You can ride solo, you can form a team, but just get out and ride!  Help us make New Jersey a leader in the US in miles ridden, calories burned, gasoline saved.  Join the Challenge here.

Walking and cycling are the most sustainable means of transportation, providing a wide range of economic, social, and environmental benefits.  Active travel also contributes both directly and indirectly to public health.  Walking and cycling provide a convenient, affordable, and dependable form of daily physical activity that can be integrated into our everyday activities such as commuting to work, getting to school, shopping, and visiting friends.  Moreover, by helping reduce car use, walking and cycling can generate environmental benefits such as less air pollution, noise, energy use, and depletion of non-renewable resources.

This session focuses on the health benefits of walking and cycling and how to encourage more walking and cycling by a wider spectrum of the population, including women as well as men, children and seniors, economically disadvantaged, and to the extent possible, persons with disabilities.  There are three talks in this session on active travel.

In the first talk, Prof. David Bassett of the University of Tennessee examines regional variations in walking and cycling in the US and examines the relationship of those differences with corresponding regional variations in rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.  The evidence suggests that car-dependent, sprawled development without good walking and cycling facilities discourages active travel, leading to low levels of physical activity and serious health problems.  The Southeastern US, for example, has the most car-dependent land-use patterns, the lowest rates of walking and cycling, and the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.  Much could be done to improve the built environment to encourage more active travel.

The second talk features Prof. Jennifer Dill of Portland State University , who focuses on the special concerns of women, especially related to their much lower levels of cycling compared to men in the US.  Women in northern European countries cycle as often as men, suggesting that the cycling infrastructure and transport policies there provide lessons for encouraging more women to cycle in the US.  Portland, Oregon has been at the forefront of cycling in the US, and has been successfully implementing a wide range of measures that have not only raised cycling levels by more than 6-fold since 1990 but also encouraged a higher percentage of women to get on bikes.

The third talk in the session is jointly by Prof. Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech and Prof. John Pucher of Rutgers University .  They document the high levels of walking and cycling among all segments of the population in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, as well as the much greater safety of active travel on those countries compared to the US.  They explain and illustrate the wide range of infrastructure as well as transport, land-use, and taxation policies in Europe that encourage walking and cycling while restricting car use.

Photos of the Summit are up on our website here, and the day’s presentations will be available for download.  Planning for New Jersey BikeWalk Summit 2013 will begin soon!

And, now, on to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, beginning on March 20!

The New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition fully supports Ms Van Hise and the Princeton Freewheelers, and all others who have protested this NJ Transit measure. We have expressed our support in a letter to Commissioner Simpson and also to Mr. James Weinstein, Executive Director of the NJ Transit Corporation (all three letters can be seen here).

NJBWC has taken the additional step of inviting Commissioner Simpson, Mr. Weinstein, and/or other NJ Transit representatives to join us in New Brunswick, NJ, on February 25 for the New Jersey BikeWalk Summit. There, Andy Besold of North Brunswick and Jim Vance of Hoboken (both NJ Transit users and bicyclists) will present a session on the difficulties faced in attempting to integrate mass transit and bicycles in New Jersey.

We hope that NJDOT and NJ Transit will attend and begin a meaningful dialogue to find an immediate solution to this situation.

The Voorhees Transportation Center, Rutgers, reported in a Pedestrian Safety Tracking Report that male pedestrians in New Jersey are more likely to be fatally struck than females along New Jersey roads. See an article here.

The United Parcel Service is delivering gifts via bicycle this holiday season in parts of southern Colorado. Will the patter of raindeer hooves on the rooftop be replaced by the sound of bicycle tires in the driveway? See the article from Chieftain.com here.

Finally, there is some worry that the Blue Ridge Parkway, a wonderful place to ride a bike, may be closed to bicyclists, following a study focusing on the parkway as a scenic driving experience. See the article here.

Contact your senator today and urge them to consider this amendment favorably. For those of us in New Jersey, that is Senator Frank Lautenberg. For a full list of the senators on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, see the America Walks website here .

It will be considered tomorrow, so please don’t delay in making contact.

The New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition has reached another important milestone. I am very pleased to announce that Jim Nicholson has accepted the position of Executive Director. Many of you know Jim from his dedicated work with NJBWC and his many years of informed and passionate dedication to making New Jersey a more livable state for cyclists and pedestrians.

Recognizing the importance a state-wide bike/ped coalition, Jim was a founding member and served as the first president. He remained on the board at the end of his term and has been serving as the Education Director and Treasurer. Since its founding in 2009, Jim has been a leader and vital connection to the many accomplishments of NJBWC. As he transitions from his long and distinguished career with a major international bank, Jim will be able to better support bike and pedestrian issues at the local, state and national levels, and to complement and amplify the work of the dedicated members and advocates from Ringwood to Cape May.

Thanks to Jim’s foresight, NJBWC offers the nationally recognized “Smart Cycling” education program of the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). Jim, who is a certified instructor and a League of American Bicyclists Region Coach to train cycling instructors, has led classes for many dozens of participants. Under Jim’s leadership, NJBWC continues to support the operations of the NJBIKESChOOL, a bicycle education program for school children in southern and central New Jersey and has offered its 501c3 charitable status to similar groups without this designation, allowing them to accept donations in support of their operations. Affiliated with the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking and Walking, Jim has represented NJBWC with the New Jersey delegation at the National Bike Summit held each year in Washington, DC.

Jim is looking forward to no longer commuting to New York City and being able to travel throughout New Jersey to meet members and the many people, businesses, organizations and state agencies that are working together to make New Jersey a better place to work and live.

I can think of no better way for you to express your appreciation to Jim for his commitment to the continued success of New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition than by renewing your membership, encouraging your family, friends and bike club to join, volunteering your time, and registering for the 3^rd New Jersey Bike/Walk Summit in New Brunswick, which will be held with the Voorhees Transportation Center of Rutgers University on February 25, 2012.

Karen Jenkins President Board of Directors New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition

Additional details will be posted soon but please let us know if you are thinking about attending, so we can begin to gauge the response and plan accordingly. You may respond to info@newjerseybikewalk.org until we set up a dedicated em-mail address.

Hope to see you in New Brunswick next year!