The governor’s proposed budget does have transportation implications. On the one hand, it includes 20% cuts to NJDOT; on the other, it gives an additional $60 million to NJ Transit. It’s a mixed bag, and at this point we can’t tell where DOT will be trimming the fat. The added operations funding for NJ Transit is certainly a step in the right direction, even though it still leaves the agency $100 million short of breaking even. New Jerseyans will have to wait for budget hearings on NJDOT (scheduled for April 8 in the Assembly and April 30 in the Senate) to see where agency cuts will come from and how they will be implemented.

As mentioned earlier, Corzine’s “fiscal restructuring” plan has been necrotizing for some time now, losing the race with what appears to be a more viable alternative from Assembly Transportation Committee Chair John Wisniewski. The Assemblyman’s plan would spread the burden, combining an increase in the gas tax and a more modest increase in tolls, meaning a more geographically equal base of the population would contribute to the state’s transportation infrastructure. While Corzine has at every occasion cited the need to widen the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway (at a cost of at least $3 billion) as one rationale for his plan, it’s not clear whether Wisniewski’s plan targets funding to any specific projects.

NJDOT’s Capital Plan was supposed to be released about three weeks ago, but is not yet public. This year, the Capital Plan will cover a 10-year span, as opposed to the historical 5-year plans. This longer time-frame could be part of the delay, but more likely is that several controversial projects are vying for funding and attention. For example, the widenings of Route 17 and Rt. 206 in Byram, thought to be dormant and unfunded, may be gaining momentum. (MTR earlier covered some behind-the-scene attempts to revive the Rt. 206 widening).

• Fund good road projects that provide sustainable congestion relief. Tri-State, along with many environmental groups, has called the billions of dollars in Corzine’s plan slated for highway expansion “a step backwards for a state nationally recognized for its smart growth oriented transportation policy.” Expansion projects include the $2 billion expansion of the NJ Turnpike between exits 6 and 9, the addition of 100 lane-miles to the Garden State Parkway between exits 30 and 80, the widening of the Atlantic City Expressway, and the widening of Route 17 (a corridor previously slated for NJFIT’s innovative transportation program). In total, the expansions will cost at least $3 billion, but are likely to provide no long-term congestion relief. Instead of paying for expansion projects, Corzine could send the projects back to the drawing board to find cheaper solutions, and fund smart growth oriented projects that are lagging, like the removal of Route 29 in Trenton.

• Include a fix-it-first mandate in the asset monetization legislation. To ensure that New Jersey continues to reduce its backlog of roads and bridges in poor condition, fix-it-first legislation should be included within the asset monetization plan. The legislation could require that 4% or less of transportation dollars raised by the plan go to expanding roadways, for example. Currently, less than 3% of NJDOT’s transportation program is spent on expansion, a trend that should extend to the other transportation agencies in the state.

• Create a dedicated fund for transit operations. One long standing problem in the state is the annual diversion of capital dollars from the Transportation Trust Fund to pay for the day-to-day operations of NJ Transit. This is unsustainable, and severely limits the state’s ability to expand transit capacity. NJ Transit is the largest transit agency in the country without a dedicated source of operating funds (see MTR #s 481, 482).

• Increase funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs. Year after year, municipal requests for cycling and walking programs exceed available state money (see, for example, MTR # 494). If communities want to improve cycling and walking conditions, the state should do all it can to support them.

• Distribute the debt burden equally. Outcry that Corzine’s proposal disproportionately affects those that rely on toll roads has risen to a point that many around the state have suggested a gas tax increase (a proposal normally dreaded by politicians). As New Jersey Policy Perspective wrote in a recent Star-Ledger op-ed, “Employing gas taxes and car-related fees as part of an overall solution would produce significant revenue – and call upon a majority of New Jersey residents, regardless of where in the state they live, to have a role in repairing the state’s finances.” We couldn’t agree more.

• Ensure a meaningful public process. One concern many advocates have is that Corzine’s proposed Public Benefit Corporation will be immune from public oversight or a legal process. This is a valid worry and should be taken very seriously. The Governor must clearly lay out a thorough legal process that enables meaningful public input and requires transparency on the part of the corporation.

Corzine told the press on Friday that he had donated $500,000 to the group. Of Save our State’s three directors, two (Laurence Downes and Raymond Pocino) are members of the official “Financial Restructuring and Debt Reduction Campaign Steering Committee.” The third, Jennifer Godowski, was chief of staff to NJ Turnpike Authority Chairman and NJDOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri until last month, when she resigned to join the group.

