Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, also a Democratic candidate in the 8th District congressional race, is touting Vision Zero as a success after going seven years without a traffic death on local roads.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We have now marked seven years since our last traffic death in Hoboken, making
us one of the only U.S. cities to reach this milestone,” Bhalla said in a statement.
“While deliberate action on everything from restriping high visibility crosswalks to implementing comprehensive road redesigns has aided our success we aren’t stopping – we will continue to aggressively implement Vision Zero in every aspect of our major infrastructure projects.”
He continued that the city has continued to see a decline in traffic-related injuries, for example, between 2022 to 2023, there was an 18 percent reduction in injury crashes, and a 62 percent reduction in serious injuries.
In the past year, upgrades include multi-way stops added to 14 intersections, 418 delineators installed to improve intersection visibility through daylighting at 31 percent of intersections citywide, 61 crosswalks restriped, 27 curb ramps upgraded to improve ADA accessibility, and 15 MPH school zone speed limits added to 67 blocks in school zones – among other things.
The Hoboken City Council adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan in 2021, following Bhalla’s 2019 executive order designating Hoboken as a Vision Zero city to create safer streets.
The plan establishes the city’s goal to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and injuries by 2030 and includes key action items through a safe-systems approach to achieve this goal.
Hoboken will continue to iterate and expand on existing safety measures and implement
additional upgrades to ensure the safety of all vulnerable road users.
Additionally, this year, through a partnership with the County, the City will launch a public
planning process for comprehensive Vision Zero upgrades to Willow Avenue from 11th Street to 16th Street which is part of the City’s high-crash network.
According to the crash analysis in the City’s Vision Zero Action Plan, 10 street
segments, including Willow Avenue from 14th Street to the Hoboken/Weehawken border, accounted for 40 percent of all injuries and deaths from 2014 through 2018.
Where does he stand on the Genocide going on in Gaza!
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How many times is Bhalla going to pat himself on the back for this initiative? Happy there have been no deaths and that we have safer streets but Hoboken has a plethora of problems that aren’t being addressed by this administration – rats, a growing homeless population, a shortage of affordable housing, unenforced bike laws – the list goes on and on.