Six cars drove through a new all-way stop intersection by Public School 17 in Jersey City during a traffic safety press conference, illustrating the need for stepped up safety work in both the city and neighboring Hoboken. <\/p>\n
Quick moving police stopped and ticketed the driver of each vehicle as officials from both cities talked about updating their Vision Zero Plans and implementing more than 100 quick-build safety infrastructure projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTraffic enforcement is working,\u201d said Andrew Kaplan, Jersey City\u2019s infrastructure director, as the Tuesday morning ceremony started at PS 17 in Jersey City. <\/p>\n The signs at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Kensington Street next to P.S. 17 included a yellow sign warning drivers the all-way stop was new. Painted bump outs and plastic bollards narrow the road and allow pedestrians, including school children, to be seen by drivers. <\/p>\n Soon more than 100 similar improvements will join them in both cities, in addition to an update of its Vision Zero safety plans.<\/p>\n City officials also had a message to other towns. They can make these simple safety improvements at trouble prone intersections in their towns without a high cost or build time.<\/p>\n Other projects announced include all-way stop signs and installing flashing warning beacons that alert traffic to crossing pedestrians at crosswalks where there aren\u2019t traffic lights. <\/p>\n Traffic lights in critical intersections will be retimed to give pedestrians a head start crossing a busy street before vehicles get a green light. <\/p>\n Hoboken Mayor Emily Jabbour said the newly elected mayor of Parsippany-Troy Hills called her after a recent traffic death to ask how to get started.<\/p>\n A Vision Zero program sets a goal and strategies to eliminate traffic deaths and injuries by a specific date.<\/p>\n Hoboken hasn\u2019t had a fatality on city streets in the nine years since it was implemented, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cHoboken used multiple funding streams, some state, some federal some local,\u201c she said about making safety improvements. \u201dYou can do really easy investments by rethinking the way your infrastructure department works. It doesn\u2019t have to be high cost.\u201d <\/p>\n One easy way is to include the safety improvements in a routine road repaving project, Jabbour said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the things cities are doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Jersey City has $750,000 in its capital budget to cover on-call traffic signal maintenance, road striping contracts and use of in-house public works for quick-build projects, Solomon said.<\/p>\n Both cities also are working jointly, from applying for grants to sharing information.<\/p>\n \u201cChanging driver behavior and building safer streets doesn\u2019t stop at the border,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cHoboken has lead the way with zero traffic deaths since 2017.\u201d <\/p>\n The joint Vision Zero update and some of the projects are funded by a $940,000 USDOT Safe Streets and Roads for All planning grant that Hoboken and Jersey City applied for and a $235,000 local funding from the cities.<\/p>\n That is helping to fund an update of the Vision Zero plans, which will also help officials decide on future safety infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have not met our (Vision Zero) goal, seven lives were lost in 2025,\u201d Mayor Solomon said. \u201dWe\u2019re renewing Vision Zero with Hoboken and committing to action now.”<\/p>\n Jersey City is in the process of doing engineering studies to follow Hoboken\u2019s lead in implementing a city wide 20 mph speed limit, Kaplan said. <\/p>\n Jersey City\u2019s 100 improvements in 80 locations were selected based on evaluating data and not on picking them for political convenience, he said.<\/p>\n But traffic enforcement is as important as infrastructure, Solomon said. He reinstated the city police department traffic enforcement bureau, which started operating on May 1.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a month, we issued 300% more summons, we\u2019ve seen crashes decline,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need traffic enforcement paired with infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n Enforcement is concentrated at critical intersections and the locations publicized on social media, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is we don\u2019t want to issue tickets, we want safe driving,\u201d Solomon said.<\/p>\n Jabbour said infrastructure helps get safe driving behaviors since her smaller city doesn\u2019t have the budget to put police at every problem intersection. <\/p>\n Hudson County Compete Streets member Jimmie Lee mentioned the death of a 6-year-old boy<\/a> who was riding his bike in a crosswalk and was hit by a delivery truck making a right turn.<\/p>\n \u201cFor too many years, traffic deaths are thought of as a way of life,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hear fixing the problem will cost too much, and we wait<\/a>, wait, wait.\u201d<\/p>\n He called Tuesday\u2019s announcement \u201ca starting line, not a finishing line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTraffic deaths are not inevitable,\u201d Jabbour said. \u201cIt\u2019s why we campaign for improvements for safer roads and neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Sharp, Hoboken\u2019s director of Transportation and Parking, also paid tribute to advocacy groups, including Hudson County Complete Streets, Bike Hoboken and Bike JC, which have lobbied for traffic safety.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout the advocates to step up, there is no vision Zero program or projects,\u201d he said. \u201cThe challenge is I want everyone to think of what they can do to make streets safer.\u201d <\/p>\n