"The Hop," Hoboken's shuttle system formerly known as the Crosstown Bus, is expanding into a full-fledged mini-transit system to provide residents and visitors with convenient, predictable, and reliable transportation throughout the city.
The Hop system has three overlapping routes - the Blue Hop (downtown), Green Hop (uptown west side), and Red Hop (uptown east side) - which are within a 3 minute walk of 99 percent of residents. All routes stop at the PATH station and loop twice per hour between 7am and 7pm, Monday through Friday. In order to complete the loop during rush hour, the Green Hop travels north only to 12th Street from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 7pm. At other times, the Green Hop continues up to 15th Street.
The fare is just $1 per ride. Students pay just $0.50 while senior citizens and children under 12 years of age ride for free. Exact change is required.
"The Hop is a critical component of our efforts to reduce congestion and improve Hoboken's parking situation," said Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs. "In conjunction with car-sharing, taxi service enhancements, and improvements to make Hoboken more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly, we are providing residents with a variety of convenient, less expensive alternatives to driving a personal vehicle."
The shuttle system was recently rebranded as "The Hop" to reflect how easy it is to use -- riders can hop on or off at any far-side corner (after the intersection) along the route by simply notifying the driver.
Through GPS technology, riders can track the Hop online or on their mobile phones via text messaging. The current location of the Hop shuttles is displayed and updated live online at http://hobokennj.org/thehop. Riders on the go can text "bus bluehop", "bus greenhop" or "bus redhop" to 41411 (Note the space after "bus") to instantly receive the current nearest intersection of the corresponding bus. Tracking for the Red Hop will be available soon.
For senior citizens, the Hop offers double the frequency, extended hours, and broader coverage compared to the senior shuttle bus. Unlike with the senior shuttle, they will also be able to ride with children, grandchildren and other family and guests on the same bus. The Hop routes were designed to provide service to all senior buildings. Free medical transportation and bus trips to the Newport Mall will not be affected.
The City will soon be offering unlimited monthly ride passes for $35 and yearly unlimited ride passes for $300 to allow residents and visitors to ride all Hop routes as often as they like without having to pay a fare for each ride.
The Blue Hop is out of service daily between 11:30 am and 1:00 pm, the Red Hop is out of service between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm, and the Green Hop is out of service between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm.
Residents can find route maps, schedules, and learn more about The Hop at http://hobokennj.org/thehop or by calling 201-653-1919.