Corzine and Save our State have been forthcoming about such details; however, it is disturbing to see the governor fund an organization which could easily be mistaken for an independent group. Many papers ran stories about Corzine’s $500K contribution to Save Our State, but few have reported on Godowski’s former job as Kris Kolluri’s chief of staff, instead quoting her simply as a “Save Our State” spokesperson.

Standing in front of an enormous “Save. Our. State.” banner, Corzine slogged through his Powerpoint presentation about the basics of the plan before opening up the floor for questions. As at many state hearings and town hall meetings, “opening the floor for questions” equated to little more than a slight rewording of highlights as frustrated residents vented their concerns while attempting to adhere to the “one question, no follow-ups” format.

Despite the Governor’s stated intentions to reduce NJ’s car dependency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and step up the freight rail network investment, the toll plan will fund three major road projects, the widenings of the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. These projects will cost billions, cause hundreds of acres of wetlands displacement, and will not provide sustainable congestion relief. So, TSTC asked the Governor, why should New Jersey, a (former) national leader in smart growth planning, sign on to a financial restructuring plan committed to such expensive and ineffective projects?

His response included a few vague references to safety and truck traffic but ultimately came to “because it will reduce traffic.” Gov. Corzine might want to review his agencies’ studies with a more discerning eye. As currently designed, neither the Turnpike nor the Garden State Parkway project included in the Governor’s plan will provide long-term congestion relief, and in fact, parts of new lanes on the Parkway will be filled with traffic as soon as construction is complete. (see MTR #s 552, 565). Tri-State and others have been asking the Governor for a review of cheaper and more effective alternatives, such as high occupancy toll lanes, which are carpool lanes that solo drivers pay a premium toll to access. Such alternatives are more likely to preserve the new capacity of the wider highways, providing longer term congestion relief.

Ironically, the Background Briefing on Corzine’s own website agrees that HOT are a good investment. That document contains a chart showing the feasibility and value analysis he used to identify which assets would generate significant value. HOT lanes are deemed both highly valuable and feasible, yet are the only top tier options not being considered by the Governor.

Meanwhile, New Jersey has a backlog of unfinished smart-growth-oriented projects in the NJDOT’s NJFIT program that promote compact, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use – in other words, streets that work for everyone. The state should pursue these projects and abandon plans that add lanes and don’t offer long term congestion relief.

New Jersey began 2007 far ahead of New York and Connecticut in terms of sustainable transportation planning. While New York and Connecticut progressed slowly toward more sustainable policies in 2007, New Jersey, unfortunately, headed backwards. Though NJDOT maintained a capital plan focused on sustainability and fix it first priorities, many of the agency’s projects linking land use and transportation stagnated as the state’s political establishment pushed highway widening projects.

2007 was dominated by talk of Gov. Jon Corzine’s “asset monetization” plan to use state assets to raise revenue. Initial thought was that the plan would involve leasing the state’s toll roads to a private corporation to raise money for any number of programs. It now appears the plan, which is being released in the Governor’s State of the State address this afternoon, will involve bonding against toll increases, with most of the money going toward reducing state debt. Speculation over the plan unfortunately eclipsed most other transportation discussions this year. DOT officials were compelled to advocate for the monetization plan, to the detriment of worthy smart growth projects whose economic and social impacts would benefit NJ communities.

NJ Turnpike Authority

The NJTA’s response to congestion on the Garden State Parkway and NJ Turnpike has been old-school all the way – widen first, ask questions never. In 2007 NJTA completed environmental impact statements and held public hearings for its plans to widen the Parkway by one lane in each direction between exits 30 and 80, and the Turnpike between Interchange 6 and Interchange 9 to six lanes in each direction (between interchanges 9 and 8A, the Turnpike is five lanes in each direction; between 8A and 6 it is three lanes). While both roads are certainly congested, the widening plans put forth by the Turnpike Authority will not solve the problem. According to NJTA documents, portions of the new lanes along the GS Parkway will fill with traffic before the new lanes are built (see MTR #552), while the Turnpike project documents show huge projected increases in traffic due solely to the widening project itself (MTR # 565).

Both the Turnpike and GSP projects fail to adequately address alternatives to capacity expansion, despite the fact that less invasive alternatives, like deeper variable pricing incentives (the NJ Turnpike has time-of-day pricing already, the Parkway does not), HOT lanes, expanded mass transit, or the establishment of a freight management corridor along the Turnpike, are likely to do more to reduce congestion on the GSP and Turnpike in the long-term. Such alternatives will also cost less than the $2.5 billion needed for the two expansion projects. Unfortunately, environmental documents for the projects instead dismiss these alternatives out of hand, often without more than a few paragraphs of review. The irony of these projects is that NJDOT officials have proclaimed over and over again that road expansions do not lead to sustainable congestion relief (see MTR #542).

