---

Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

As a resident of Asbury Park since 2010, I’ve seen the town change a lot, including a greater increase in traffic (most obviously noted during the summer months).

Putting in a bike lane and reducing traffic down to one lane on Main Street would be a complete disaster.  With no designated turn lane, traffic already gets backed up when one car needs to make a left. All lanes are thru or turn lanes, there is no turn only lane.

Imagine what would happen if there was only one lane.

Now you have cars veering into bike lanes to avoid those turning. Additionally, with only one lane to turn on to with this proposal, lines of cars trying to get on or across Main Street would get longer, spilling more cars over the train tracks.

The close proximity of the tracks to Main Street is a fact that I haven’t seen brought up yet.  It would also drastically affect the ability of [Asbury Park Fire Department] to do their job while putting the newly added cyclists to Main Street in danger. Asbury Fire is constantly active. If you are a resident of Asbury Park, you know this all too well. The sounds of sirens flying around town is a very common occurrence.

Most residents of Asbury Park are already in the walking/biking culture. My roommates and I will leave our cars parked for an entire weekend and just hoof it around.

As a booming Jersey Shore town, it’s been attracting a lot more people from other areas. I invite anyone to try and park near Ocean Avenue, Kingsley Street or the surrounding avenues and side streets on a weekend or a busy night. Those cars have to come from somewhere. The people coming to Asbury Park are driving here, and are doing so in very large numbers.

Arguing about these projects working in major cities is erroneous here because most residents there are already walking or biking, and most people traveling to those cities [New York specifically] are using the train to get there.

While we have a train station in Asbury Park, it’s still not utilized as much as people who drive in.  Not to mention Ninth Avenue in New York City [a project mentioned in a previous letter to the editor] is a one way road. I’d imagine it’s a lot easier to make that transition successful on a multi-lane one way.

Why does Asbury Park not want bike lanes on Main Street?  Because they have consideration for their year round residents: the people that are already patronizing the businesses on Main Street, the people that keep them open year round; and to avoid a more cluttered mess come the summer months.

William Stryker, Asbury Park

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]

————————————————————

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

 

---