Area bike enthusiasts have varying reasons for foresaking their automobiles for their daily commute to work.
By: Jennifer Potash
Some Princeton residents and commuters have forsaken the car culture for the bike culture, using a bicycle as their primary means of transportation.
The reasons vary bicycling saves money, it’s healthy and is a more enjoyable commuter experience.
And all of the cyclists say they would not easily give it up.
An avid cyclist since age 8, Henry Arnold, a principal with Arnold Associates, a landscape architecture and urban design firm in Princeton Borough, relies on his bike for commutes from home to work and everywhere else in between.
"This way you’re brought face to face with nature in a way you can’t experience in a car," said Mr. Arnold.
Robert McChesney, a borough resident and a former chairman of the Borough’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, uses his bike to commute from home to the Dinky station and for other errands.
Although Mr. McChesney and his family "caved" and got a car a few years ago so his wife could more easily commute to her job, he is happy he was "car-free for 18 years."
Using a bike saves time because he gets his exercise and travels to work at the same time, Mr. McChesney said.
In addition to being a great source of exercise, using a bicycle also leads to financial savings of not needing a second car in the family, said Ted Borer, an engineer and manager of mechanical systems at Princeton University who rides rain, shine, snow or sleet.
"I guess I’m like the post office that way," he quipped.
In addition to his daily commute from his Hopewell Township home to his office at the university, Mr. Borer also takes a 3,000-mile ride each year.
Another intangible benefit is the time the family spends riding together, Mr. Borer said. His children are ages 1, 4 and 7 and the oldest has gone on some overnight bike trips with Mr. Borer.
Mr. Arnold doesn’t think twice about bringing his bike to urban centers.
Now that bikes can be placed on many trains as well as buses equipped with bike racks, Mr. Arnold is able to zip around Trenton and other cities.
The state Department of Transportation has begun listening to the needs of cyclists when building new roads or reconstructing existing ones, Mr. Borer said.
Motor-vehicle drivers are well-behaved about sharing the road, Mr. Borer said. Bicyclists, for their part, should know the rules about signaling their turns and riding as close to the right as safely possible, he said.
While traffic-calming devices have posed some difficulties by narrowing the roadways, overall Princeton is a bicycle-friendly place, the cyclists said.
The Borough Bicycle Advisory Committee, which has been memberless since January, as well as Princeton Township’s Sidewalk and Bicycle Advisory Committee have made suggestions to improve the cycling conditions in the two municipalities.
Parked cars, not moving ones, tend to be a greater danger to cyclists, Mr. Arnold said.
"The largest hazard is a car door opening, as drivers many times do not check to see if a cyclist is going by," Mr. Arnold said.
But the removal of parking meters from Nassau Street and other streets to create bicycle lanes has not been well-received by the Borough Council. The meters are a key source of revenue for the borough.
Nor has widening the roads to create bike lanes been carried out due to the expense.
But the council has been sympathetic to the cyclists’ pleas for making the motor-vehicle drivers more attentive to the need to share the road with bicycle riders. Signs reminding motorists to give bicycles and pedestrians the right of way in the road will soon be posted on borough streets.
The cyclists said they would also like to see some sturdier bike racks in the downtown.