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.

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  • Kevin Love

    Note how the second motor vehicle in the photo has been booted. Love it!

    But what is in the upper right corner of the photo? Looks like a pick-up truck parked in the bike lane. Sigh…

  • BabalooMandel

    So have you decided if you’re going to re-sign with the Cavs yet?

  • Kevin, the photo was from last December when the city allowed drivers to park in the bike lane. I know because I took it. I haven’t visited the bike lane since April but from what my friends at the NJ Bike and Walk Coalition and the Brick City Bike Collective have said, things are much better.

    The design of the lane isn’t as polished as those found in NY City but it should work fairly well. Unfortunately Mt. Prospect Ave just south of here recently saw a streetscape project a few years prior but with front in angle parking so this 7 block stretch of the Ave with the protected bike lanes is pretty isolated from any other bike infra and will likely stay this way for many years to come.

  • Cyndi Steiner

    HI Kevin,
    June 22, 2015 was the first day of enforcement of the revived bike lanes. Compliance was almost 100%, and the cops were ticketing cars that were in the bike lanes. As I walked the street observing the behavior, everything seemed to be working well. There were people on the street, and more importantly, there were empty legal parking spaces within the parking lane. And there were a few bike riders using the new lane. We are hopeful that the success of this project becomes apparent to the neighborhood businesses, and that other business districts in Newark will want similar treatment. And hats off to the City of Newark for standing strong on this project.

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