Newark Clears Bike Lane of Cars, Solves Parking Problem With Meters Instead

walk bike jersey good lane
Newark’s stopgap solution to a parking crunch was to allow parking in the bike lane (see upper right). Since then it’s found a more sensible option: meters. Photo: WalkBikeJersey

pfb logo 100x22Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets.

Three months after Newark drew national attention for considering removal of New Jersey’s only protected bike lane in order to allow illegal double-parking, the city has found a different solution.

Instead of designing the Mt. Prospect Avenue commercial strip around letting people park their cars two rows deep along the curb, the district is installing parking meters.

“Simply by adding parking meters and limiting parking to two hours, legal parking spots are now freed up for shoppers, rather than being occupied for hours or days at a time by residents and shop owners,” reports the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition. “As a result, bike riders regained access to New Jersey’s first parking-protected bike lane, and newly-enacted street parking regulations will ensure that there is an ample supply of parking for customers of businesses along Mt. Prospect Avenue.”

There’s no question that nearby parking is important to most retail businesses. But you don’t have to be a small business owner to understand that when you can’t fill all your customers’ orders, it’s probably time to raise your prices a bit. That’s exactly what was happening in the North Ward: Parking spaces in a desirable area were available for $0, so naturally they were selling out. The district has now responded by raising its parking prices, and is no longer running out of space.

As for the protected bike lane itself: As any commercial district gets busier and more prosperous, it needs to gradually free itself from complete dependence on car parking by making it easy and appealing for some customers to get there by other means. Kudos to Newark for finding a way to do that for its businesses.

Interested in the conflicts between car parking and bike lanes? Newark’s decision to charge what on-street parking is worth is No. 6 on our list of 10 ways to convert parking space to movement space.

You can follow The Green Lane Project on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook or sign up for its weekly news digest about protected bike lanes.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Avoid Bikelash By Building More Bike Lanes

By Michael Andersen |
Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Here’s one reason the modern biking boom is great for everyone: more bicycle trips mean fewer car trips, which can mean less congestion for people in cars and buses. But there’s a […]

The Price of Parking: Let the Free Market Decide?

By Sarah Goodyear |
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece this weekend by Conor Dougherty on the municipal move toward charging more for parking. It’s available online to paid subscribers only, but here’s a taste: As anyone who has ever circled the block for a marginally better spot knows, parking is an American obsession. It occasionally boils over […]

U.S. DOT to Publish Its Own Manual on Protected Bike Lanes

By Tanya Snyder |
Before the end of this year, the Federal Highway Administration will release its own guidance on designing protected bike lanes. The agency’s positions on bicycling infrastructure has matured in recent years. Until recently, U.S. DOT’s policy was simple adherence to outdated and stodgy manuals like AASHTO’s Green Book and FHWA’s own Manual on Uniform Traffic […]