What can San Francisco learn from Hoboken on Vision Zero? A lot.

It’s been about 20 years since I was in Hoboken. I’ll admit that I remember the cozy bars more than the street design.

But in the past few years, I’ve become a little obsessed with this one-mile-square city that’s just across the Hudson River from New York City.

Hoboken, which is about twice as densely populated as San Francisco, hasn’t had a traffic death in eight years. Hoboken has also significantly reduced serious injuries from crashes. Sure, Hoboken is a small city. But on both fronts, Hoboken is bucking national trends. 

I’ve looked to Hoboken for hope and also their playbook on Vision Zero. Last night, I got to meet the Mayor of Hoboken, Ravi Bhalla. He spoke at SPUR about how the city has implemented Vision Zero to yield dramatic reductions in traffic crashes and also make the city just a lot more pedestrian-friendly.

One of my favorite things about Mayor Bhalla was how straightforward he is when it comes to moving forward the changes needed to reach Vision Zero. “This is not an academic debate,” said Bhalla. “This is a matter of public safety.”

But Bhalla also spoke about the crucial need for advocacy groups like Walk SF – and people like you and me – to give leaders the courage to act boldly. “Elected officials won’t do it alone, even if it’s the right thing,” he said. 

Here are my takeaways from Hoboken to bring to San Francisco to accelerate Vision Zero progress.

1. Layer cost-effective solutions citywide.

Hoboken has embraced the simple, proven ways to make streets a lot safer. Bright zebra-painted crosswalks that make pedestrians visible and cue drivers to yield. Pedestrian safety zones and sidewalk extensions that slow turning drivers and shorten crossing distances. Posts, bike racks, or rain gardens in the daylighting zone to prevent illegal parking and ensure clear sightlines for everyone. These solutions work – and they work even better together.

“There are a lot of low-cost solutions that when used in aggregate you see the results,” said Bhalla. 

It’s not that San Francisco isn’t using these solutions. But in Hoboken, they’ve been able to bring these solutions almost everywhere. Part of how Hoboken has gotten this done is by reforming their approach so that when a street is updated (repainted, repaved, redesigned), it adds a suite of safety solutions at the same time, every time. 

Bhalla also called out the fact that one plastic bollard (or post) is just $40. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t daylight an intersection in a cost-effective way,” he said. And it’s such a small investment to save a life. 

We need San Francisco to dramatically scale up and invest in using more of the low-cost solutions like pedestrian safety zones, ‘protected’ daylighting, and turn calming. Walk SF and the 30+ groups in the Vision Zero Coalition have been asking the City to prioritize this in its next Vision Zero Action Strategy, which has yet to be adopted. More funds, planning, and coordination between agencies will be needed, but this is low-hanging fruit for making real progress on Vision Zero.   

2. Keep speeds slow.

If you want to prevent severe and fatal traffic crashes, nothing is more important than bringing down speeds. This dramatically reduces the likelihood and severity of crashes, and also just makes our streets a lot more pleasant. On city streets, reducing average speed by just 1 MPH reduces injury collisions by 2-7%. 

Lowering speed limits is a crucial starting point for slowing our streets; research shows they are particularly effective in bringing down the most dangerous, outlier speeds. In 2022, Hoboken adopted a citywide 20 MPH limit. 

Since the passage of California Assembly Bill 43 in 2021, San Francisco now has legal authority to lower speed limits by 5 MPH on certain streets: commercial streets plus streets with the highest crash rates and high numbers of vulnerable users. The city has been using this authority, but 20 MPH limits in particular are still relatively rare and there are still streets with 35 MPH limits. We need San Francisco to max out their authority, and also seriously think about bringing “twenty is plenty” here.  

Hoboken is also developing a Traffic Calming Master Plan to systematically redesign the most dangerous streets to keep drivers going safe speeds. Here in San Francisco, even as speed cameras are being installed at 33 locations, we know that it will take more than that to slow our streets. 

San Francisco needs a proactive program to strategically install speed humps and cushions across neighborhoods at scale. The current Neighborhood Traffic Calming program is ripe for reform. 

3. Prioritize safety every time. 

Hoboken adopted a simple but powerful policy: “Prioritize road user safety over driver delay in operations and design decisions.” 

This doesn’t mean Mayor Bhalla hasn’t had to deal with push back or accusations that there’s a “war on cars.” But the line has been drawn, and Bhalla is ready to defend that line for public safety. 

Here in San Francisco, we know that street safety projects can be watered down because of backlash over things like parking. But the City can’t compromise on safety any more if we’re going to make Vision Zero a success story.

This is where our voices come in, asking our District Supervisors, Mayor Lurie, and agency leaders to truly prioritize traffic safety. “Public participation and advocacy can move the needle,” Bhalla said last night. 

An easy action for you to take today: send an email in support of daylighting. We’re asking City leaders to paint daylighting at every intersection by December 2026, protect daylighting with posts at the most dangerous intersections within five years, and create a program for people to install and maintain amenities in daylit spots.

Want to dig deeper on Hoboken?

• Hoboken’s Vision Zero Action Plan
• My favorite articles about Hoboken’s implementation of daylighting: Strong Towns; Bloomberg; Curbed  
• A recording of the SPUR event will be posted here

Banner image: Hoboken Vision Zero