Advantage: Bicycle

Park in Front of the Entrance

Bike corral by 7th avenue entrance.

The SeaHearNow music festival in Asbury Park, N.J., this September 14-15 was another great success - how could it not be, with Bruce Springsteen appearing for the finale on Sunday evening? 

My impression is that the success was not just on the stage but also in all the logistical areas that people take for granted as long as they are working well. Many readers will know that I take particular interest in transportation - how people arrive, and how they get back home. Generally, things seem to have gone very well in that department.

One thing that surprised me was a motorist who arrived in the early afternoon on Sunday, apparently expecting to park his car more or less at the festival's front door. At any rate, I encountered him attempting to turn from Third avenue - one of the east-west streets that bring you to the beach - onto Ocean avenue, which, as the name suggests, runs north-south next to the beach. At Third and Ocean he was next to the box office and two blocks from the festival entrance at Ocean and Fifth. 

The driver seemed nonplussed by all the pedestrians walking around in the street, not yielding him the right-of-way and in fact totally ignoring him. Oh well. I hope he found a parking spot somewhere. There certainly weren't any on Ocean.

Unfortunately, I doubt that he was the only motorist who arrived at SeaHearNow with unrealistic expectations about parking.

The City does its best, but it's not a big place. Only about 15,000 people live there, and the 2024 SeaHearNow attracted 40,000 fans. For years the City has been encouraging people who arrive by car to consider parking at a nearby train station and riding a train into Asbury Park. In addition, many people park in neighboring towns like Ocean Grove and Loch Arbour and then walk to the festival. 

The City also has a scooter share program, but the scooters are geo-fenced and only operate within Asbury Park. People parking in the western parts of the city are encouraged to use the scooters to solve what transportation people call "the last mile problem." 

James Bonanno, Asbury Park's transportation director, informs me that the scooter company added 100 scooters to its Asbury Park fleet for the weekend. The scooters normally get turned off at 10 pm, but during the festival scooter hours were extended two hours in the evening. That said, the SeaHearNow weekend stands at the top of Olympus when it comes to scootering in Asbury Park. On Saturday, there were 2,017 rentals; on Sunday there were 1,926.

For comparison, the weekend of 8/31-9/1 saw 1,242 and l,081 rentals, and the weekend of 8/24-8/25 saw 1,261 and 1,232.

The only day last summer that topped either of the SeaHearNow days was July 4, with 2,892 trips. 

I saw quite a few people riding these scooters who didn't necessarily look the part, but many of them were clearly having fun with a new toy. Perhaps Asbury Park was making some new converts to micromobility along the way to the music.

The scooter numbers are the only data on how people got to SeaHearNow that I have been able to find. I'm mindful of an old business bromide: "What gets measured is what gets managed." As I said before, I do think that arrivals and departures worked very well this year. But a more detailed understanding might turn up a few improvement opportunities. I think the simplest way to get a sense of what was going on in all transportation modes would be to survey ticket holders and ask them, in some detail, how they came and left. Not just did you take the train, but where did you get on. And how did you get from the train station to the festival. Perhaps SeaHearNow would be willing to conduct such a survey.

Meanwhile, many bicyclists had the option of parking their bikes very close to one of the festival's entrances. The photo at the beginning of this story shows the corral that was directly across Kingsley from the 7th avenue entrance. Here's another view of the corral.

And here's a shot of the 7th avenue entrance. Note the barriers designed to discourage motorists looking for a parking spot by the front door. How unsporting. 

Other cyclists chose to lock up on basically anything lock-uppable. 

Generally, people were respectful of small trees - it appears the word has gotten out that locking up to young trees is very bad for the trees.

I walked south from the 7th avenue entrance and took pictures of another large corral near the 5th avenue entrance, and then walked up to the boardwalk, south of Convention Hall, intending to take pictures of the bikes chained to the railing on the boardwalk, which has the advantage of an ocean view. But I was frankly tired of taking pictures of bicycles - yes, it happens even to me - so Lois and I sat down and watched the parade of pedestrians walking north on the boardwalk, toward the entrance and the main stage. 

Then something really odd happened. A parade of sea creatures was coming north on the boardwalk. I didn't know what I was looking at, so I took pictures. A piece of advice I received from an old photographer friend: If you have no idea what you're looking at, take pictures of it. Concentrate on whatever attracted your eye. Then sort it out later. 

And much later, after pursuing a couple of dry wells, I got to Jenn Hampton, whom I should have contacted earlier. I think Jenn basically knows everything about the art scene in Asbury Park, and it turns out this promenade is sponsored by the Wooden Walls Project and has its own name: March of the Medusa II, Jörmungandr’s Journey. Jenn adds: "It is part mask-making workshop and a march that happens as a celebration of the students finishing their masks." 

Coney Island has a Mermaid Parade every summer. Maybe Jörmungandr can make his visit an annual event.

See also Sea Hear Now 2023; Bike Parking 9/29 Asbury Park; Surf School, Asbury Park.