How’d they do it? Busy NJ city goes 9 years without a single traffic death

🚦 Hoboken has gone nine straight years without a single traffic fatality, a milestone unmatched in much of New Jersey.

🏙️ Officials credit the city’s Vision Zero strategy, including lower speed limits, curb extensions and intersection redesigns.

👨‍👧 Former Mayor Ravi Bhalla says simple, low-cost engineering fixes are saving lives and reshaping street safety statewide.

Hoboken has not had a single car crash death, including drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists, in nine consecutive years.

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The last time Mile Square City had such a fatality was on Jan. 17, 2017.

That’s because Democratic Assemblyman and former Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla has been committed to making people and public safety his top priority.

Hoboken Vision Zero initiative drives nine years without traffic fatalities

In 2019, Bhalla launched Hoboken’s “Vision Zero” Task Force to make streets and sidewalks a shared, safe experience for motorists and pedestrians.

The goal of the task force is to utilize street engineering and innovation to minimize street injuries and deaths, he said.

There is no “one thing” that will lead to zero deaths anywhere. It’s a combination of ideas, like a change in infrastructure design that’s not expensive but can substantially reduce the likelihood of serious injuries and death.

Street engineering changes: daylighting, curb extensions and physical barriers

That includes placing bollards at each of the four corners of an intersection to prevent a car from parking. It’s called daylighting.

“Daylighting is one very low-cost, high effective measure to make sure that the sight line for motorists and pedestrians is clear to avoid a conflict between motorists and pedestrians when they’re crossing the street,” Bhalla said.

Hoboken has curb bump-outs or curb extensions. That is effective for vulnerable populations such as senior citizens and children because it shortens the crossing distance on a wide street, forcing drivers to slow down.

It creates a lot more real estate on the sidewalk, and it makes it easier for anyone, especially seniors and children, to across the street before the light turns green, Bhalla said.

While New Jersey law already bans parking near intersections, enforcement is not enough. So, Hoboken installed physical barriers.

“You can put a bike rack at that intersection, and that creates more access to environmentally friendly forms of micro-mobility. You can integrate some green infrastructure by planting rain gardens in that area, which could mitigate flooding in certain neighborhoods,” Bhalla said.

Lower speed limits and protected bike lanes reshape Hoboken streets

Speed limits have also been dropped to 20 mph, and brighter paint has been used to make bike lanes and crosswalks nearly impossible to miss, he added.

Bhalla has lived in Hoboken since 2000, and even before he entered the political world, he had thoughts of making the city safer, which began when he was a young dad pushing his child in a stroller dangerously close to traffic.

“As a young father, I saw that it’s a little bit dangerous pushing a toddler’s stroller into the middle of a busy walkway because you had to look up to tell if the light was going to turn red and you could finally cross.

He realized that the main intersection needs to be a complete street for both cars and people.

“People are what matters, and public safety is what matters. That’s really what the driving force behind Vision Zero is,” Bhalla said.

Larger suburban NJ towns can learn from Hoboken's Vision Zero

While Hoboken streets are narrow and densely populated with their own challenges, Bhalla said larger suburban New Jersey towns can absolutely learn from Vision Zero.
Many larger towns in the state have wider streets, but these streets are built only for cars.

“You can make it a much safer experience by having protective bike lanes on some of those larger streets. By narrowing the width of a street, scientific studies have shown that it naturally makes people drive in a much more cautious manner, and in a slower manner,” Bhalla said.

For example, simply installing protective bike lanes is going to encourage families with kids to feel like they’re safe to take a bike ride on what was otherwise an unsafe street. Also, cars will be driving on narrower streets, forcing them to drive slower and more carefully, he added.

Bhalla also encouraged other municipalities, large and small, to reach out to Hoboken to get any feedback or ideas needed to help make their towns safer for both cars and pedestrians.

He said Hoboken’s new mayor, Emily B. Jabbour, has vowed to keep up these safety measures.

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