The Commission and staff of the Office of State Planning took a step forward in adopting the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's 1997 recommendation by making preservation and maintenance of NJ's existing road and bridge system the top priority for transportation spending. But the committee developing the plan has refused to link this priority with a stated de-emphasis on expanding highway capacity.

In fact, the draft Plan still includes three passages that the DOT could cite in expanding highway capacity: encouragement of service roads (which widen highway rights of way and separate nearby communities); promotion of limited access bypass roads (many new highways NJ DOT is planning are bypasses of downtowns and will likely lure development away from those downtowns); and endorsement of a goods movement policy that promotes exclusive rights-of-way for trucks (subsidizing the most polluting, energy-intensive and pavement-destructive mode just as competitive rail freight tries to gain a foothold in the region).

Since the only exclusive truck right-of-way under discussion in NJ is Portway, a truck-only highway linking intermodal facilities between Little Ferry and Elizabeth, the State Plan's language about truck rights of way would be a tacit endorsement of Portway. Yet the railroads (CSX and Norfolk Southern) that now occupy that territory and Union County have begun to seriously question Portway, preferring improved ramps to the Turnpike (which has dedicated truck lanes) instead as a cheaper solution to a new truck highway.

At the last committee meeting, the Office of State Planning staff claimed the Rutgers Transportation Policy Institute proposed the exclusive truck right of way language for Plan inclusion, but TPI's Martin Robins has also questioned the Portway's utility. Before transportation reformers can get behind the State Plan as a solid direction for transportation spending -- which comprises more than 75% of all of the state's capital spending -- the troublesome passages will have to be revised or removed.

The Campaign raised strong objections to the State Plan's endorsement of Portway and also freeway "bypasses" as solutions to downtown traffic at its last meeting. Empirical evidence demonstrates that bypasses increase traffic congestion and induce sprawl development; after a study by the British highway agency showed that bypasses worsen traffic instead of improve it, the UK put an end to all bypass construction. And few NJ bypass planners have successfully limited access or sprawl along bypasses. Route 92 is touted as a "limited access" highway, but intersects every road it crosses, providing multiple opportunities for sprawling offices and other development. The area around the Hightstown Bypass's intersection with Route 130 was "upzoned" to strip mall uses even before the bypass was built. The Route 33 Bypass has been so unsuccessful at eliminating the conflict between regional and local trips -- perhaps because of the adjacent mall and racetrack development -- that even more bypasses around Freehold are planned to "solve" the traffic congestion. Assemblyman Richard Bagger wrote to the Commission also questioning the validity of bypasses.