ. The volunteers from the WWBPA and the McGraw-Hill company collected data on the slope of sidewalk, the condition of the concrete, and any crosswalk markings at each destination. The data has been recently uploaded onto an interactive website, created by Vertices LLC., that allows locals citizens to view the data collected by the WWBPA in an easy to use format. You can use the search criteria to find sidewalks with missing crosswalk signs, missing or malfunctioning walk signs, missing or dysfunctional curb cut slope, and much more. You can also simply click on any sidewalk on the map, or enter the address of the sidewalk where indicated, and a grid will appear to the left of the map will all relevant information regarding that crosswalk. The amount of information that is presented, and that can be extracted, from this website is almost overwhelming. Look for great things to come from this website and this data.

Visit the WWBPA website at: maps.gismap.us/wwbpa

In the League of American Cyclists’ annual report on the most bike friendly states New Jersey cracked the top 10, coming in 9th out of all 50 states. The reasons given for New Jersey’s high ranking were that New jersey has funding and plans in place for mountain biking and commuter biking trails that will help promote cycling across the state. what help New Jersey back from being even higher on the list is that there are no safe pass laws put into place in terms of cars passing cyclists. Coming in first was Washington state for its tremendous funding, facilities, and regulations regarding bicycling. In 50th was West Virginia whom, although does have a very nice system of mountain bike trails, does not have any state funding to promote or support cycling in the state.

To view the rank of all 50 states visit the League of American Bicyclist webpage at www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/

A fact not known by many is that bike accident data for New Jersey, and most other states for that matter, post the location and description of every accident reported to local or state police officials. While this information is interesting to lookat in terms of the table on the website, it really doesn’t give you a sense of where and why the accidents are happening. Fortunately, Vertices LLC., in conjucntion with the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance (WWBPA) will be putting all bike crash inforation regarding West Windsor, NJ in an online, interactive mapping website. The website will also contain all sidewalk-quality data collected earlier this year by the WWBPA. So check the website www.mappler.com/wwbpa in the coming weeks to look at the relationship betwee road conditions and accident locaitons, I think you will be surprised.

A few months ago the West Windsor Bicycling and Pedestrian Alliance (WWBPA), based out of West Windsor, NJ collected data on the sidewalk conditions of hundreds of crosswalks within their township. The event was put on to raise awareness of individuals with disabilities and quantify the difficulties these individuals face trying to traverse their local streets. The event was a complete success. Tons of data on street walk safety were collected, you can read more about the event at wwbpa.wordpress.com. Now that the group has had time to process the data, the WWBPA will begin to upload their data onto their mapping site. There site (www.mappler.com/wwbpa) already contains a lot of information regarding bicycle and pedestrian accidents in the are, as well as scenic spots, historic locations, and various bike and walking routes. The addition of the crosswalk data will give the citizens of West Windsor, NJ a comprehensive source of information regarding walking and biking in their community. The WWBPA should be commended for their tireless efforts in trying to make their township as bike and pedestrian friendly, and handicapped accessible, as they can. Again, their website is www.mappler.com/wwbpa

WWBPA Mappler Site

Ripon College is a small, Wisconson, liberal arts college with one big problem . . . cars. In lue of a serious parking shortage, Ripon President David C. Joyce started a program called The Velorution. President Joyce vowed to give a free, $400 bike kit (trek mountain bike, helmet, and lock) to any frist-year student who signed a form saying they would not bring their car to campus. For more information on the Ripon College Velorution click here.

The Mappler Websites is a great resource for finding and sharing routes for biking and walking. However, once you find that route, the special awesome route that you want to brag about. Check out MapMyRide, a community of cyclist, and a few runners, who post rides that they particularly like. This, like mappler, is a great way to share and create communities.

To visit MapMyRide click here

Here is a favorite ride of mine

A hilly route in Maryland

In light of the recent skyrocket in gas prices, two high school students, Asad Hussain and Jocelyn Im, decided to take action and let the people of New Brunswick, NJ know that their are other ways besides driving to get around. Hussain and Im created the website Train Station Access: Bike and Walk New Brunswick, NJ. The two students have already created a similar Princeton Junction Train Station website and decided to extend their reach to New Brunswick. The site , powered by Mappler via Google Maps, provides information about bike-rack accessibility and quality, Cafe’ and Deli locations, and Train Station access points. The purpose of this website is to show you how ‘green’ forms of transportation can interconnect and allow a large number of residents can travel throughout the tri-state area with little impact on the environment or their wallet. To view the website, click the below link:

http://www.mappler.com/nbbikerack

A shot of NBbikerack in action