Cyclists Take to the Roads, and Mass Transit, in New Jersey
The New York Times
By Ronald Smothers

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WESTFIELD, N.J. -- The bicycle lockers at the New Jersey Transit station here have gotten Jim Barrett out of his car. He pedals his old balloon-tire Schwinn the mile from his home to the station, and wasting no time searching for a scarce parking spot, he stores the bike safely and continues his daily commute by train.

The transit agency's new friendliness to bicycles transcends mere convenience for John Madera, an avid cyclist from southern New Jersey who works in Philadelphia. Before he leaves work he dons a spandex riding outfit, buckles on his helmet and straps his 12-speed Fuji onto a specially designed rack mounted on the front of a New Jersey Transit bus. When he debarks with his bicycle in the New Jersey countryside, the grace note to his day is an intense 20-mile ride to his home in Pennsauken.

''It's good to have these options because it takes cars off the road,'' said Mr. Madera, 43, a transportation planner with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. ''And for bicyclers like me it gets me to what I enjoy the most: fast rides in the countryside at the end of the day.''

Both Mr. Barrett and Mr. Madera are beneficiaries of a sea change in state transportation policy. First, New Jersey lifted a permit requirement that made bringing a bicycle on a bus or train a hassle. Then, 296 bicycle lockers were installed at 23 train stations in the central part of the state. And all 262 buses on 47 routes in southern New Jersey have been fitted with racks that accommodate two bicycles.

These bicycle-friendly changes all were made within the past year and were intended to attract more riders to trains and buses. They are part of the vision of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, an avid off-road bicyclist, to create more than 2,000 miles of bike trails in the state by 2008, said Jeffrey Warsh, the executive director of New Jersey Transit.

New Jersey is not the first public transit agency to put racks on buses or outfit stations with lockers. Phoenix and San Diego, among major cities, are credited by most bicycle advocates and alternative transportation groups with leading the way. Phoenix first installed bus racks in 1990 and now has them on all 600 of its buses, which carried about 608,000 bicycles last year, said Mike Nevarez, the operations manager of the city's Valley Metro Transportation Authority.

New Jersey has not reached that level, said Susan Boyle, the bicycle program director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group based in New York. But the program here is the most extensive in the region and a ''remarkable service that is off to a fast start,'' she said. (The only New York City buses with racks are those that travel a route over the Whitestone Bridge between the Bronx and Queens.)

Use of the racks on the buses in southern New Jersey has grown since their installation in April to an average of 100 cyclists a day, said Mr. Warsh of New Jersey Transit. As for the bike lockers, almost half are rented at $7.50 a month. But at one station, Princeton Junction, there is a 25-person waiting list for lockers, reflecting the popularity of commuting by bicycle in college towns across the nation.

Mr. Warsh said the agency tried the bus program, called Rack 'n' Roll, in the southern part of the state because it is served by a single bus garage, making the program easy and economical. Studies elsewhere have shown that it is unwise to install the racks on some buses but not others in the same area. Potential bicyclists are likely to drive rather than wait for a bus that may or may not have a rack.

Officials in the central and northern parts of the state already have asked for racks, Mr. Warsh said. But they are costly to install and they compete with other, more compelling transit needs, like new train cars.

''We will roll it out little by little, bus garage by bus garage, considering the competing needs of mass transit,'' Mr. Warsh said.

Bus drivers in the southern part of the state initially were wary of fitting their buses with the racks, which add three feet on the front of the bus. They feared that the change would increase accidents, affect their turning radius and delay routes as bicyclists secured their cargo. But John Sims, a bus operator in the Camden area, said it had created no new hazards and the spring-loaded mechanism that secures the bicycles had taken only seconds to master.

Steven Spindler and John Boyle maintain a Web site for cyclists, bikemap.com, that maps out interesting and challenging bike routes and their connections to public transportation. The two men see the New Jersey Transit programs as part of a larger evolution of attitudes toward bicycles. From bans on buses and trains, to permit requirements, to the installation of bus racks and bicycle lockers: this progress is a journey of light-years, Mr. Spindler said.

A Philadelphia-based cartographer, Mr. Spindler said this has made getting around easier for him -- he has not owned a car since 1991. But more important, it has extended public transportation by encouraging those who live within a few miles of a bus route to bicycle there and catch the bus rather than drive all the way to work.

''The bicycle has limitations like bad weather and steep hills that make a trip less pleasant,'' Mr. Spindler said. ''But transit is sometimes a problem because the routes are linear and not directly at the place you start from or at your destination. Either of these problems would cause a person to drive, but by mixing and matching the two you solve the problem.''

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