New Jersey Ambassadors in Motion NJAIM
NJAIM is the New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center’s public outreach team. The team consists of adult ambassadors trained to educate and conduct outreach to bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists to promote safety and active transportation throughout the state of New Jersey. The Ambassadors employ four forms of outreach: event outreach, classroom outreach, on-street outreach, and municipal/governmental outreach/assistance. The part-time ambassadors work from April to November in an effort to fulfill the following goals:
- Promote a culture of courtesy, acceptance, and safety for all modes
- Strengthen and leverage a network of community organizations and leaders who can advocate on behalf of safe bicycling and pedestrian activity in their communities
- Provide training and education that helps to transform places and behaviors
- Encourage non-motorized transportation as a viable alternative to motorized transport
- Encourage everyday safe practices and behaviors by all modes
Monday June 16, 2014
Ambassadors went to Red Bank to hand out pamphlets and take complete streets pictures on Broad Street. They passed out roughly 75 safety pamphlets and interacted with over 100 people. They also stopped by the Red Bicycle Bike Shop and left 15 pamphlets for customers to pick up.
Wednesday June 18, 2014
The NJAIM outreach team traveled to Point Pleasant in order to conduct outreach on bicycle and walking safety. There were a lot of people at the boardwalk and roughly 130 pamphlets were handed out to pedestrians. Many of the people were in groups allowing Ambassadors to speak with a large number of people.
Friday June 20, 2014
Ambassadors went to Lakewood to hand out pamphlets on bicycle and walking safety. They spent most of the time on Clifton Avenue, where they handed out around 70 pamphlets. Clifton Avenue was busiest around lunch time when people were out walking and riding bicycles.
Tuesday June 24, 2014
Somerville had several amenities attracting people to the Main Street Area. Ambassadors interacted with roughly 100 people. They also spent time on Division Street, a pedestrian Mall, with no traffic, where people could sit and socialize.
Wednesday June 25, 2014
The NJAIM teach passed out pedestrian and bicycling safety information in Morristown. The Morristown downtown area has a park at the center and is surrounded by Route 202. This area provided an excellent location for outreach. The complete streets network extended over several blocks and Ambassadors were able to interact with roughly 500 people.
Friday June 27, 2014
Ambassadors visited Metuchen and Highland Park. They spend most of their time in Metuchen, on Main Street, from the train station to Route 27. They contacted roughly 50 people. Most of the afternoon was spent in Highland Park along route 27. Ambassadors gave pedestrian and bicycle safety information to roughly 120 people.
Monday June 30, 2014
The day began in Summit passing out pamphlets on Springfield Avenue. There was also a bike shop, Hilltop Bicycles, where several safety pamphlets were left for store customers. Ambassadors then traveled to Chatham, where they walked Main Street taking pictures and conducting outreach. The team then moved to Madison. Over the course of the day roughly 200 people were contacted.
Government Outreach and Technical Assistance
The Ambassadors provided outreach and technical assistance on Complete Streets to several municipalities and counties throughout the state over the past two weeks. This list of municipalities contacted included: Red Bank, Point Pleasant, Lakewood, Somerville, Morristown, Metuchen, Highland Park, Chatham, Madison, and Summit. The list of counties contacted included Essex, Ocean Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, Morris, and Union Counties
To request the services of NJAIM please go here: https://njbikeped.org/nj-ambassadors-in-motion-njaim/
On June 19, 2014 Susan Blickstein and Betsey Harvey presented at the second New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Council (BPAC) meeting. Blickstein discussed key ideas and recommendations from previous discussions. Harvey presented the “Bicycling to Rail Stations in New Jersey: 2014 Benchmarking Report.” She presented the findings and highlighted the most popular biked to stations: Westfield and New Brunswick.
The full report can be found here.
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