Submitted by Old_Perspective_6417 t3_zzhsf8 in jerseycity
bodhipooh t1_j2bt4ej wrote
What exactly is it that you think the city can do, legally? The city can't restrict traffic on local roads (Leonia tried that a few years ago and got rightfully slapped down by the State Supreme Court) and we don’t (and, can't) control traffic heading into the tunnel (the mayor already tried fucking with the PA by hassling truck traffic as it was making its way to the tunnel and got in trouble for doing so) - so, what exactly can we do? They have done pretty much everything else and things are worse: they narrowed Marin to single lanes in each direction for a stretch (that made life miserable for residents along that area) then they instituted a bunch of "no turn on red" restrictions that have also added to the backups. And, they added humps and bumps, as well as a ton of stop signs, which some residents definitely don’t like.
Honestly, I think the city strategy is to make life miserable for those who choose to drive, and they are succeeding at that. If you have to drive, choose your times wisely, or learn alternate routes. And, I say this as someone who also had to deal with the 4 PM traffic today. We left DTJC just before 2 and Marin was basically a parking lot, so we detoured and shaved 10 minutes off our original 45 minute estimate. On our return, we did some hustling and also avoided most of the traffic, but it was certainly bad in some areas.
enron_scandal t1_j2djzkh wrote
I will speak in favor of the added stop signs. When I first moved downtown I saw 4 cars get t-boned in the intersection outside my apartment within 3 months. Since they put in the extra stop signs, I haven’t seen a single accident.
diplore t1_j2c0je5 wrote
Can't the city enact some sort of pared-down congestion pricing to discourage using city streets to circumvent traffic? I.e. if you enter JC from specific exits and then proceed to enter the Holland Tunnel before a certain amount of time elapses, you get billed a congestion pricing surcharge? If NYC is allowed to move forward with a much more restrictive congestion pricing model, I can't imagine that this would be illegal.
bodhipooh t1_j2d34ij wrote
Jersey City doesn’t have the legal authority to do that. We are not NYC. They [NYC] enjoy a special status (conferred upon them by the State legislature) that gives the city the legal authority to enact laws and regulations that wouldn’t be possible or legal for other cities to do the same. Basically, anything we want to do that’s not strictly local has to be approved or allowed by the State government and legislature. For example, we couldn’t create additional taxes (eg, the recent payroll tax) unless explicitly approved by the State Legislature. We can’t control or restrict access to local roads without the state approving that. And, a plan to impose congestion pricing, or other surcharges, would require state and federal approval, along with the cooperation of the NJTA and (possibly?) the PANYNJ.
diplore t1_j2dlc56 wrote
My comment was meant to be more high-level, it stands to reason that there would be mounds of political red tape. New York also cannot just deploy congestion pricing at will, either. It had to be signed into law by state legislature as well as the New York State governor, and still requires approval on a federal level from the FHWA.
ffejie t1_j2dtrsn wrote
Yes, and we've seen how long NYC is taking to get a law implemented (it was signed way back in 2019!) - it will be a long time before JC can get something like this done. With that in mind, I guess that means we should start now.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j2e8lks wrote
The city could ticket everyone who doesn’t clear the intersection when the lights change. Make it a real drag to drive through downtown.
That’s 100% in the city’s right. It would just harm Fulop reputation before he launches his governors campaign.
bodhipooh t1_j2eh0x8 wrote
They used to do this in years past! No one seems to remember that every year, right around the holidays, the JCPD would post a squad or two by the Grove St station along Marin and would pull over cars to ticket them as they made (what used to be) an illegal left turn onto Marin from Columbus. On years when the turn was not illegal, they would stop and ticket for blocking traffic / not clearing the intersection. As far as I can remember, I think the last time I saw that was back in 2019, maybe 2018. It was a trip to watch two or three cars get pulled over at once, told to go line up by what is now 90 Columbus, and then they would write them up, and do it all over again.
Yes, for sure the JCPD could do a much better job of discouraging aggressive and asshole drivers from terrorizing bothering local residents by not allowing them to run roughshod on local streets. Ask anyone, and they would tell you that drivers in town are insane. A lot of it is definitely out of towers commuting, or using local roads to reach the tunnel, or to get elsewhere. I truly despise driving in town, or even regionally, but sometimes you just have to do it. Enforcement of basic shit like running red lights, ignoring stop signs, people doing 40+ on narrow local roads, etc. can and should be addressed by the JCPD.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j2ekfwd wrote
Sometimes cars sit 2 lights in the middle of the intersection. You can ticket them each time for failure to clear the intersection.
It will piss some people off, but ultimately people will chill out driving because those fines aren’t worth it, especially when it doesn’t even get you to your destination faster.
Economy-Cupcake808 t1_j2cme94 wrote
JCs war on cars is mainly restricted to the downtown thankfully. We don’t have it nearly as bad as our friends ok the other side of the river.
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