The NJ Transit Board of Directors announced a new bike access policy at today’s board meeting in Newark. In a step welcomed by cycling advocates, NJ Transit riders with bicycles can now board and alight at any train station, regardless of the height of the station platform. Current policy prohibits cyclists from boarding or alighting at stations with low-level platforms, unless they have collapsible frame bikes. This recent action is a concrete step towards making New Jersey a more cyclist-friendly state.

Unfortunately, some bad news accompanied today’s announcement. The new policy, which goes into effect July 1, also created new weekend restrictions on standard frame bikes, restrictions that did not exist prior to today’s announcement. Cyclists will now be barred from inbound trains to New York from 9am-12pm and outbound trains from New York from 5pm-8pm on both Saturdays and Sundays. No change was made to NJ Transit’s weekday bike restrictions, which prohibit standard frame bicycles from certain peak hour trains.

The policy measure came as a shock to cycling advocates, who expected only good news from today’s meeting.

In response to some meeting attendees’ opposition to the weekend bike policy change, NJ Transit Board Member Regina Egea successfully moved to shorten the bike-free periods by one hour in the morning and evening (originally, they were 8am-12pm for inbound trains to New York and 4pm-8pm for outbound trains from New York). A better move would have been to table the policy change, or better yet, never establish the restriction in the first place.