NJTPA Presents Use of GIS for TIP and Study for Development
Elsewhere at TransAction, participants saw a sophisticated presentation by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority's Mark Burger on a geographical information system (GIS) adapted for both the Authority's 5-year Transportation Improvement Program (the list of all transportation capital projects) and its Study for Development (that identifies needs for capital projects). The MPO is making this software available to counties and municipalities; the Campaign is pushing to replace the public hearing model of public participation with an interactive application for the software (After a presentation of a pilot system developed by Konheim and Ketcham that combined downstate NY TIP data, GIS graphical presentation and Internet dial-in access, NY Metropolitan Transportation Council staff were impressed but seemed eager to avoid implementing it). Terry Dunn Egan, a transportation planner for Bergen County also presented a GIS system using census data and a transit model designed to improve the county's bus transit system. County planners seek to make routes and stops more accessible to places residents live and work with detailed plotting of origins and destinations.In his presentation on NJ's efforts to produce its ISTEA-mandated Safety Management System, Gary Poedubicky of NJDOT's Division of Highway Traffic Safety noted that 22-23% of car accident fatalities in New Jersey involve pedestrians, a figure well above the national average of 14%. Nevertheless, he described an innovative program of data collection and analysis that will be underway shortly in all 88 towns in Bergen and Atlantic Counties, and in the City of Trenton, that puts laptop computers directly in the hands of local officers responding to each accident. He said that fatal accident data is now current (within weeks), while general crash data is still in much worse shape. He said the management system should create a rational system of prioritization of capital and operational improvements to enhance safety for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. The Campaign's new pedestrian project will be monitoring this management system and pilot safety programs associated with it closely.
