By unanimous vote, Hoboken’s City Council voted last night to add 10 miles of bike lanes to the city’s streets.

The ordinance amendment provides for on-street bike lanes on segments of Hudson Street, Garden Street, Park Avenue, Willow Avenue, Clinton Street, Adams Street, Jefferson Street, Monroe Street, Jackson Street, Harrison Street, Newark Street, 2nd Street and 11th Street.  According to spokesman Juan Melli, separate from this ordinance, Hoboken will also paint an additional 9.7 miles of shared-road markings on narrower streets that cannot accommodate a striped bike lane. In addition, Hoboken intends to create a two-way protected 0.43-mile bike lane along Observer Highway as part of a complete street redesign scheduled for next year.

“We are taking a big leap towards making Hoboken truly bike friendly,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “By slowing down traffic, bike lanes make streets safer for everyone including drivers and pedestrians, and this lays an even stronger foundation for our ongoing pedestrian safety efforts.”

Testifying at the Council meeting, TSTC’s Janna Chernetz cited studies from various cities showing that bike lanes improved safety for everyone who uses the road and were a boon for business.

Hoboken currently has a total of 4.5 miles of bike lanes, including 0.34 miles of a Class I (protected) lane, 2.1 miles of Class II (on-street, striped) lanes and 2.1 miles of Class III (shared-road markings or bike route signs) lanes.  With the passing of this ordinance, 80% of Hoboken streets will now have bike lanes.

Hoboken was recently named by Forbes as America’s Top Transportation City, and last year received honorable mention as a bike friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists, an honor received by only one other city in NJ. The city is successfully creating a community where residents have the option of living car-free.  Passing this ordinance amendment is keeping in line with this vision of Hoboken.