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Members of the Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition are not only advocating for bicycle safe streets.

The group has grown a grassroots campaign aimed at creating a city-wide street design that takes all modes of travel into consideration.

Be it a bicycle, skateboard, wheelchair, car, truck, roller blades or skates, members are lobbying stakeholders to transform the city roads into safe lanes of travel.

“We are trying to educate and inform as many people as possible about the principals behind the complete streets policy,” member Doug McQueen said.

At 7 p.m. Sunday they will host a one night only screening of the 2015 documentary “Bikes vs. Cars” at the ShowRoom Cinema on Cookman Avenue.

Called ‘breezy and intelligent’ by the New York Times, director Fredrik Gertten spotlights the growing global crisis balanced on climate change, the earth’s resources, and automobile dominant communities through the voice of activists and advocates who refuse to top riding bicycles despite the increasing number of fatal accidents.

Following the movie, local bike and pedestrian advocates will discuss how to make cities like Asbury Park more pedestrian- and bike-friendly, member Joe Grillo said.

Since its inception last summer, the group has engaged in conversations with city officials, business owners and developers, as well as hosting community forums.

This week the Asbury Park City Council approved new safety guidelines to govern the use of bicycles, roller skates, and skateboards, and implemented inclusion of bicycle racks moving forward at multifamily developments within its expansion of the Springwood Avenue Redevelopment Plan and Transit Village Designation.

The Transit Village Initiative creates incentives for municipalities to redevelop and/or revitalize the areas around transit stations using set design standards, according to the DOT.

“They have taken some great steps in the right direction,” McQueen said. “But, our main concern is that the policy is not enough, what we would like to see is implementation.”

McQueen cites the resurfacing of Kingsley as a lost opportunity to create safer travel lanes for pedestrians and cyclists.

“Although that [waterfront redevelopment] plan was in place before the City adopted the Complete Streets Policy in August, they lost an opportunity to put boots on the ground and provide safe crosswalk and bike lanes on Kingsley,” he said. “Obviously we see a lot of foot and bike traffic headed to the beach and the road is wide enough to accommodate a bike lane and they just didn’t do it.”

The group is also in support of the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s [DOT] proposed Main Street Road Diet, which the City Council voted against.

A traffic calming measure implemented at other Jersey Shore municipalities, the Road Diet is said to reduce congestion and make roadways safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. In the case of Main Street, plans were to reduce its four lanes to two thereby adding a bicycle travel lane and a bi-directional turn lanes.

Citing the need to take into consideration the influx of traffic during the summer tourist months, vehicular traffic around transit buses and purveyor truck deliveries to businesses along the roadway, as well as limited travel alternatives during the winter snow storm events, the city and the DOT agreed to an amended design.

In October, Mayor John Moor announced the DOT accepted the city’s resolution to accept the state’s plans in part but to reject the road’s narrowing via lane restriping.

The DOT agreed to install curb extension at Bangs, Summerfield, Asbury, Third, Fifth, Sunset and Sixth avenues, where pedestrian accident rates are higher, according to an Oct. 14 letter by Assistant Commissioner John Case. The originally proposed dedicated bike lane will be replaced by ‘sharrows’ – a striped lane that includes a bicycle symbol and two white chevrons to remind motorists bicyclists are permitted to use the full lane.

The new Main Street design plan included an upgrade of all traffic signals and the installations of ADA-compliant equipment, accessibility curbs and sidewalks. Damaged sidewalks are to be repaired to their full width and the existing emergency response pre-emption system at Route 71 and Asbury Avenue will be replaced.

“We’ve found that we’ve been able to get pretty good responses from city officials,” McQueen said. “Certainly all the officials we’ve talked to have been open. The stalling point is there is a hesitation to implement.”

At 3 p.m. April 23, Coalition members Grillo and McQueen will be the guest speakers during the Asbury Park Homeowner’s Association monthly meeting at Brando’s Citi Cucina on Main Street.

For more information about the Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition, visit their Facebook page (Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition).

For tickets to the 7:30 p.m. Bikes vs. Cars screening and discussion, visit http://theshowroomap.com/coming-soon/bikes-vs-car.

For more information about the Asbury Park Homeowner’s Association, visit www. http://aphomeowners.org.

The City Council will hold an open public presentation and discussion 6 p.m. Wednesday on their application to the NJDOT for the Transit Village Designation in the second floor conference room at City Hall, 1 Municipal Plaza.

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