The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority’s “Project Development Work Program,” a list of projects in study and development phases, reflects the persistence of traditional thinking about traffic congestion at the local level even as the NJ DOT has largely concluded that road widening is futile if other things—especially development policies that favor sprawl—remain the same.

   Some highway expansion plans under study are:

· Bergen County: Route 120 between the Sports Complex and the Garden State Parkway.

· Essex County, McCarter Highway in Newark.

· Middlesex County, Route 18 near Route 1.

· Morris County, Route 202 through Morristown.

· Ocean County, Route 70 in Brick.

Many of the PDWP plans come from county planners, and contrast starkly to the State DOT’s search for alternatives to paving more lanes. Counties and the TPA would better spend their time and money considering smart growth scenarios and other means to reduce trip generation than on projects the cash-strapped state is unlikely to support.  

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