The newly painted bike lane on Harrison Avenue in 2024. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
The summer of 2024 seemed like a time when cyclists finally had the wind at their backs in their pursuit of the long, elusive dream of more safe bike routes in Red Bank.
The borough held a citizen forum on bike and pedestrian safety and subsequently passed a new Complete Streets policy that would garner the town honors, along with San Antonio, Texas, and Nashville, TN, for having one of the ten best bike/pedestrian policies in the nation.
And on Harrison Avenue, workers were putting that policy into practice, creating a bright and wide new bike lane, coupled with new parking restrictions, to create a breezy new north-south cycling corridor.
Two years later, the policy is in effect, the awards dutifully boasted of in press releases, but that bike lane on Harrison Avenue has faded into history. The colorful green paint? Gone. The accompanying parking restrictions? Lifted.
Leading your favorite hyperlocal news site to ask, “What’s Going on Here?” Scroll down for the explanation.
Cars 1, bikes 0. A photo taken on Harrison Avenue Thursday. (Photo by Brian Donohue)
Borough Manager Jim Gant said the bike lane was not meant as a permanent installation, but, rather, more of an experiment.
“The green bike lane on Harrison Avenue was installed in 2024 as a preliminary pilot project, not as a permanent installation,” he said in an email response to questions from redbankgreen. ‘The purpose was to test the concept, solicit feedback from residents, businesses, and roadway users, and evaluate how that segment functioned as part of the Borough’s broader Complete Streets efforts.”
When they were installing it, borough officials knew the roadway was slated to be torn up and repaved in the coming months, so it would be easy to backtrack if the experiment didn’t work.
They were doing little more than quickly slapping down some paint, a point seemingly lost on some residents who criticized the paint job for not having perfectly straight lines. 
But they did tout it as a step forward for the new Complete Streets policy. And they still are, sort of.
“The pilot provided valuable feedback and helped inform future planning,” Gant said. “Our goal continues to be exploring a more uniform, thoughtful and cohesive approach to connecting Red Bank’s bicycle network throughout the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, rather than implementing isolated segments.”
“Any future permanent bicycle facilities will be incorporated as part of a comprehensive roadway design and engineering process that considers safety, connectivity, public input, and applicable traffic standards,’ Gant added.
Which leads one to wonder: does the town still get to keep that award?
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
