VENTNOR – A resident petitioned the Board of Commissioners at its meeting Oct. 10 to extend the hours for bicycling on the boardwalk.
Resident Michelle Gratz loves to ride her bicycle on the boardwalk and believes it is safe to ride when fewer pedestrians are present.
She was riding her bicycle on the boardwalk on an August Sunday evening at 5 p.m. when police asked her to leave. Afterward, she filed an OPRA request seeking information about bicycle accidents on the boardwalk and discovered there were “only two” this summer – one at 9:21 a.m. and another at 8:05 p.m.
“There is very few. So I thought about it…when is the safest time to ride on the boardwalk?” she said.
Gratz believes that riding on the boardwalk should be restricted only during beach bathing hours – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. – when beachgoers are going to and from the beach with gear and children in hand. But riding should be allowed before and after beach hours, she said.
She listed reasons why bike riding on the boardwalk should be allowed when there are fewer walkers on the boardwalk, including for casino workers traveling to and from work, to promote a healthy lifestyle for people of all ages, to help the environment through lower carbon emissions, for tourism appeal, and to provide a safer alternative for riders who do not feel safe riding in the narrow bicycle lane on busy Atlantic Avenue.
“It would be a compromise between the pedestrians and the bicyclists,” she said.
Commissioner Lance Landgraf said he liked the idea of extending hours, but not during beach bathing hours. Mayor Tim Kriebel was a little more cautious about the change.
“We are always debating the flip side,” he said. “The reaction is that people who prefer to walk don’t like to walk when bikes are on the boardwalk. It’s usually older folks…especially when people are speeding on those bikes. For them, they feel it’s their time and we would be taking something away.”
The commissioners accepted the suggestion but took no action to change bicycle hours. Any change would need to be codified in an ordinance.
Current regulations for the off-season allow bicycles on the boardwalk during daylight hours.
However, during the summer from July 1 to Labor Day, the city restricts bicycle riding on weekends to between 6 a.m. and noon, Saturday and Sunday.
The operation and use of motorized bicycles on the boardwalk is prohibited at all times.
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