How Jersey City Dramatically Improved Its Public Realm

The decision to consolidate the management of streets, transit, parks, municipal buildings, and other public facilities into one Department of Infrastructure in Jersey City, New Jersey has made a significant impact on the city’s public realm, writes Robert Steuteville in Public Square.

The consolidation has helped the city understand its transportation and mobility needs and resources from a broader perspective. “The department and policies leading up to its creation were pivotal in implementing nearly 25 miles of protected bike lanes, carving pedestrian plazas from excess asphalt, planting more than 1,000 trees, building new parks, renovating public spaces, and creating parklets for outdoor dining.” 

The rapid changes are also due to the city’s embrace of tactical urbanism strategies — quick-build, low-cost interventions usually implemented by local activists that skirt traditional bureaucratic processes. In the case of Jersey City, the city itself adopted the concept to deploy nimble, low-cost projects that have led to permanent changes. “Leftover tennis court paint and planters were used to build a pedestrian plaza through the heart of the downtown dating from the 17th Century. Road diets were implemented along major streets to establish the protected bike lane network using paint and vertical separation. The nimble fleet of micro-transit vans was employed to fill gaps in transit access.” In 2022, the city eliminated traffic deaths for a full year on city-managed roads thanks in large part to quick-build road safety interventions.

For Steuteville, Jersey City is a prime example of what can happen when a city takes a holistic view of infrastructure and rejects bureaucracy in favor of immediate — and sometimes life-saving — improvements to the public realm.