The challenge
Dense streets packed with parked cars made it hard for drivers and walkers to see each other at crossings.
The case
Hoboken, a dense New Jersey city across the river from Manhattan, began a Vision Zero program after Mayor Ravi Bhalla took office in 2018. Its signature tool is daylighting: putting low-cost posts or planters within 25 feet of crosswalks so cars cannot park right up to the corner and block sightlines. The city also added leading pedestrian intervals, which give walkers a head start at signals, cut speed limits and adjusted signal timing. By early 2024 local outlets reported seven straight years with no traffic deaths, a streak that began in January 2017, shortly before the program started.
Why it worked
Small, quick and cheap fixes at every intersection can matter more than a few big projects. A single city’s death count is a small number, so injury trends are the better long-run test.
Sources
- NPR / WHYY (2022). A New Jersey city achieved 0 traffic deaths in 4 years with quick, high impact ideas.
- Spectrum News NY1 (2024). New Jersey city has had no traffic deaths in seven years.
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