By David Cruz
Correspondent
Crazy traffic along Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City has been a part of life here since this opened as a toll road over a century ago. But in recent years, as the city has boomed, so has the vehicular traffic. And here — along one of the state’s most dangerous local roadways — the results have been deadly. Kara Hrabosky’s friend was killed on this road a few years back, prompting her to become a traffic safety activist. She calls Kennedy the Boulevard of Death.
“In three weeks, not even in this month, Sept. 29 and then the first week of October and then, just recently, tragically, last Friday, about a mile or two south of us, a 10-year-old boy,” she said, recounting recent fatalities on the roadway.
“Kennedy Boulevard does face a lot of safety challenges. You’ve got a combination of a real high volume of traffic, a lot of pedestrians and a lot of crossings,” noted David Behrend, spokesperson for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. “There aren’t a lot of places where you have this wider road in a very densely populated, heavily walked urban area.”
Behrend says the Boulevard is unique in that regard, and as a result, some of the bad behavior from motorists and pedestrians is magnified.
“We’ve seen some grossly illegal behavior. A crash which killed two teenagers where someone was driving upwards of 70 miles an hour on the road,” he said. “You know, certainly the behavior of the drivers and pedestrians who also need to keep in kind to cross at the crosswalks and go in the right places is usually the major factor.”
Hudson County routinely ends up in the top five statewide when it comes to motor vehicle crashes. And in Hudson, where the average is almost 900 crashes a year, 70 percent of those are on the Boulevard, and where pedestrians are involved 65 percent of the time it’s in Jersey City. The county, which is responsible for maintenance and engineering of the road, has stepped up by installing center line bollards and syncing traffic signals. They’ve also worked on educating motorists and pedestrians to be more aware of their surroundings.
“Even though this is a county road, the enforcement is the jurisdiction of the individual municipalities, so Jersey City Police, under the direction of Mayor [Steve] Fulop, really need to lead on enforcement,” says Hrabosky.
The mayor says the city will step up enforcement in an effort to change the culture on the Boulevard, which he hopes will result in fewer crashes and fewer fatalities.
“I think they’re going to set up rotating spots throughout the Boulevard all the way up to the Heights and do some speed traps,” he said. “And just to kind of see that we are aggressive on it and then in a month and a half we’ll have a conversation with the community, those that have been the biggest advocates for this and hopefully there’s an improvement.”
But on a 14-mile road that runs through seven municipal jurisdictions, it’s going to be tough to get everyone on the same page, although increased pressure from residents is forcing county officials to hold a meeting with representatives from all jurisdictions later this week in order to come up with a strategy that can help turn tragedy into action.