Green, Textured Bike Lanes Roll Out in Jersey City

 Jersey City is the first municipality in the state to receive this particular coating treatment

handlebars3JERSEY CITY—The biking community in Jersey City marked another watershed this week, as contractors began installing a new, highly visible green surface in bike lanes on busy streets. They are the first specially colored or textured bike lanes in the city, and among the first in the state.

Work on the surfacing began last Thursday, as city bike lane contractors Statewide Striping began laying down Endurablend, a mixture including polymer, fine gravel, and green dye, in pre-striped bike lanes along Christopher Columbus Drive. The surface is being sprayed through a honeycomb-patterned stencil, forming small hex shapes divided by thin lattice lines. The color emphasizes to cyclists and drivers that the lane is for bikes only, and the gravel is for traction, while the hex pattern is designed for better wear and drainage than solid coverings, according to Statewide representatives.

Jersey City is the first municipality in the state to receive this particular coating treatment, according to Statewide, which recently installed a very similar coating in Newark bike lanes, but in a solid sheet.

Current plans in Jersey City call for the green surface to be reserved for particularly high-traffic streets that have bike lanes. It is being installed as part of the current contract between the city and Statewide; the project also includes numerous lanes with white thermoplastic outer stripes and blacktop centers that have already been painted on at least 17 other streets, at a total cost of approximately $551,000.

Bike JC, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to safer bicycling and streets in Jersey City, has lobbied for years for increased bike infrastructure, and sat on the city committee that originally planned the growing network of bike lanes. The City Council approved the contract for the work late last year, and the administration of Mayor Steven Fulop has been aggressively implementing it this spring and summer.

When the current round of construction is complete, Jersey City’s bike lane network will be the largest in any New Jersey municipality.

 

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