Margate residents are asking: will all those signs and painted street warnings make bicyclists safer, or more vulnerable to getting hit by a car?
The City of Margate is defending it’s plan to make walking & biking to school, safer. Many disagree.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation awarded Margate the grant, funded by the Federal Highway Administration. It’s goal was to improve infrastructure on routes to Ross Elementary School and Tighe Middle School.
Margate claims there was plenty of input from consultants, the general public, and the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
In 2019 – Margate received a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant: Encourage kids to walk or bike to school. The new traffic patterns and designs are based on the now outdated, 2015 Margate School Travel Plan, and 2016 Margate Ventnor Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.
Don Sab: Who decided that we needed the same sign every fifty feet? Someone have stock in a sign company?
Suzie Neu Neustadter: Why are bikes encouraged to ride in middle of street?
Pamela Sullivan: This is a rule for an accident waiting to happen! Too dangerous.
Kathy Wallace: Instead of having bicyclists not following rules of road in designated bike lanes, now we have them not following rules of road in middle of street.
NOTE: Margate student enrollment is declining each year. Taxpayers are handling expenses for two, half-empty schools. Margate has less than 350 students, total.
I’m car-free. I’ve only cycled for the last 10+ years. Yes, Margate was/is a ridiculously unsafe place to ride. What were there, like 50+ bike accidents last year? Yes, the new markings will make us cyclists safer! It places our safety on the 2 ton car operators, who should be responsible for not hitting us.
Being pinned to the curb/parking lane is unsafe. People open doors without looking back. Dogs test their leashes all the time. Motorists jump stop signs regularly. Cyclists need somewhere to swerve when the situation gets tense. That or strict traffic enforcement in greater numbers.
If the cars on Winchester/Monmouth are overtaking us at 30+ mph, which they do, we’re dead.
Stupid is as stupid does! These corrupt clowns can’t do anything right. Oh wait, they know how the lie, cheat and steal!
Winchester and Monmouth just are simply not wide enough to put bike lanes into. Parked cars make it even narrower. As MAC said, cyclists need some maneuvering room to avoid car doors and cars pulling into the street from the curb or at intersections without looking. I do not believe that any of this means much to angry motorists, but fortunately most motorists are courteous. I will continue to move to the side as soon as it is safe to do so to let cars pass. Until then, please be careful, my wife and grandkids would appreciate it.
My husband and I are year round residents of Margate and we both also work in Margate. SUGGESTION: Perhaps 2/3 of the new & expensive biking signs on Monmouth and Winchester could be REPAINTED with SPEED LIMIT SIGNS which currently are minimum 12 blocks apart on every street, Atlantic Ave being the worst! THAT would make bikers, walkers AND other drivers MUCH SAFER. However, we need policing of speeders and tickets issued. Most often, people need to learn lessons the hard way… pay the speeding ticket! Also, can we please crack down on the knuckleheads who don’t understand what “➡️“ and “⬅️“ and “????” mean! Seriously, I’ve been sooo close sooo many times in the summer months to being broadsided by the nuts who run stop signs because they’re busy on their phones or just plain ignorant!
“Seriously, I’ve been sooo close sooo many times in the summer months to being broadsided by the nuts who run stop signs because they’re busy on their phones or just plain ignorant!“
Right, that’s why we want safer biking streets. A broadside on a bike is possibly a fatal accident.
If the bikers have the right of way, an accident is always the drivers fault. The responsibility should be on the 2 ton vehicle operator.
If a driver breaks the speeding limit or runs a stop sign, hits a biker, but says they didn’t break the law, who is at fault? How does a biker prove it was the driver breaking the law?
More speed limit and stop signs won’t help vulnerable bikers. Speed bumps, maybe.