Driving Through Hoboken? Citywide Speed Limit Drop Takes Effect Thursday

New Jersey’s city of Hoboken officially reduced its citywide speed limit to 20 mph on Thursday, a major step in its sweeping plan to eradicate all traffic-related deaths and injuries within its borders by 2030, the mayor’s office announced.

The speed resolution, which was unanimously passed by the Hoboken City Council and signed into law by Mayor Ravi Bhalla, is part of Hoboken’s comprehensive Vision Zero Action Plan and includes a number of additional measures intended to educate drivers around the changes and ensure compliance with the new speed limit.

Over the next several weeks, Hoboken says it will install speed radar signs at its gateways, put up new 20 mph speed limit signs with “citywide” supplemental plaque signs and add 20 mph pavement markings at select locations.

The citywide speed limit change won’t be considered fully implemented until all the existing signage and pavement markings have been updated, Hoboken officials say, so there’s a grace period.

Studies have repeatedly identified speed as a significant contributing factor in auto crashes, which factored into Hoboken’s decision. Officials also cited studies showing that a pedestrian’s chances of being badly hurt or killed when hit by a vehicle go from 25% when the car is moving at 20 mph to more than 50% when it moves at 30 mph.

“Reducing the citywide speed limit is the latest commitment we are making to ensure our streets are safer for pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists,” Bhalla said in a statement. “Even though it might take an extra minute or two to travel across Hoboken in a vehicle, that extra time could very well end up saving the life of a child or senior citizen.”

“As a father of two children who walk our streets every day, the tradeoff is certainly worth it and is the latest effort we’re making to eliminate all traffic-related injuries by 2030,” the Democratic mayor added.

Hoboken officials say their city’s streets haven’t seen a single traffic-related death since its Vision Zero plan was implemented by executive order in 2019, even amid regional and national trends showing significant increases in traffic-related deaths and injuries.

Across the river in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has announced that speed cameras will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week starting Aug. 1.