On-street parking was already at a premium in Hoboken, New Jersey, when the death of an elderly pedestrian prompted city officials to eliminate even more parking spaces to end traffic fatalities.
For seven years now, the city of almost 60,000 inhabitants has been able to report a resounding success: not a single car occupant, cyclist or pedestrian has managed it died in a traffic accident Since January 2017, Hoboken has become a national model for traffic safety.
Mayor Ravi Bhalla was a member of the City Council in 2015 when 89-year-old Agnes Accera was struck by a van as she crossed Washington Street in the busy downtown business district. Bhalla did not know Accera but was present at her memorial service and said her death inspired him to advocate for greater security.
“I felt like it wasn’t acceptable,” Bhalla said. “Our seniors, to whom we owe the greatest safety obligation, should be able to pass this road as safely as possible. The fact that she was actually killed was a catalyst for us to take action.”
Bhalla became mayor in 2018 and the city is fully committed to Vision Zero: a set of policies adopted by numerous cities, states and nations seeking to eliminate it Traffic fatalities. Proponents believe that no accident is truly unavoidable and even want to avoid using the word “accident” when describing traffic fatalities.
Sweden launched the concept more than a quarter century ago, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promoted Hoboken in 2022 when he announced his department would follow Vision Zero guidelines. Major U.S. cities such as New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon, have incorporated aspects of the program into their safety plans, including at least some form of daylighting, the term for removing parking spaces near intersections to improve visibility.
Hoboken’s success has distanced itself from the idea that achieving zero road fatalities is a goal rather than an achievable goal.
“This goal is obviously bold,” said Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit that advocates for road safety. “It is also intended to help us shed the complacency we have had for too long that road deaths are inevitable and that what we are experiencing today is just an unfortunate and unattainable by-product of modern society.” That is not the case. “
While Hoboken’s plan has numerous components, including lower speed limits and staggered traffic lights, daylighting is often cited as one of the main reasons the death toll fell to zero.
Ryan Sharp, the city’s transportation director, said that when streets need to be repaved, Hoboken takes the extra step of blocking off street corners to widen curbs and shorten crosswalks. Parking at an intersection in Hoboken is already illegal, but drivers often do it anyway when there are no physical barriers.
Some of the new concrete structures are equipped with bike racks, benches and even rain garden planters to help capture rainwater runoff. If there is not enough money for an infrastructure solution immediately, the city will set up temporary bollards.
“There’s really no silver bullet or some magical, innovative thing that we’ve cracked a code on,” Sharp said. “Our approach was more about focusing on what matters. We have created a program where we incorporate these things year after year.”
But the removal of parking spaces in a place where there is a shortage of parking spaces is met with criticism.
Joe Picolli, who opened the Hoboken Barber Shop on Washington Street in 2018, said the curb extensions — or bumpouts — have made it harder for downtown merchants to win back business lost during the pandemic.
“Before the riots, there were a lot more buses, a lot more cars, a lot more parking spaces,” said Picolli, who lives in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and sometimes has to chase street sweepers to find a parking spot. “It’s good for the people walking on the streets, but it’s bad because you don’t get the electricity from other cities.”
Although Hoboken is slightly larger than its “Mile Square City” moniker suggests, it ranks fourth in the nation in population density, behind three other New Jersey cities and two spots ahead of New York, according to 2022 census data.
Although the compact footprint means everyone is within reach of public transport, cars still crowd main streets and roadsides.
“We’re not New York City, but we’re not a suburb either,” said Tammy Peng, who has lived in Hoboken for more than 15 years. “We’re kind of weird in between. Many families keep a car because they want to run errands on the weekend, but Monday through Friday they commute into the city.”
While daylight slightly lengthens their trips to soccer practice or the grocery store, Peng says it’s much easier to spot pedestrians crossing the street.
The overall death toll has remained largely unchanged since New York joined the Vision Zero movement in 2014 with a plan that included expanding some curbs. Mayor Eric Adams increased the city’s commitment in November by pledging to daylight 1,000 intersections each year.
Some cities have even used this practice to beautify their downtowns. Baltimore hired artists to enliven curb extensions with geometric shapes and bright colors.
The states also rely on daylight. More than 40 had enacted some kind of daylight law when the California legislature passed a new statewide rule in 2023 banning parking within 20 feet (6 meters) of an intersection. Cities can set shorter distances if they provide evidence that their plans are safe. Violators have been warned since January and fined from the start of next year.
Rep. Alex Lee, who wrote the California legislation, said he was concerned that his state’s laws Traffic fatalities were even higher than the national average, with around 1,100 pedestrians killed in 2021 and 2022. Deaths were recorded at a similar pace in the first six months of 2023.
Although cities in the nation’s most populous state range from massive metropolises to sparsely populated rural communities, Lee figured a statewide standard would eliminate any confusion. In his opinion, the only better thing would be a national standard.
“Just as I assume every state doesn’t allow you to park in front of a fire hydrant or near the train tracks, it should be the same in California or Nebraska,” Lee said.
Stefanie Seskin, director of policy and practice at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, said signs are fine but not nearly as effective as infrastructure changes.
“It definitely requires a higher level of chutzpah for a driver to park on a curb extension than to park where a sign says, ‘Please do not,'” Seskin said.
Jeff Speck, author of the book “Walkable City,” which advocates for walkable downtowns, praises cities like Hoboken for improving visibility at intersections. But he said some communities are going too far by taking away too many parking spaces without adding physical barriers, creating wide “visibility triangles” that lead to more speeding.
“A number of cities have overreacted to the laudable goal of daylighting and created oversized no-parking zones around every driveway and curb cut,” Speck said. “That’s counterproductive.”
In 2012, Seattle became one of the first major cities in the U.S. to have no traffic fatalities. Mike McGinn, the mayor at the time, said he wanted to realign the public’s expectations of transportation safety to more closely align with their thoughts on aircraft safety, where no fatality is considered acceptable.
Why, he asks, should downtown areas where people work, shop or attend entertainment settle for a lower standard?
“This is literally the easiest piece of real estate that should be dedicated to safety,” said McGinn, now executive director of the pedestrian advocacy group America Walks. “It’s low-hanging fruit.”