The completion this month of buffered bicycle lanes on West Atlantic Boulevard and Battersea Road at the northern end of the island provides the final link in a bicycle route that now runs the length of Ocean City.
Cyclists can now travel 7.8 miles from the Ocean City-Longport Bridge (at the north end) to the Russ Chattin Bridge (at the south end) on bicycle lanes that are marked and protected in various ways from high-speed traffic.
The route offers not only recreation but a safe travel alternative to the busy summer streets of Ocean City.
See our brief video tour of the route above, and an interactive map below.
Bicyclists can look for sharrows painted on roads and follow blue-and-gold “OC1” signs that mark the route.
The years-long effort to create the route took many small steps.
West Avenue at the southern end of the island was reconfigured in the spring to eliminate two lanes of traffic and to create buffered bicycle lanes.
The city received a $100,000 grant to install a “HAWK Signal,” a user-activated traffic signal, to help bicyclists cross Ocean City’s busiest cross-street, Ninth Street, at the intersection of Aldrich Avenue.
Bike OCNJ, a local bicycle advocacy group, has been instrumental in planning, researching and lobbying for the improvements that have made the route possible.
The group is tentatively planning a public forum for a date in August to be announced, according to Tom Heist, a Bike OCNJ leader.
