# SafeStreetsJC > Advocating for zero traffic deaths in Jersey City Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About SafeStreetsJC URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/about/ Last updated: 2026-07-19T16:24:52.000Z ### Mission SafeStreetsJC is a 501(c)(3) organization that works for Vision Zero to be fully realized in Jersey City, and for Jersey City streets to be designed safely and fairly for all users, regardless of their transportation mode. ### Vision SafeStreetsJC educates the public about the benefits of complete streets and alternative transportation modes, advocates for policies that advance Vision Zero and comprehensive street design, organizes a neighborhood-focused community aligned with our mission, and supports the victims of traffic death and injury. ### Subscribe This is a community of other advocates who share a passion for safe street design, urbanism, transportation infrastructure, and achieving Vision Zero in Jersey City. Subscribe to our newsletter to hear about events and recent goings on in Jersey City that impact Vision Zero initiatives. ### Advocating for zero traffic deaths in Jersey City URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/about-2/ Last updated: 2026-07-19T17:20:33.000Z ## Redesign Jersey City streets so that we can finally achieve Vision Zero. ## Even one traffic death is too many. ### A small share of the city’s streets account for the majority of the traffic deaths. These must be redesigned for safety. ### We work to get investments in better, safe road designs. The streets are as safe as we build them. ## Good traffic engineers design streets for how people need to use them, starting with the needs of the most vulnerable road users. — Jessie Singer, author of *There are no accidents* ### Donate URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/donate/ Last updated: 2026-07-22T00:27:58.000Z Support SafeStreetsJC by making a donation to our organization. Your donation directly supports our advocacy efforts, including creating educational materials for the community, holding events, and even hosting this website. [Donate here](https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign%5Fid=8BEXRW54ALJR8&ref=safestreetsjerseycity.org) ## Posts ### Advocating for zero traffic deaths in Jersey City. URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/coming-soon/ Last updated: 2026-07-19T16:22:10.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f0/17/f017e7bf-551b-46fe-b0ed-570af756aaeb/content/images/2026/07/high-injury-network.jpg) ### A small share of the city’s streets account for the majority of the traffic deaths. These must be redesigned for safety. This is safestreetsjc, a brand new site by SafeStreetsJC that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can [subscribe](#/portal/) in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published! ### In the midst of a budget crisis, Jersey City is leaving $100M on the table URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/in-the-midst-of-a-budget-crisis-jersey-city-is-leaving-100m-on-the-table/ Last updated: 2026-07-22T01:12:04.000Z Jersey City has a big budget problem, and residents are right to be furious. The city also has a parking problem that has aggravated residents for a long time. We dug into the numbers and it turns out there is a way to fix both. Through parking reform Jersey City could generate between $45 million and $100 million a year. That’s money sitting on the table that could dramatically reduce a property tax increase and prevent deep cuts or layoffs without passing the buck along to homeowners and renters. It would also help solve the parking crisis by properly managing public curb space more effectively and creating safer conditions on our streets. **Prioritize Enforcement** Let’s go over some numbers: last year, Jersey City collected nearly $11 million in municipal court moving and parking enforcement revenue, but in 2019 with a smaller population than today, that figure was almost $17 million. We are enforcing the law less than we did six years ago. Restoring parking meter enforcement alone could easily add another $1-2 million. Enforcing illegal parking that creates unsafe conditions could add another $8 million or more. This isn’t a tax increase—it’s asking people who break traffic rules and are putting others in danger to actually pay their tickets. Follow the rules, prioritize safety, and avoid the costs. It becomes a choice. **Update Parking Meter Rates** Meter prices are outdated and have been badly underpriced relative to inflation and increase in demand. Meter rates should be adjusted for inflation and the increase in land value. Proper meter pricing will also ensure car turnover to support deliveries and small businesses. Hoboken raised $7.3 million from meters, while Jersey City—a city six times the population of Hoboken—only raised $600,000 last year. We estimate Jersey City should be able to raise another $10-20 million a year in increased meter fees and expanded metered zones. **Current On-Street vs. Off-Street Parking Costs** Only about half of Jersey City households own a vehicle and of those, a large portion pay for their own off-street parking. But for those that park on the street, it is a constant source of frustration across the city, and it is also an unconscionable giveaway during a budget crisis. A parking study by Jersey City, found there are roughly 60,000 on-street parking spaces. Residents pay $20 a year—that’s $1.66 per month—to store their vehicle on public land in designated zones. Those