In May, Governor Corzine signed Executive Order 141 creating the Atlantic City Regional Implementation Group for Housing and Transportation (AC RIGHT), a task force designed to streamline land use and transportation planning in Atlantic City. Under the current system, these responsibilities are shared by 15 local, regional, and state bodies.
AC RIGHT’s stated goal is to speed up implementation of the Atlantic City Regional Transportation Plan, released by the Casino Redevelopment Authority in May. The plan includes mass transit, bike and pedestrian improvements, but its primary emphasis is on a series of road expansion projects. These include the mainline widening of the Garden State Parkway between exits 80-30; expansion of the Atlantic City Expressway (ACE) between mileposts 8 and 31; a new connector road between the airport and the ACE; expanding a Parkway interchange at Exit 40 and building new interchanges near the Atlantic City Service Area and near Ocean Heights Avenue; and widening local streets. According to the document, the modeling for these components is based upon projected future construction of “mega” casinos.
The linchpin of the mass transit component is a $500 million multimodal facility located at the Atlantic City International Airport, explicitly designed for visitors who drive to the city, with transit – specifically planned “personal rapid transport,” monorail or bus rapid transit – as only a last mile mode of transportation. To its credit, the plan does suggest improvements to the Atlantic City Rail Line, a Mays Landing-Atlantic City busway, and a new on-island local transit service that will combine and modify the elements of the existing system of bus and jitney service.
The document touches upon bike and pedestrian concepts but relegates them to recreational use for tourists, not as a legitimate means of transportation or traffic reduction. For example, the Plan recommends bike lanes, but only along the boardwalk. It proposes a $10 million elevated pedestrian walkway in the shopping district, and the eventual transformation of Pacific Ave. into a boulevard with 15 ft. sidewalks. These proposals do not address the transportation and safety issues of the local population just a few blocks away from the bustling casino area. According to the 2000 Census, 40% of Atlantic City residents do not own a car and over 20% of employed residents walk to work (Statewide, 3.1% of employed residents walk to work).
While the Plan mentions linking workforce housing transportation and land use development as an early stage project, it also contains vague references to development in the Pinelands. It does not include an explanation of how the majority of the $3.7 billion in proposed projects are to be funded.
[…] The Tri State Transportation Campaign provides the answer: According to the 2000 Census, 40% of Atlantic City residents do not own a car and over 20% of employed residents walk to work (Statewide, 3.1% of employed residents walk to work). […]
Are there any alternatives being put forward? What are the problems the proposed improvements seek to cure? how much agreement is there that these problems exist and if so that the cure is appropriate?
What major white collar, ivory tower, pseudo intellectual, book learned novice thought up this boondoggle! SPEND…spend…spend. Please crawl back under the boardwalk and stop wasting my hard earned tax dollars so your special interest, political connected relatives can fleece NJ’s working class…….