HOBOKEN, N.J. — With Mayor Bill de Blasio proposing a streetcar line from Brooklyn to Queens, city planners do not have to search far for an example of a similar system to help guide them.

Just across the Hudson River, traveling from Bayonne through Jersey City and Hoboken to Weehawken, the thriving Hudson-Bergen Light Rail first opened more than a decade ago and now carries about 46,800 passengers each weekday. With views of the Manhattan skyline and sleek cars that glide over 18 miles, it has become increasingly popular and has spurred development in once-blighted areas of the New Jersey waterfront.

On a recent morning, Derrick Ladson, a 32-year-old dance teacher, took the line through Hoboken, looking out the window as snow fell outside.