zones, though, only cover about 105 miles of curb parking, according to the city’s study. There are another 105 miles across the city, with access to light rail and bus service, where there are no residential zones and it is completely free to park. Meanwhile, off-street parking can cost $3,000 on average and upward of $5,000 per year. That means on-street parking is more than 99% subsidized—a roughly $200 million giveaway, disproportionately benefiting the households street parking multiple vehicles. And there is good precedent for charging reasonable permit fees: recognizing the high demand, Jersey City municipal lot permits already cost between $70-$105 a month. Homes and buildings may be built with off-street parking, but in the parts of the city without permit zones, it’s currently possible for residents to double-dip and avoid buying a spot or a monthly parking fee by taking up curb space nearby at little or no cost. Citywide permit zones would help fix this issue. Free parking isn’t free. It incentivizes car ownership making parking worse, contributes to traffic and aggressive driving as drivers circle for spots, and detracts from investment in things critical to the health of dense, urban environments like public transit and pedestrian safety. Worse, these hidden costs are passed on to everyone—including those who don’t drive—in the form of higher housing prices, reduced public space, increased pollution, and severe injury or death due to crashes. **Expand Residential Zones and Increase Curb Parking Costs** By expanding residential parking zones and updating permit costs to $20 per month for the first vehicle per household, $40 per month for a second vehicle, $80 per month for a third vehicle, and $100 per month for non-resident parking permits, the city could raise tens of millions of dollars a year while also making parking more available and more convenient. Some households may decide it’s not worth maintaining and paying for additional cars, instead adapting routines that result in carsharing or using public transit. Those cars without proper license plates or out-of-state registration and seldom used hobby cars may make their way off the street and free up parking spots for drivers who need their cars for work. People who don’t live in Jersey City, but take advantage of our free parking, may choose to park in lots or use public transit closer to their homes instead of taking up our parking. **Update Commercial License Fees** Even small reforms add up. The annual parking-lot license charged to commercial operators hasn’t meaningfully changed since the 1990s—still just two-and-half cents per square foot while land values and parking rates have exploded. Adjusting it for inflation and parking demand could yield $5 million from parking businesses, not from you. A modest food-delivery fee, expanded streateries, and more EV charging stations could contribute millions more. Cities across the country and right next door are already doing these things. Jersey City’s own parking management strategies from 2020 recommended most of these changes. What’s hurting all of us is $100 million going uncollected, then telling residents the only solution is a historic tax hike that would far exceed an extra $19 per month for a parking permit or a few dollars more per hour at a parking meter. Before we raise taxes on homes by the thousands, let’s collect what we’re owed for the use of our public domain and price our public assets fairly. ### 100 Days Check-In URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/100-days-check-in/ Last updated: 2026-07-22T00:59:26.000Z [We presented the new administration with a 10 point plan](https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/safe-streets-jc-presents-10-point-plan-to-prioritize-safety-in-mayor-solomons-first-100-days/) for the first 100 days, and we’re now reviewing how the administration has progressed, as it is well over 100 days since our new administration took office. Jersey City has made a lot of progress on Vision Zero over the last decade. However, preventable crashes continue to occur and unnecessary tragedy continues to befall our city. Vision Zero is attainable if we continue to make improvements and make our streets safer. | **100 Day Recommendation** | **Progress** | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Fully staff the infrastructure department with experts and build sustainable organizational capacity for a Vision Zero city. | 🟠 Not complete yet. The Department of Infrastructure lost many of its highly lauded experts with the change in administration and there have been no new hires to date. | | Fund infrastructure improvements and parking availability with parking reform | 🔴 Not started yet. While traffic enforcement is ramping and there is a survey ongoing about camera-assisted parking enforcement, parking permit fees are the same as they have always been. | | Announce and install hardened safety infrastructure at every Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) crash location from the last 3 years. | 🔴 Not started yet. It has been 1 year since two crash deaths and both intersections are the same as they were then. | | Follow through on the city commitment to 20 mph speed limit and to non-distracted driving. | 🔴 Not started yet. There is a traffic study coming to review 20 mph implementation, but it has not yet started. | | Announce a new Street Safety Playbook. | 🔴 Not started yet. | | Reduce Turnpike and other cut-through traffic. | 🔴 None yet. Limiting left turns in high cut-through areas during peak hours is an