Ocean City will be among the five towns and one county to be honored on Monday (Oct. 26) as winner of a Complete Streets Excellence Award.
A newly marked lane leads bicycles through the north end of Ocean City via West Atlantic Boulevard.The New Jersey Department of Transportation will recognize 51 municipalities and two counties that have passed “Complete Streets” policies designed to balance the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, transit vehicles, emergency responders and commercial transport with safety as a priority.
But the six will be singled out as exemplary.
With the reconfiguration of West Avenue to replace two lanes of traffic with buffered bicycle lanes between 35th Street and 55th Street, the installation of a user-activated signal to help pedestrians and cyclists cross the busy Ninth Street gateway and the addition of bicycle lanes in the Gardens, Ocean City completed a safe bicycle route the length of the island in 2015.
Ocean City will be recognized at an all-day summit Monday at Rutgers University that will include sessions on “Making the Case for Complete Streets,” “De-mystifying Complete Streets” and “Complete Streets in your Communities, Now and Tomorrow.”
The sessions will be led by experts in engineering, planning, health, economic development, safety, and other disciplines related to Complete Streets. An Ocean City representative will be part of a panel session that will include the other award-winning towns.
According to the state DOT, New Jersey is a national leader in Complete Streets policies, with the most policies of any state. The New Jersey Department of Transportation was among the first state DOTs to adopt an internal Complete Streets policy. Today, 121 municipalities and 7 counties have policies.
