HUDSON COUNTY – The percentage of residents who use public transportation in Hoboken is higher than any other city in America, according to a Forbes report.
Jersey City, West New York, Guttenberg, and Union City also made the “top ten” list.
The article discusses the Hertz “Corner Cars” program, bike racks, the PATH trains, bus and ferry service, as well as the light rail and trains.
To determine the top public transportation cities, Forbes looked at estimates of the percent of workers 16 years of age or older who traveled from their community to work by public transportation from 2005 to 2009, according to the article.
New York City came in second on the list, which may be a surprise to some, but taxi cabs were excluded from the study. An estimated 56 percent of Hoboken’s working men and women commute each day by public transportation, according to the article.
Robert Paaswell, the director of the federally supported University Transportation Research Center, said in the Forbes article that New Jersey had “clever developers” who “built great looking condos that all look at Manhattan so you have the illusion that you are in New York and they are two thirds the price and you can park your car there.”
Mayor Dawn Zimmer told Forbes that the city encourages people to use public transportation.
“We are proud people use public transportation and we are trying to make Hoboken a place where people have the option to live car-free,” Zimmer said in the article.
However, Paaswell said in the article that the condition of transportation in the New York area could be deteriorating.
“We are in a very bad place,” Paaswell told Forbes. “Nobody is investing in transit in New York or around the country.”
What do you think? How do you rate Hudson County’s public transportation systems? – Ray Smith
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