Jersey City is banning parking on certain sections of Marin Boulevard and Newark Avenue to help protected bike lanes.
Two new ordinances will ban parking on the west side of Marin Boulevard from 18th Street to the Hoboken border, as well as banning it on both sides of Newark Avenue from Chestnut Avenue to Brunswick Street, which is the section of the road that connects Journal Square to Downtown.
The City Council unanimously adopted the ordinances at their Oct. 26 meeting to do so.
During an Oct. 11 caucus meeting, Transportation Planning Director Michael Manzella explained that the parking ban on Marin Boulevard was the result of an effort between the city, Hoboken and Hudson County on a safety improvement project there.
He also explained that the Newark Avenue bans would extend the protected bike lanes there to Brunswick Street and would complete a connection to Columbus Drive.
Councilman James Solomon, who represents the Downtown-based Ward E, told the Hudson Reporter that the changes to Marin Boulevard in particular were to accommodate a protected bike lane there.
“Jersey City and Hoboken did not have a safe biking connection between the two cities,” he said. “So the creation of the bike lane, specifically on Marin, is to try to connect our bike networks together.”
He also explained that the bans on Newark Avenue were to remove street parking between 5th and Brunswick Street so that the protected bike lane was extended by one block.
During the council meeting where the ordinances were adopted, resident Ryan Williams thanked the council for the parking bans, saying that he rode on both of those sections and that they were “critical missing links.”
Another resident, Emmanuelle Morgen, also said that she commutes between Jersey City and Hoboken with her bike, and that a section between 18th Street and Observer Highway under the rail underpass “was and still is terrifying until today.”
“Prior to today, the segments intersections with vehicles frequently turning right on red evokes the kind of fear that makes people on foot, bike and scooter pause in confusion and try to look every which way, never knowing from where the speeding vehicle might be coming,” she said.
“My partner and I will be sure to ride this segment tomorrow in celebration of progress for safe streets and our community,” she continued.
For updates on this and other stories, check hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Mark Koosau can be reached at mkoosau@hudsonreporter.com or his Twitter @snivyTsutarja.
