March Madness Mayhem Turns Tragic

Eric Fredericks • Saturday March 24, 2007

UPDATE 3/26: Jason Ray passed away this morning. Our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and UNC Nation. Also, our thoughts are with the driver of that struck Jason, as I’m sure this is difficult for him as well. Sally has provided an update on the area’s walkability in the comments of this article.

Original Post: This is one of my favorite times of the year – March Madness – where hundreds of US college basketball teams compete for championships. March is also a very busy time of the year in terms of my own work volume, and so I’ve been trying to squeeze in as much basketball viewing as I can. It’s especially difficult for me this watch this year, as I would love to be outside playing basketball in our beautiful 80 degree weather this month, but of course, I’m still recovering from my broken ankle. I’m also still trying to recover from the absolute collapse of my Illini in the final minutes of the game versus Virginia Tech.

Last night I caught the second half of the North Carolina/USC game. They announced that the student that wears the North Carolina mascot uniform, Jason Ray, was hit by an SUV while walking along the shoulder of a state highway in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He is in critical condition. He was walking back to his hotel after purchasing some food at a local convenience store.

It’s hard for me to speculate exactly what happened in this situation since I’m not familiar with Fort Lee. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the situation was probably hostile for pedestrians, and that played a major factor in this collision. Speaking from my own experiences, I’ve faced this situation many times. I’m typically pretty aggressive when it comes to walking in non-pedestrian friendly environments. I know I should be more careful, but I think it’s ridiculous to expect visitors to your community to have to drive everywhere. And that’s exactly what happens in most communities because hotels are generally located in non-walkable neighborhoods, often near freeway interchanges.

Despite my strong dislike of the North Carolina basketball team, I certainly hope Jason Ray recovers quickly from this incident and can carry on his normal life activities as he did before. As UNC coach Roy Williams said, “it sort of makes everything else pale in comparison to that — a youngster to have something like that happen.” I agree. Hopefully the New Jersey DOT will make it a priority to make the facilities safer for all travel modes in this corridor and an incident like this will not happen again.

If anyone is familiar with this road, we would certainly appreciate your comments on this issue.

Hackettstown, New Jersey Lauded For Its Walkability

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday September 12, 2006

Hackettstown, New Jersey has been receiving a lot of press coverage lately – with good news to report. Hackettstown was named among the best places to live finalists in Money Magazine in 2005 and in the New Jersey Monthly in 2006. Recently, the Easton, PA Express-Times reported that the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority named Hackettstown a “walkable community” and has allocated money for a consulting firm to evaluate and recommend pedestrian improvements on its highly-regarded Main Street. “It’s an impressive main street,” said Ron Tindall, project manager for the authority’s Walkable Communities program. “And there are things that could be improved for walkability and livability.”

It sounds as though Hackettstown is well-deserving of its recognition. I have never been there, but judging by Google Maps, Hackettstown looks fairly walkable. Here are a few things I found interesting about these stories:

1) I do not trust Money Magazine’s list of best places to live, as evidenced by my recent article.
2) The New Jersey Monthly seemed to appreciate the fact that they are going to put a huge GATED active-adult community of 115 condos and another 101 luxury houses along the Musconetcong River. I certainly don’t.
3) The Express-Times reporter incorrectly listed the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority as the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. We all make mistakes.
4) Ron Tindall is serving the same role that I did while at the regional government in Dayton, Ohio. I’m very glad to see that North New Jersey has a similar program.