Hoboken

The evolution of today's infrastructure-intensive bike sharing systems has been a hard-fought learning process; alas, the current paradigm is about to get turned on its head, and it's happening – surprise - this week in Hoboken, New Jersey.

May 16, 2013 - Ian Sacs

Amsterdam feels "cozy" because the city's efforts to manage mobility results in an average speed for all modes of 15kph/10mph.

April 28, 2013 - Ian Sacs

The low-lying city of 50,000 across the Hudson River from Manhattan was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Mayor Dawn Zimmer wants to city to serve as a model for how to develop a uniquely urban approach to extreme storm preparation.

February 14, 2013 - The New York Times

“After 15 years, his vision to transform this long-forsaken industrial town into a bedroom community for single, young professionals is finally taking shape,” writes Ronda Kaysen. Hopes for redevelopment center on the town’s commuter rail station.

November 3, 2012 - The New York Times

Lauded by transit advocates, and garnering attention from cities across America, an experimental car-sharing program in Hoboken has proven effective in dissuading private car use. If only the city's residents were as happy with its success.

September 7, 2012 - The New York Times

Working for a small municipality - regardless of its location - has all the isolating properties of a far-away fiefdom.  So it has been with great consternation that, despite being nary a narrow river's width from that island, I have been yet so far removed from the industry-insider privileges of working on transportation projects in Manhattan.  I am, admittedly, all but entirely absorbed by work in the New York City satellite of Hoboken, NJ, and while aware of progress as reported by the media, have nonetheless lost granular touch with the revolutionary day-to-day goings-on in my career's former epicenter.  From this side of the Hudson I read the broad

March 5, 2011 - Ian Sacs

While it is still in the early stages, it's nonetheless exciting to post that Hoboken and Jersey City are collaborating with Hudson County Transportation Management Association (TMA) to explore ways to bring a full-fledged bike sharing program to the west coast of the Hudson.  The full details are posted in a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) here:http://www.hudsontma.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=227&cat_id=21&Itemid=61 

February 19, 2011 - Ian Sacs

This week, Hoboken is announcing its version of a highly successful awareness campaign practiced throughout Europe and, more directly translatable, the UK. In the UK, the campaign is called “20's Plenty for Us”, and in cities that adopt this policy, a 20mph speed limit area is established and signs are posted requiring drivers to obey the lower speed limit.

October 23, 2010 - Ian Sacs

Ostensibly, the actions today by NJ Governor Chris Christie to cancel the "Access to Region's Core" (ARC) tunnel project seem like a vicious blow to the future of rail in our country (fatal even, given the recent commentary from conservatives country-wide on opposition to the national high speed rail network projects).  I myself am extremely disappointed that our state's fiscal circumstances have led the Governor to make this decision, and I am sincerely empathetic to the construction and operational jobs and potential to improve mobility conditions that this cancellation jeopardizes.

October 7, 2010 - Ian Sacs

Over the past year, we've been guiding the City of Hoboken, NJ towards providing sufficient alternative modes of transportation such that owning a car for a large number of residents becomes more than unattractive, it's simply not necessary.  The goal is not to tell residents that they can't own a car, but to make life without a car so easy that every single family in Hoboken can freely choose whether owning a car is what they want to spend their money on.  For those who decide that a daily commute by car is most practical, my job is to make it possible to find a parking space and travel in and out of town without too much friction.  However, for the overwhelming majority of Hobokenites who commute daily on foot, bicycle, or via transit, life without a car should be as

October 7, 2010 - Ian Sacs

As young planners bursting into the real world we are anxious to create communities that are vibrant, fun, and speak to the urbanity that will host future generations of our civilization.  What we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm, and hope that our superiors guide us on the finer points of less crystallized aspects of critical infrastructure such as designing for the elderly, disabled, and those semi-attached to a stroller.  In traffic engineering, we often hear a common rebuttal to technical traffic analysis from communities; they say, “I drive these streets every day, so I understand traffic here better than you.”  Well, they’re right.

September 30, 2010 - Ian Sacs

Hoboken, New Jersey has instituted a new car sharing service -- one run by a rental car company that pays the city for the right to operate.

July 19, 2010 - The New York Times

There's a lot of babbling on in this blog about how streets are public space, that they are for people, and that they should be designed equitably for everyone.

July 13, 2010 - Ian Sacs

The parking “epidemic” in Hoboken is so bad that no parking garage conceivable by man can contain our demand.  So this week, Hoboken ventures where no city has gone before; we are rolling out the nation’s first city-wide on-street car-sharing program as a public-private partnership between Hoboken and Connect by Hertz.  

June 17, 2010 - Ian Sacs

With the brilliant help of graduates from Hoboken's Stevens Institute of Technology, our local community shuttle bus (a.k.a. The Hop, formerly known as The Downtown Crosstown Shuttle) can now be viewed live on the city's website as it cruises along narrow Hoboken city streets from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM (EST), Monday through Friday.  If you're not near the internet, try texting “crosstown” to 41411 to get a return text with the location of the bus' whereabouts whenever it's running, then run down to the corner before you miss it!

April 19, 2010 - Ian Sacs

When I inherited the Hoboken Parking Utility last year, it was hobbling along with all of the forward planning of a Friday night Rock-and-Bowl last call.  With no time to build a new budget from the bottom up, I was left to remold what I found into something a little less status-quo and a little more innovative.  In a scrutinizing political climate and tough economic conditions, the changes had to be both necessary and serve as an example of ways to reduce costs.

April 6, 2010 - Ian Sacs

The beauty of street paint is that it costs next to nothing and it can have a huge effect in a very short period of time.  Anyone watching how New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan transforms public streets into public spaces with paint, planters, seating, and signs knows how the installation of these materials overnight works like magic.

March 27, 2010 - Ian Sacs

Hoboken, New Jersey's Department of Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs offers this profile of his city and discusses how the dense but car-enamored city is trying to tackle the contemporary urban parking problem.

February 8, 2010 - Ian Sacs

As if all this inclement weather hasn't been hassle enough for those of us who cherish our cars, I practically careened into another tragic loss for the rightfully auto-minded recently in Hoboken, New Jersey.  It seems the needs of lofty pedestrians et.al. have once again been imprudently prioritized over us drivers in a result that is sure to make your muffler ratlle: a one-block segment of an historic belgian block street has been closed off to the ideal form of personal mobility (read: car) so that silly people with nothing better to do than run around frivolously in streets have another place off the sidewalk to inconvenience the driving majority of our great nation.

January 5, 2010 - Ian Sacs

So, I'm out at a site visit with the city engineer last week and we're talking about ways to implement curb extensions to reduce pedestrian exposure to vehicular traffic.  We're discussing inexpensive ways to accomplish this, and then on queue, as is the right and obligation of all civil engineers, the ugly villain subject of all things bumped-out rears its head: drainage.

November 23, 2009 - Ian Sacs