New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere told the elected officials, business leaders, developers and civic activists of Bergen County that the traditional ways of attacking traffic congestion will not get the job done.

Lettiere addressed the Bergen County "transportation summit" organized last week by County Executive Dennis McNerney. One of the apparent axioms of the event was that Route 17 between Hackensack and Teterboro Airport must be widened. But Lettiere said that while the state DOT takes all the blame for traffic congestion, the agency generally isn’t consulted about development planning until new site plans are signed and sealed. But it is destinations — development — that generate traffic, not the roadways themselves. He urged that municipal and county governments collaborate on a general plan to make the Route 17 corridor work.

"Transportation has to be in on the ground floor, not the last thought," when big developments are sited, said the commissioner. He also made a strong pitch for renewal of New Jersey’s transportation trust fund and of the federal transportation program. He said it would be shameful to bequeath a deteriorating transportation system to future generations.

Earlier, assistant DOT commissioner Dennis Keck told the gathering that if the DOT adds lanes to Route 17 but does nothing else, it would fill with traffic again in two years. He said the DOT wants to ensure that any public investment in road capacity yields sustainable benefits.

Widening Route 17 is not without local controversy because expanding the road’s right of way would require the demolition of many homes and businesses. 

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