Our streets should be safe to travel on, whether you’re 7 years old or in your 70s. That includes kids biking to school, parents rushing to catch the bus, or grandparents walking to the grocery store. But too many roads in Hudson County weren’t designed with any of us in mind.
It’s time for that to change.
In 2019, Peggy McGeary was 79 years old when she was struck and killed by a truck while biking on Paterson Plank Road. Peggy didn't have to die like this, nor did the dozens of other cyclists and pedestrians tragically killed by cars every year in Hudson County.
Traffic deaths are entirely preventable. Every single one is a policy failure. Yet in the years since Peggy's death, our county commissioners have done nothing to fix the roads that keep killing people.
We know how to make streets safer because we’ve done it before.
In Hoboken, advocates fought for complete streets, protected bike lanes, and safer intersections. Now, the mile square city is a national model with zero traffic deaths in the last nine years. But step onto a county-managed road like Willow Avenue, Observer Highway, or Paterson Plank, and you're back to infrastructure that treats pedestrians and cyclists as an afterthought.
As your County Commissioner, I will bring Vision Zero to the county level: redesigning dangerous intersections, setting 15-mile-per-hour speed limits near schools, banning right turns on red, expanding protected bike lanes and Citi Bike stations to corridors like JFK Boulevard and Bergenline Avenue, and upgrading street lighting so everyone feels safe after dark.
Getting around should never be a choice between convenience and safety. But safer streets are only part of the equation. People also need faster, more reliable ways to get where they're going.
If you've ever sat on a bus crawling down JFK Boulevard, stuck in the same traffic as every car around it, you know the problem.
Buses need to be faster and more convenient than driving, so everyone can benefit. When they're not, people who can afford to drive do, and everyone else is left with a slower, less reliable option.
We can fix this with Bus Rapid Transit on JFK Boulevard and other major county corridors, with dedicated lanes and signal priority so buses move through intersections first. Faster, more reliable buses don't just help riders. When more people choose the bus, there are fewer cars on the road, less drivers competing for parking, and commutes get better for drivers, too.
Cities across the world have adopted policies like these and seen fewer crashes, shorter commutes, and more people choosing to walk, bike, and ride the bus as a result. Hudson County has the density and the demand.
We also have plenty of local experts in organizations like Bike JC, Bike Hoboken, and Hudson County Complete Streets who have been fighting for these changes for years. Their work has already proven what's possible with simple infrastructure improvements.
The only thing missing is the political will to make our roads work for the people who live here, not just the cars passing through.