NJTA 2007 Overall Trend: Steady (…still holding steady since its creation in the 1940s)

NJDOT

Further evidence of the state’s backslide is the de-emphasis of innovative projects within the NJ Future In Transportation (NJFIT) program. Since 2003, NJDOT has gained a reputation as being a leader in moving away from highway expansion as a means of solving congestion, and toward a more holistic approach that connects local land use planning with transportation projects. The NJFIT program became a national model for progressive transportation policies, but a number of its projects now lay dormant, and a new round of projects has yet to be created. In 2007, NJDOT Commissioner and New Jersey Turnpike Authority Chairman Kris Kolluri was likely to be heard pushing the two major highway widening projects and the governor’s “asset monetization” plan, not the NJFIT program. NJDOT also lost a few enlightened staffers, including former Director of Project Planning and Development Gary Toth, who left in the spring to work for Project for Public Spaces.

However, NJDOT’s capital program maintained its fix-it-first commitment to maintaining the state’s infrastructure. Only 3% of its fiscal year 2008 budget was dedicated to highway expansion, while 47% will go to road and bridge maintenance. This is the sensible option, given the state’s needs. In October NJDOT released a report outlining $13.6 billion the state would need to spend over ten years to fix all of its deficient and functionally obsolete bridges, including the dangerously aging Pulaski Skyway.

NJDOT’s capital budget also included a record $34.6 million for bike and pedestrian projects. In 2007 the agency also awarded several important grants from a pedestrian safety initiative announced in 2006, including $4.15 million in Safe Routes to School grants to 29 communities, and $500,000 to the City of Newark for pedestrian safety improvements. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough. By September, NJDOT had received 274 applications for the SRTS program, but was only able to fund 29 of the requests. With 48% of municipalities seeking state aid for pedestrian and bicycle improvements, it is obvious that the political will to change is there – it’s just a matter of getting the money into the communities.

NJDOT 2007 Overall Trend: Downward

NJ Transit

Though NJ Transit had raised fares in 2002 and 2005, by July 2006 elected and agency officials were discussing another fare increase, and those talks continued in 2007. The Tri-State Campaign pointed out that a fare hike would significantly impact low-income bus riders in Newark and other cities, and would work against Gov. Corzine’s stated goals on emissions reduction (see MTR # 552). However, NJ’s elected leaders failed to find additional dedicated funds for the agency, and an up to 10% fare increase took effect in July. NJ Transit remains the largest transit agency in the country with no dedicated source of operating funds. Meanwhile the state gas tax has not increased since 1988 and Parkway tolls have not risen since 1989.

Despite the fare hike, gas prices and a number of recent system expansions sent NJ Transit ridership to record levels, with average weekday ridership reaching 865,000 trips on the agency’s bus, rail and light rail lines. NJ Transit completed passing sidings on the Pascack Valley line, allowing for a more-than-doubling of weekly service and the first-ever weekend trains on the line. To accommodate the increased ridership, the agency authorized the purchase of more locomotives capable of pulling double-decker cars, and added trips and extended routes for 19 bus lines in 10 counties.

NJ Transit 2007 Overall Trend: Steady (despite lack of support from Trenton)

Can NJ Reverse the Backslide?

Gov. Corzine seems to have focused his attention on the admittedly complicated problem of state debt. Unfortunately, in doing so he and his appointees seem to have lost focus on the equally complicated problems of congestion and sustainable transportation planning, reaching for familiar but ineffective solutions like highway expansion instead of the innovations coming out of the NJFIT program.

Rather than blindly continue with highway widenings, the NJTA needs to step back and consider a new approach. The agency should at least realistically consider alternatives like HOT/bus lanes or deeper pricing incentives as demand-management tools.

NJDOT still has a strong, smart growth oriented NJFIT program, but a lack of political leadership has hamstrung the agency’s efforts to continue its cutting-edge efforts to link land-use and transportation planning. The agency must continue to hire forward-thinking staff, and then do what it can to gain political support for smart growth policies. It should also increase the amount of money it spends on rail freight and bike and pedestrian projects.

NJ Transit should continue its aggressive system expansion, but with a greater focus on urban and intra-state transit needs in places like Newark. State elected officials must guarantee that the agency does not propose its fourth fare hike of the decade – finding a dedicated source of operating funds would help.

In 2008, transportation policy discussions will likely continue to focus on the sure-to-be-contentious “asset monetization” plan. Corzine’s plan may well include innovative ideas about sustainable transportation funding – but if this funding goes to unsustainable highway widenings, it will be a serious setback in the state’s progress toward smarter planning.