Reckless on our Roads: This city could be setting the standard for safety

Our state seems to have gone in the wrong direction when it comes to traffic fatalities, with 328 last year - our second highest total ever.

NBC Connecticut Investigates has found at least one place which appears to have got it right.

Chief Investigator Len Besthoff traveled to New Jersey to learn what one city’s secret sauce is, in the latest installment of our continuing series “Reckless on Our Roads.”

Across the Hudson River from New York City, Hoboken, New Jersey has mostly gained recognition as the hometown of crooner Frank Sinatra.

These days, this small city, with a population of 57,000, has also received a lot of attention for going seven years in a row without a single traffic fatality.

“...that is something as a mom, that's something that I've kept up with,” Cris Santos, of Hoboken, said.

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla explained this all started in 2018 when he helped set up the city’s Vision Zero task force.

The goal of Vision Zero is to eliminate all traffic deaths. It has been adopted by communities around the globe.

“When I was just a resident, I realized that, you know, something as simple as crossing a street with your daughter shouldn't be a safety hazard,” Bhalla said.

Connecticut communities, including West Hartford, adopted Vision Zero a few years after Hoboken.

While West Hartford has multiple safety improvements implemented, and in the works, people have grown impatient after its ninth traffic fatality in the last three years...Five of them, pedestrians.

Perhaps providing a glimpse into the future for Connecticut Vision Zero communities, Bhalla believes the results his city has achieved are real and sustainable.

He said the improvements made there have cost thousands of dollars, not millions. His staff explained to us it does not have a firm price tag for Vision Zero initiatives because it often integrates the improvements it makes with larger road projects.

West Hartford has received several million dollars in federal grants for its Vision Zero program, according to U.S. Representative John Larson’s office.

“Over time, if you take these low cost, simple measures, they can have an outsized positive effect on the number of serious injuries or fatalities that you see in the community,” Bhalla said.

Putting posts to discourage parking near most intersections is all part of “daylighting” - what the city explains is a philosophy of keeping intersections clear of obstructions on every side.   The city said last year it spent $48,000 to “daylight” a third of the intersections across the city. The posts it used can cost as little as $100 each, the city said.

Greg Franchese, Hoboken’s transportation planner, said, “We're trying to improve safety for the most vulnerable users, who are pedestrians, cyclists, and then also we're making it safer for drivers as well who have, you know, there's a lot of things that they need to focus on when they're driving in Hoboken."

Bhalla said other big factors behind Hoboken’s safety success are curb extensions, shortening how far people have to cross an intersection, and lowering the citywide speed limit from 25 to 20 miles per hour.

City officials also have lots of face-to-face interactions with advocacy groups.

“We had to get community buy in. People were saying that we were trying to engage in a war on cars...and I try to tell residents that I can't outlaw cars, I can't outlaw walking and I can't outlaw riding a bike. We're gonna have to find a way for everyone to get from one place to another this safe manner,” Bhalla said. 

Going forward, the city of Hoboken said it wants to do more with bicyclists, specifically having lanes with barriers to keep them better protected.