Dear Editor::
I don’t know about you but I have gotten to the point where enough is enough. In the past week, two more people were struck by cars. At least one of those vehicles left the scene and the injured pedestrian lying in the street. According to our local media outlets and crime statistics, collisions between cars and people are escalating.
There are several root causes for this: the vast majority of drivers don’t know what the speed limit is and drive too fast; some basic driving laws are ignored, including stopping at stoplights and stop signs and obstructed intersections.
Everyone who has walked or driven in Hoboken, especially between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. or any time on Sundays, know that we have Wild West-style parking mentality and nonexistent parking enforcement. We are a 24 by 7 city with 12 by 6 parking enforcement. As a result, at every intersection there is at least one car parked too close to the corner, often blocking the crosswalk entirely. People trying to cross the street can’t see oncoming cars and drivers cannot see the people. The parking problem is so out of control that on Monday morning a truck was parked diagonally across the corner of 9th and Bloomfield Street so that both crosswalks were completely blocked. There was no way for a pedestrian to cross that corner safely and certainly no way for a wheelchair or baby carriage to use the access ramp.
So enough is enough, City Hall. It is past time that you find solutions to our parking problems that do not get our people injured or killed. Part of that solution needs to be reinstating 24 by 7 parking enforcement for the safety of our children, our seniors and ourselves.
Your neighbor,
Ryn Melberg