Issue 507 August 19, 2005
Issue 507 August 19, 2005
The North Jersey Transportation and Planning Authority’s draft long range plan, “Access and Mobility 2030” endorses and promotes the smart growth and fix-it-first priorities pursued recently by New Jersey DOT. It also urges complete financing of the state’s transportation operating deficits. Much of the material in “Access and Mobility 2030” shows that the reforms taking place at the state DOT are acknowledged and supported at regional and county levels. In the plan, the NJTPA proposes to increase funding for freight rail projects (by 20%), bicycle and pedestrian projects (by 25%) and reduce the amount spent on highway and road expansion (to less then 2.5% of the total budget). The report also discusses the state’s transportation budget crisis. While it doesn’t recommend a funding source to refuel the Transportation Trust Fund, it recognizes that in addition to refueling the Trust Fund, the state will still be short-selling transportation without closing the massive operating deficits at the DOT and NJ Transit. Echoing the call of transit advocates at this year’s NJ Transit fare hike hearings, the NJTPA calls for “a stable funding mechanism for transit operations that will yield sufficient operating revenues…” Lastly, the report endorses NJ DOT’s recent efforts to link land use and transportation planning at local and regional levels. This bodes well for DOT projects that attempt to use better planning to promote sustainable congestion relief, as opposed to the short term fix of conventional highway widening.
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MTR #507 portable document format (PDF) file version (requires Adobe Acrobat).
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