Hoboken, New Jersey hasn’t had a traffic fatality in 7 years

For seven years now, town of practically 60,000 individuals has reported resounding success: Not a single vehicle occupant, bicyclist or pedestrian has died in a visitors crash since January 2017, elevating Hoboken as a nationwide mannequin for roadway security.

Mayor Ravi Bhalla was a Metropolis Council member in 2015 when a van struck 89-year-old Agnes Accera as she crossed Washington Avenue within the bustling downtown enterprise district. Bhalla didn’t know Accera however attended her wake and stated her loss of life impressed him to push for higher security.

“I felt it wasn’t acceptable,” Bhalla stated. “Our seniors, who we owe the best obligation of security to, ought to have the ability to move that road as safely as doable. For her to really be killed was a set off that we wanted to take motion.”

Bhalla grew to become mayor in 2018 and town absolutely dedicated to Imaginative and prescient Zero: a set of tips adopted by quite a few cities, states and nations searching for to get rid of visitors deaths. Proponents consider no accident is actually unavoidable and even need to put off the phrase “accident” altogether when describing roadway fatalities.

Sweden originated the idea greater than a quarter-century in the past, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted Hoboken in 2022 when saying his division would comply with Imaginative and prescient Zero tips. Main U.S. cities together with New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon, have built-in points of this system into their security plans, together with not less than some type of daylighting, the time period for the elimination of parking areas close to intersections to enhance visibility.

Hoboken’s success has chipped away on the notion that reaching zero visitors deaths is extra aspirational than achievable.

“That aim is clearly daring,” stated Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Imaginative and prescient Zero Community, a nonprofit advocating for road security. “It’s additionally meant to assist us form of shake off the complacency that we’ve had for too lengthy that visitors deaths are inevitable, that what we’re experiencing at present is simply an unlucky and unavailable byproduct of contemporary society. That’s not the case.”

Whereas Hoboken’s plan has quite a few parts, together with decrease velocity limits and staggered visitors lights, daylighting is usually credited as one of many greatest causes its fatalities have dropped to zero.

Ryan Sharp, town’s transportation director, stated when roads must be repaved, Hoboken takes the extra step of cordoning off the road corners to widen curbs and shorten crosswalks. It’s already unlawful to park at an intersection in Hoboken, however drivers typically do anyway if there aren’t bodily boundaries.

A number of the new concrete constructions are geared up with bike racks, benches and even rain backyard planters that assist soak up stormwater runoff. If there isn’t sufficient cash for an infrastructure answer instantly, town places up momentary bollards.

“There actually isn’t a silver bullet or any magic, revolutionary factor the place we’ve cracked a code,” Sharp stated. “Our method has been extra about specializing in the basics. We’ve created a program the place we’re layering these items in 12 months after 12 months.”

However eradicating parking from a spot the place it’s briefly provide has critics.

Joe Picolli, who opened Hoboken Barber Store on Washington Avenue in 2018, stated the curb extensions — or bumpouts — have made it troublesome for downtown retailers to win again enterprise misplaced throughout the pandemic.

“Earlier than the bumpouts, there have been much more buses, much more vehicles, much more parking,” stated Picolli, who lives in Level Nice, New Jersey, and typically has to path road sweepers to seek out parking. “It’s good so far as individuals strolling on the road, nevertheless it’s dangerous since you’re not getting the stream from different cities.”

Though a bit bigger than its Mile Sq. Metropolis nickname would indicate, Hoboken ranks fourth nationwide in inhabitants density, trailing three different New Jersey cities and two spots forward of New York, in keeping with 2022 census information.

Whereas the compact footprint means everyone seems to be inside vary of public transit, vehicles nonetheless crowd the key streets and curbsides.

“We’re not New York Metropolis, however we’re not a suburb, both,” stated Tammy Peng, who has lived in Hoboken for greater than 15 years. “We’re form of a bizarre in between. A whole lot of households preserve a automobile as a result of they need to run errands on the weekend, however Monday to Friday they’re commuting into town.”

Whereas daylighting barely lengthens her journeys to soccer observe or the grocery retailer, Peng stated it’s a lot simpler to identify pedestrians crossing the road.

Total fatality numbers have remained largely unchanged since New York joined the Imaginative and prescient Zero motion in 2014 with a plan that included widening some curbs. Mayor Eric Adams boosted town’s dedication in November by promising to sunlight 1,000 intersections annually.

Some cities have even used the observe to beautify their downtowns. Baltimore employed artists to enliven curb extensions with geometric shapes and vibrant colours.

States are embracing daylighting as properly. Greater than 40 had enacted some form of daylighting regulation when California’s Legislature accepted a brand new statewide rule in 2023 that prohibits parking inside 20 ft (6 meters) of an intersection. Cities can set shorter distances with proof their plans are secure. Violators began receiving warnings in January and face fines starting early subsequent 12 months.

Assemblymember Alex Lee, who authored California’s laws, stated he was troubled by the truth that his state’s visitors fatalities have been even larger than the nationwide common, with round 1,100 pedestrians killed in each 2021 and 2022. Deaths have been recorded at the same tempo by the primary six months of 2023.

Though cities within the nation’s most populous state vary from behemoth metropolises to sparsely populated rural communities, Lee figured a statewide normal would get rid of any confusion. The one factor higher, he contends, can be a nationwide normal.

“Simply as I assume in each state you may’t park in entrance of a hearth hydrant or can’t park near the prepare observe, it must be the identical whether or not you’re in California or Nebraska,” Lee stated.

Stefanie Seskin, director of coverage and observe on the Nationwide Affiliation of Metropolis Transportation Officers, stated indicators are high quality, however not practically as efficient as infrastructure adjustments.

“It actually takes a subsequent degree of chutzpah for a driver to park on a curb extension than it does to park the place an indication says ‘please don’t,’” Seskin stated.

Jeff Speck, creator of the e-book “Walkable Metropolis,” which makes the case for pedestrian-friendly downtowns, commends cities like Hoboken for enhancing visibility at intersections. Nonetheless, he stated some communities go too far by taking away too many parking areas with out including bodily boundaries, creating broad “sight triangles” resulting in elevated rushing.

“What quite a few cities have accomplished is overreacted to the laudable aim of daylighting and positioned outsized no-parking zones round each driveway and curb reduce,” Speck stated. “That’s counterproductive.”

In 2012, Seattle was one of many first main U.S. cities to pursue zero visitors deaths. Mike McGinn, the mayor on the time, stated he wished to recalibrate the general public’s expectation of highway security to make it extra akin to their ideas on airplane security, the place no fatality is taken into account acceptable.

Why, he asks, ought to downtown areas the place individuals work, store, or attend leisure occasions should accept a decrease normal?

“That is actually the best actual property that must be given over to security,” stated McGinn, now govt director of the pedestrian advocacy group America Walks. “It’s low-hanging fruit.”