VENTNOR – The city will be slowing down motorists and painting a bicycle lanes to make Atlantic Avenue a safer thoroughfare.
According to Public Works Supervisor Ed Stinson, Atlantic Avenue will be re-striped to include a bicycle lane, hopefully by the start of the bustling summer holiday season.
“We submitted to the Department of Transportation for approval and will go out to bid in April,” he told commissioners on March 28. “We can award the bid in May. It will be a quick install by July 4.”
Police Chief Douglas Biagi said the city would introduce an ordinance to reduce the speed limit from 35 miles-per-hour to 25 miles-per-hour along Ventnor’s stretch of Atlantic Avenue.
A change in the city’s traffic ordinance will ensure the entire stretch of Atlantic Avenue, which spans all of Absecon Island and travels past the new Stockton University Boardwalk campus, will have the same speed limit. Margate City reduced its speed limit last year to match Longport and Atlantic City. Ventnor was the last hold out in reducing the speed limit.
Following completion of the Ventnor-Margate Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan prepared by Urban Engineers, Inc. of Philadelphia in 2016, consultant James Rutala of Rutala Associates of Linwood applied for a grant to fund the restriping of Atlantic Avenue to include bicycle lanes and to enhance pedestrian crosswalks.
The DOT approved a $275,000 Safe Streets to Transit grant to complete the bikeway on Atlantic Avenue from Fredricksburg to Jackson Avenue, and add striped pedestrian crosswalks in all locations.
The bike lanes would create safer conditions for both drivers and bikers and will meet Ventnor’s specific challenges, including increased summer population with pedestrians crossing four lanes of traffic to get to the boardwalk or beach, officials said.
