Pedestrianization of Newark Avenue in Jersey City

Past entries discuss looking at commercial district spaces in more innovative and organized ways to promote pedestrian activity, making these points:

• we should have been doing this even before covid
• focused integrated urban design plans should be created at the neighborhood scale, including area commercial districts
• biking shouldn't always be seen as the priority in active transportation, there are many times when pedestrian improvements are more important
• all cities should work to create pedestrian plazas, blocks, "malls," etc., where they can be successful
• starting with a space a small as a plaza or block and building from there.

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"," 2020
-- "From more space to socially distance to a systematic program for pedestrian districts (Park City (Utah) Main Street Car Free on Sundays)," 2020
-- "Why doesn't every big city in North America have its own Las Ramblas?," 2020
-- "Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block," 2020
-- "Planning urban design improvements at the neighborhood scale: Dupont Circle, DC," 2019
-- "More about making 17th Street between P and R a pedestrian space on weekends," 2019
-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," 2021

I was looking up something else regarding opposition to a road dieting program for Washington Avenue in Philadelphia ("Kenyatta Johnson should stop blocking Washington Avenue safety plan," Philadelphia Inquirer) and in Twitter, I came across the postings of Matt Da Silva, a planner and advocate in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Most people don't know it, but Jersey City ("Jersey City: Growing, With Many Personalities," New York Times) and Hoboken ("Car sharing as a method for managing the demand for on-street parking: Hoboken, New Jersey"), in Hudson County, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, are national leaders in sustainable mobility and urbanism, because they are dense, well served by transit,  small, have building stock dating to the Walking City era, are located in the New York City Metropolitan Area, etc.

Anyway, Matt has a thread with photos and a video showing the newly pedestrianized Newark Avenue, which is in the city's "Downtown," and it includes high quality materials treatments, plazas, a "woonerf" turn area at the intersection of and Streets, etc.

The Jersey City program for Newark Avenue is a perfect illustration of the points made above.

-- Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall, City of Jersey City

-- "Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza begins transformation," Hudson Reporter

-- "Newark Avenue Pedesrian Plaza Nears Completion," Tap Into Jersey City

According to various articles, the project started with one block as an experiment in 2015, and has expanded block by block in the years since, with a major expansion just having opened.

Night time event during the pilot phase in 2015

Photo: Tony Cennicola, New York Times