easy way to reduce this type of traffic. | | Build out a fully staffed Traffic Enforcement Division. | 🟢 A lot! There is a new traffic enforcement division that we welcome and there is noticeable improvement in JCPD stopping drivers for moving violations. | | Announce new efforts to manage illegal truck parking. | 🟡 Some. The City has sent out a survey about camera assisted parking enforcement ([take the survey](https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/537c2cd1ab5a42539f341a8ac100e22a?ref=safestreetsjerseycity.org)) If implemented, this enforcement will help protect loading zones for trucks and prevent double parking. | | Get stuff done with quick infrastructure improvements. | 🟡 Some. As of this week, we started to see some quick infrastructure improvements such as added daylighting along New York Ave and Howie Fink Way in the Heights. Much more needs to be done. | | Create a new city position: Safe Routes to School Coordinator. | 🔴 Not yet created. | ### Safe Streets JC Presents 10-Point Plan to Prioritize Safety in Mayor Solomon’s First 100 Days URL: https://www.safestreetsjerseycity.org/safe-streets-jc-presents-10-point-plan-to-prioritize-safety-in-mayor-solomons-first-100-days/ Last updated: 2026-07-22T00:31:10.000Z **JERSEY CITY, NJ, JANUARY 23, 2026** – Safe Streets JC announces a 10-point plan for prioritizing street safety as Jersey City Mayor James Solomon recommits to eliminating deaths and serious injuries caused by traffic violence. “The new administration has a mandate to make our streets safer. We are encouraged by the reinstatement of a traffic division and recommitment to Vision Zero,” said Talya Schwartz, president of Safe Streets JC. “Six people were killed on Jersey City streets by vehicles last year, and many more were injured. No one should have to fear for their life when crossing a street, catching a bus, or riding a bike. Our plan offers a blueprint for immediate action on the most important safety issues that will save lives.” Mayor Solomon and the city council members were elected on a clear mandate to improve safety conditions on city streets. On Day 1, Solomon announced a reinstated traffic division and recommitted the city to Vision Zero by appointing his Chief of Staff Laura Bustamante to lead the Vision Zero task force. Safe Streets JC applauds these announcements. Jersey City residents should feel safe walking, riding, and driving. In order to truly achieve Vision Zero, we will need commitment, staffing, and funding. Here’s a list of 10 additional high-priority quick wins the new administration can put into place to show that they are serious about improving the situation on the ground. **1\. Fully staff the infrastructure department with experts and build sustainable organizational capacity for a Vision Zero city** Without transportation planning experts committed to Vision Zero, the default for legacy traffic engineering practice has been to build roads solely focused around car capacity and speed without regard to safety for all road users. From stop signs to leading pedestrian intervals, many uncontroversial improvements are held up by lack of capacity to study, design, and communicate about potential changes. Hoboken, a mile-square city just one-fifth the size, has a similar transportation staff size to Jersey City, and on top of that, Jersey City has seen an exodus of transportation staff who have not been replaced. **2\. Fund infrastructure improvements and parking availability with parking reform** Improvements can’t be made without staff, but they also can’t be made without funding. - **Update the commercial parking tax**. This commercial parking license tax of just $0.025 per square foot largely does not affect residents and has not been updated either for inflation or the increased demand for parking since the 1990s. Reflecting the decades of no increases, updating the fee to $0.10 per square foot could raise millions that Jersey City can use to fund rapid safe streets improvements. The fee should also be tied to future increases in inflation. - **Direct parking enforcement to restore full pre-pandemic levels of parking enforcement.** This must include restoring enforcement for parking meters, loading zones, permit parking, and booting and impounding scofflaw vehicles. Municipal court fees have declined by $6 million dollars since 2018 ($16.8 million in 2018 vs $10.9 million in 2024). This decline has been largely attributed to a decline in parking enforcement, leading to lost revenue for the city while letting dangerous behaviors run rampant. - **Start an automated parking enforcement pilot on our busiest corridors.** Hoboken’s recent pilot kept loading zones, bus stops, and bike lanes clear while generating substantial revenue to continue to make the city’s streets safer. This is a scalable way to deter illegal parking and will further fund the city. - **Study permit parking reform** to balance supply and demand, focusing especially on households’ second, third, or fourth vehicles parked essentially for free on the street. This will improve parking availability for residents while also providing more room for safe loading and unloading. **3\. Announce and install hardened safety infrastructure at every killed and seriously injured (KSI) crash location from the last three years.** We recommend starting with Summit and Sip, Mallory and Communipaw, and Jersey Ave and 6th. Summit and Sip and Jersey and 6th both lack left-turn calming and were locations where two people were lost last year. Summit and Sip also has a raised intersection, but it appears to have settled with its slope barely noticeable and does not discourage unsafe turn speeds. Communipaw regularly sees unsafe speeds from drivers coming off of state highways. **4\. City commitment to 20 mph speed limit and to non-distracted driving.