Mayor Bhalla announced today that the City of Hoboken was awarded a $325,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to construct Protected Bike Lanes {PBL} on Sinatra Drive between 4th and 11th Streets. The PBL will connect the South Waterfront Bikeway between Newark Street and 4th Street to the two-way bikeway on Sinatra Drive North along Hoboken’s north waterfront. The City will begin the design of the PBL later this year, with construction expected next year after Stevens Institute of Technology is completed with construction currently taking place on Sinatra Drive. Here’s more about the bike lanes, from the latest press release by the City of Hoboken.
“Hoboken continues to lead the way with initiatives that prioritize pedestrian safety and green modes of transportation,” said Mayor Bhalla in a press release. “This PBL is an important Vision Zero upgrade that will further improve our highly-used public spaces with a safe connection to our North and South waterfronts. I thank Governor Murphy and his team for the grant funding that will make the Sinatra Drive PBL a reality.”
“We are pleased to see this upgrade to Sinatra Drive which is used daily by many people, on foot, and on bicycle,” said Chris Adair, President of Bike Hoboken. “This protected bike lane will connect and create a much needed safe lane along the Hoboken waterfront, and provide more space for all road users.”
Sinatra Drive currently has a protected multi-use pathway between 11th Street and the skate park that was established in 2016. Last year, Hoboken and the South Waterfront Corporation constructed upgrades to the walkway and bike paths on the South waterfront between Sinatra Drive and Newark Street, and along Pier A.
This news comes on the heels of a City Council meeting in December, in which the Hoboken City Council voted to reassess the bike lanes on Washington Street. Read more here.
The specific bike lane approval on the 849-page meeting agenda for November 4th, 2020 stated, “that the traffic engineer should consider various options on how using paint, poles, or other ‘quick build’ materials and methods, protected, and separated bike lanes could be incorporated into a protected and separated bike lane design to minimize the costs of such a project as well as to minimize the length of time such a project would take to complete and to minimize the potential disruption to Washington Street traffic patterns while implementing and constructing the project and share a report with Mayor Bhalla, Mayor Bhalla’s Administration, and the City Council including the cost estimates for such a project in said report.”
Read More: A Guide to Bike Riding in Hoboken + Jersey City
Efforts to redesign the bike lanes began in February 2016 when a crowd of people attended a meeting urging a change to take place. At the time, former Mayor Dawn Zimmer stated, “Washington Street is a great street—it is the heart of our city and home to many great businesses, however, it also has a number of challenges. The unfortunate reality is that it is also the most dangerous corridor in Hoboken with more than 300 crashes in the past three years. There were 20 pedestrians struck by cars, and sadly we lost a Hoboken senior who was crossing Washington Street last year.”
Thus, the result of the meeting brought about the Class II “non-protected” bike lanes design used today. After that, a second Washington Street Redesign, made possible by the contractor Underground Utilities Corporation, was initiated in February 2019 and finished in the spring. A press release revealed last year, “The Washington Street Project, including the installation of pedestrian countdown timers, curb extensions, electrical work, and more is scheduled to continue over the coming months. The project is 95% complete on Washington Street between Observer Highway and 11th Street. Paving of Washington Street between 11th and 15th Street will resume in the spring.”
