I’ve lived in Hoboken for over four years and in my experience, drivers here are much more negligent in following basic traffic laws than every other city I’ve lived in: Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC, Boston, and even New York City. This isn’t purely anecdotal: WalletHub recently ranked New Jersey as having the worst drivers in the country.

While there are many theories as to why, greater enforcement would help change behavior by making drivers feel there is a likelihood of receiving a ticket if they don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign or fail to stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk. That fear of ticketing currently doesn’t exist in the City of Hoboken.

However, residents shouldn’t feel resigned to the status quo. In conjunction with asking the Hoboken Police Department to increase prioritization and investment in traffic enforcement, residents can make a difference by filing a summons request with the HPD when they encounter drivers who fail to obey traffic and parking laws in the city. I recently went through this process; by sharing my experience, I hope others can participate in helping make Hoboken a safer place to live.

Background

If you’ve spent any time walking in the city of Hoboken, you know that drivers failing to stop at stop signs and failing to yield to pedestrians is a regular occurrence. This is especially frustrating and threatening to the more vulnerable in our community: children, parents pushing strollers, the elderly, the disabled, and others. One day, I decided to capture video while attempting to cross a street while pushing my son in a stroller:

Attempting to cross street with stroller while cars fail to yield

This is not a outlier occurrence — every stroller-pushing parent in Hoboken experiences this many times every day. However, you don’t need to be a parent to understand what this feels like. Pedestrians are under constant threat from cars whose drivers are more concerned about getting to their destination as quickly as possible than whether there might be someone crossing the street at the next intersection.

The Incident

On the evening of Wednesday, December 6, 2017, I was riding my bicycle home after attending a Hoboken City Council meeting. It was almost 10pm and I was traveling westbound on 10th Street approaching the intersection of Garden Street. For traffic in the westbound direction at that intersection, there is no stop sign. The southbound traffic on Garden Street does have a stop sign.

Looking westbound on 10th St approaching Garden St.

I was about halfway through the intersection when the car traveling southbound on Garden Street failed to stop at the stop sign and continued into the intersection, coming within a few inches of hitting me.

While I felt fortunate I escaped without a scratch, I was angry. I’d had enough of the constant threat that I, my wife, my children, and my friends, faced from drivers of cars who failed to obey basic traffic laws. And what should we do when we get angry? Go to Twitter, of course.

Ken Ferrante, Chief of the Hoboken Police Department, responded to my tweet with instructions on how to take action:

I knew I could do this because I had asked Chief Ferrante about it before, but until this incident, I hadn’t been angry enough to take the time to go to the police station.

Filing the summons

The next morning, I went to the police station and asked to file a summons.

The Hoboken Police Department was in a festive spirit

Fortunately, Chief Ferrante happened to be there in person. It was great to finally meet him in person and he made sure an officer took care of me. I followed the officer into a room where he asked me for details on what happened. A lot of this information was easy to recall because it was recorded on my GoPro. A side note: I mount my GoPro on my helmet to capture video every time I ride my bike.

After providing the details to the officer and showing him the video footage, he told me to expect a letter to request my appearance in court.

If you choose to file a summons request, the more evidence you have to prove your case, the better. When I told the officer I had video footage, he noted that on the form. This will help the prosecutor understand how strong the case is. Without any photo or video evidence, it really comes down to your word against theirs — it is highly likely the case will be dismissed. Moving violations are hard to prove with just a photo, so it might not be worth filing a summons request unless you have video evidence.

As Chief Ferrante states here, you can also file a summons request for parking violations but since these require the same amount of commitment with going to court and the penalties are less severe, there’s a lower likelihood these will have the same impact. Calling the Hoboken Parking Utility (201–653–1919) or the Hoboken Police Department non-emergency line (201–420–2100) will probably be more effective in these situations. I’ve called the HPD in the past when I’ve noticed delivery trucks and moving trucks blocking the crosswalk.

Going to court, take one

A few days later, I received the court appearance request. At the initial court appearance, the prosecutor called each of us up separately. I mentioned I had video evidence but I didn’t have it ready to hand over in the form of a USB stick. If you have photo and/or video evidence, bring two USB sticks, each with a copy of the evidence — one for the prosecutor and the other for the defendant.

After a few minutes, both of us were called to approach the judge’s bench. The judge read the details of the violation and asked the defendant whether she plead guilty or not guilty. Surprisingly, she decided to plead not guilty despite being informed I had clear video evidence. The judge told us this would go to trial and to expect another court appearance request to arrive in the mail.

Going to court, take two

About two weeks later, I was back in court. I explained the story to the prosecutor again and came prepared with USB sticks with the evidence. He asked me if it was okay if he made a deal with her. I was perfectly happy to have the penalty reduced, but unfortunately, the defendant decided not to show up.

Going to court, take three

Since the defendant didn’t show the last time, I had to go to court again. The prosecutor offered the defendant a lower penalty in exchange for pleading guilty. After some initial hesitation, she decided to accept the penalty and plead guilty. $89 fine and zero points. This required amending the ticket to change the violation from a “Failure to Stop at a Stop Sign” to “Obstructing Traffic”. As I mentioned before, I had no problem with lowering the penalty — I believed the time in court and the monetary fine was enough to make her commit to driving more carefully in the future.

Conclusion

I hope this was useful in helping you understand the process behind filing a summons request when you encounter illegal driving that puts people’s safety at risk. While it’s nice that any individual has the ability to go to the police station to file these requests, the time commitment to go to court and the need for indisputable evidence can be an impediment in making this process an efficient way to discourage unsafe driving in Hoboken.

My intention in filing this request for summons against this driver was not out of retribution. Yes, I was angry but the reality is that this driver is not much worse than the average driver in Hoboken. I don’t believe this driver was intentionally driving dangerously. I believe the problem is cultural and systemic.

Our community needs to ask the police to increase the priority of ticketing drivers who violate the law. In most cities I’ve lived in, people are actually afraid of getting tickets for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. That’s the kind of culture we need to work towards in Hoboken.

We also need our streets to be designed to prioritize safety over perceived driver convenience. We don’t have protected bike lanes because cars wouldn’t have enough space to double park. Why do cars have to double park in the first place? Some people oppose curb extensions because they prevent cars from parking up to and on the crosswalk. Our city leaders have historically resisted implementing any substantive parking reform that allow us to prioritize safety because of fear of political consequences.

I believe Hoboken can become a safer community for people of all ages and abilities to walk and bike; however, this can only happen with more engagement from the residents of Hoboken. Here are some ways you can get involved:

Email your city council members

Attend city council meetings and speak during public comment time

File summons or call HPD/HPU when you see traffic and parking violations that put people in danger

Follow Chief Ferrante on Twitter and let him know you want to see more enforcement

Contact Mayor Ravi Bhalla through Hoboken 311 and let him know you’d like to see the city prioritize pedestrian and bicycle safety

Learn more about bicycle and pedestrian safety efforts in New Jersey through the NJ BPRC at Rutgers University and the NJ Bike & Walk Coalition.

This blog post was written by Peter Kim: one of the leaders of Bike Hoboken, proud father of two boys.