Several residents urged the Bergen County Board of Commissioners during public comment to prioritize protected bike lanes and short, local projects recommended in the Bergen County Local Safety Action Plan.

Chris Nowell, a Fort Lee resident and active-transportation advocate, told commissioners that "bike lanes within towns help people make short everyday trips to schools, supermarkets, downtowns without a car." He urged officials to favor protected lanes — not narrow lanes squeezed between parked cars and speeding traffic — and to start with small, incremental projects where they can prove success.

The nut graf: Commenters said the county should avoid all-or-nothing regional plans that fail for lack of local buy-in and instead pursue modest, visible projects that create safer short trips and then encourage neighboring towns to follow suit.

In his remarks, Nowell cited the 2015 Central Bergen Bike and Pedestrian Plan as an example of an ambitious regional study that "never got off the ground" and stressed that "Bergen County still doesn't have a single bike lane on a county road." He identified specific county roads mentioned in the Local Safety Action Plan — Forest Avenue, DeGraw Avenue and Old Hook Road — as having the space to add bike lanes.

Another commenter, identified in the record as Patrick, pointed to outside data showing how transportation policy can change travel behavior. Patrick cited a Regional Plan Association analysis using Waze data that, he said, found "the time lost to traffic jams was reduced by 25% in the first 8 weeks and 21% in the first 16 weeks, of which 14% can be attributed to congestion pricing." He said those shifts show that changes such as congestion pricing and added bike lanes can reduce traffic, emissions and improve street safety.

Both speakers urged the board to read, endorse and work to implement the Bergen County Local Safety Action Plan and to prioritize protected lanes and small pilot projects — for example, a quarter-mile of protected lane in a high‑priority location — rather than waiting to build a full countywide network.

The comments were part of the public-comment portion of the meeting; no formal county action, motion or vote on bike-lane implementation was recorded during the session. Commissioners did not take formal direction on a specific project during the meeting.

Background: Commenters referenced the 2015 Central Bergen Bike and Pedestrian Plan and the Bergen County Local Safety Action Plan. They also referenced Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn's incremental approach to street redesign and a Regional Plan Association analysis using Waze traffic data to support arguments about induced demand and mode shift.

Looking ahead: Speakers asked the commissioners to endorse the county Local Safety Action Plan and to prioritize small, protected pilot projects on county roads where crash data indicate higher risk, then expand as local success encourages wider adoption.