Hoboken Hasn’t Had a Traffic Death in Four Years. What’s It Doing Right? | Hacker News Reader

Hoboken Hasn’t Had a Traffic Death in Four Years. What’s It Doing Right?

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31 pointsingve15 comments

> Wander down the wide, busy sidewalks of Washington Street, the city’s main strip, past the poke joints and (so-so) bagel shops

I will not stand for this slander against my favorite city!

Jokes aside, when I lived in Hoboken I was told that pedestrians have right-of-way no matter what. If someone looks like they're trying to cross the street you have to stop for them. I didn't really see how that could be true but most everyone I drove with acted like it was. I'm not sure how widespread this was but I think it definitely contributed to less traffic deaths.

EDIT: I should mention that this was on the side streets. Nobody stops for you on Washington. Almost got hit once or twice on that street.

Pedestrians have right-of-way everywhere in the United States.

As a matter of law, yes. In practice, very much not. Often including when they are standing in a striped and signed crossing.

I try to make a point of crossing regardless of what traffic is coming. I don't jump out in front of a car and I keep an eye on them but I like to remind people yes you do need to slow down or even stop for pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk without a light, and sometimes without signs or stripes because they must yield at any crosswalk.

I had a great one a few months ago where I was standing a step or two into the (striped and signed) crosswalk, and traffic on the opposite lane was kindly stopped for me, and five or six near-lane oncoming cars swerved out into the other lane as they passed rather than stopping. I even had eye contact with several of the drivers as they did it. Blew my mind.

Streets yes, but not all kinds of roads. Controlled access highways and freeways are exceptions. From time to time you will see signage stating so. Also train tracks, except for clearly marked crossings.

This is not true at all. It's not true here in California, for example. Pedestrians have right-of-way in crosswalks or at intersections. Not when jaywalking.

You do know that jaywalking is a crime that was invented by the car industry, right?

Do you have a point?

"Jaywalking" as a term was a PR effort to reduce pedestrian fatalities.

The control of pedestrian traffic to clear roads was not a crime invented by the car industry.

It was illegal in ancient Rome to walk in the roads. In Pompeii you can still see the separate pedestrian routes.

In NYC, prior to the invention of the automobile, more people were struck and killed by horses than have ever been struck and killed by automobiles.

>Horses killed in other, more direct ways as well. As difficult as it may be to believe given their low speeds, horse-drawn vehicles were far deadlier than their modern counterparts. In New York in 1900, 200 persons were killed by horses and horse-drawn vehicles. This contrasts with 344 auto-related fatalities in New York in 2003; given the modern city’s greater population, this means the fatality rate per capita in the horse era was roughly 75 percent higher than today. Data from Chicago show that in 1916 there were 16.9 horse-related fatalities for each 10,000 horse-drawn vehicles; this is nearly seven times the city’s fatality rate per auto in 1997.

https://legallysociable.com/2012/09/07/figures-more-deaths-p...

If you were struck by a horse and carriage in any city street anywhere in the world, it was automatically assumed you were at fault.

Because pedestrians have been separated from faster, heavier traffic everywhere in the world since shortly after the invention of the working animal.

There are many cities all over the world that have pedestrian-exclusive zones, but until very VERY recently in areas where mixed-traffic was allowed the heavier "thing" always had right-of-way.

Please stop repeating the myth that cars (or horses, or oxen) "stole" the road from pedestrians.

The automobile was invented in 1886.

On or before 1886 every single city in every single industrialized nation had wide sidewalks for the use of pedestrians-- to keep them off the roads.

And yes, even in the "walkable" maze-like European utopian cities if a horse and cart was coming down the 2 meter wide road, you got out of the way, and on larger thoroughfares you kept out of the traffic lanes.

Note the sidewalks and bollards on Fenchurch Street IN 1750: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O873469/ironmongers-hall-...

Fenchurch Street is more walkable today than it was in 1750. Because of pedestrian safety measures and, yeah, jaywalking laws.

You need to keep your head on a swivel walking around Hoboken. My son got hit in his stroller in a well marked crosswalk by someone improperly passing a car that had stopped for us; I couldn’t even see it coming. Luckily he was not injured but it was extremely close to severe injury or death.

The last paragraph rings absolutely true for me. Me and my wife stagger walking in the street now, or I walk out first and the pull the stroller behind me if I’m alone.

I do commend them for making safety improvements, it is clear there’s been investment in pedestrian safety … but stay vigilant.

Hoboken is famously a tiny town with a mile square total area. Perhaps it's not right to compare it to just any town.

(Most bars per square mile as well so that should maybe increase traffic related incidents.)

Well every city is the conglomeration of many square mile towns.

Yes, but does e.g. New York break out traffic deaths by neighborhood--so many in Alphabet City, so many in Riverdale?

Hoboken is the city. All of it. There is no other town in it. The comparison should be on number of incidents divided by area (or a similar thing to normalize the output). That wouldn't be perfect either since some towns are more densely populated and some are basically empty/green.

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