** Speed kills and even at 30 mph, the survival rate for pedestrians can be as low as 50% vs around 95% at 20 mph and indeed vehicles traveling in the 30s have been involved in recent pedestrian deaths: - Provide a timeline to the commitment for rollout of the 20 mph speed limit - Ask all city employees who are not handling emergencies to obey a 20 mph limit effective immediately. - Announce that using a cell phone while driving will be a fireable offense and that JCPD will start enforcement of distracted driving. **5\. Announce a new Street Safety Playbook.** - All roadway resurfacing should incorporate the new safety playbook with hardened daylighting, leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs), left-turn calming and left-turn restrictions. These are known treatments that save lives. They should not require additional community input and should become the default on all new construction. **6\. Reduce Turnpike cut-through traffic.** - Restore bus-only left turns at Marin Boulevard and Christopher Columbus Drive, put up signs, and paint the lane red. This is one of the most dangerous pedestrian intersections in the city, receiving constant complaints over the last few years, and left-turns here only attract cut-through highway traffic. - Morning no-left turn restrictions on Columbus were effective at decreasing cut-through tunnel traffic. Left-turns are one of the most dangerous intersection behaviors and have been a theme in recent crashes. Study permanent restrictions and other locations where modal filters and turn restrictions can effectively calm neighborhoods and keep highway traffic on highways. - Work with the City Council to implement expanded permit parking zones that will discourage highway traffic that mis-uses city streets instead of commercial lots as free parking. **7\. Buildout a fully staffed Traffic Enforcement Division** - Transparently share numbers monthly and release all KSI crash reports to the press and public as soon as they are ready. - Provide e-ticketing devices and license plate readers for all patrol vehicles to increase automation and efficiency. - Create accountability for the parking enforcement division and direct them to reliably enforce illegal parking in crosswalks or daylighting areas, on sidewalks, at bus stops, in bike lanes, and address double parking around Journal Square, on Columbus, and along all bus corridors. **8\. Announce new efforts to manage illegal truck parking** - **100 commercial loading zones**. Commercial trucks and large vehicles are a recurring theme in serious crashes, but they often do not have safe places to park. Work with local businesses to create 100 new badly needed commercial loading zones throughout the city—particularly in front of all large buildings and in commercial zones. - High-visibility enforcement of all loading zones and metered parking to dramatically reduce corner parking, double parking, and bike-lane parking - A task force to come up with [a micro-delivery hub pilot program](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2025/microhub-launch-amsterdam-ave.shtml?ref=safestreetsjerseycity.org) to reduce truck traffic on neighborhood streets. - Ensure construction and utility projects do not block bike lanes without offering accommodation. **9\. Get stuff done: Quick infrastructure improvements** - **Replace worn and destroyed traffic calming infrastructure and implement authorized infrastructure**. Over the years, many intersections with traffic calming flexpost, bike racks, or even paint have been worn away or destroyed. These do not need new designs but simply need new equipment. Replace all broken and missing flexposts and install stop signs and no turn on red signs that were already authorized. - **Paint missing crosswalks.** Many intersections throughout the city are missing one leg or more. Paint the missing crosswalks such as at the Sip Avenue and Journal Square Transportation Center bus entrance, along Central Ave (Zabriskie, Ferry, Sherman), West Side Avenue (Roosevelt/Lexington), and many others. Many intersections for various reasons have only painted three legs of the intersection, leaving one of the crossings without crosswalk markings. High-visibility crosswalks are a simple and effective countermeasure in decreasing crash risk. - **Utilize all incoming grants** to the fullest extent on Monticello, Summit, Communipaw, and other projects. These projects need to be maximalist projects, including left-turn calming, LPIs, full daylighting, bioswales, raised sidewalks, improved bus stops, lighting, and bike lanes. - **Advance shovel ready projects** like the Franklin Street Protected Bike Lane. **10\. Create a new city position: Safe Routes to School Coordinator.** A key daily danger for many families is the daily walk or bike to and from school. To address these dangers: - This new role would work with schools on creating safe conditions around the schools, identify improvements to drop off and pickups, recommend school streets, and provide support and education to the school community, especially about the benefits of walking and biking to school. - The coordinator would also work with collecting and addressing community input on dangers that families are facing on their journeys to school and that crossing guards are observing on a daily basis.