Mobilizing the Region » NJDOT

Interest in NJ Transit Village Program Continues

Janna Chernetz — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:20:05 +0000

Downtown Summit, NJ, near the NJ Transit station.

Calling Summit, NJ “almost a poster for what a Transit Village is,” the Summit planning board recently approved a motion to recommend the City Council apply to NJDOT for Transit Village designation. Clearly, municipalities still see the benefit transit-oriented development can bring. But given the defunding of the Transit Village program in the state’s fiscal year 2012 budget, it’s not clear if the town will get any benefit from applying.

As it exists right now, Summit would not have to change the zoning in any way to conform to the NJDOT requirements, according to Planning Board Chairperson Jeffrey Wagenbach. What the designation does do is help Summit “maintain and support the existing character of the downtown,” according to planning and development consultant Edward Snieckus.

As TSTC has previously reported, both Commissioner Simpson and Governor Christie have acknowledged the benefits of transit oriented development and the Transit Village program. Continued interest from municipalities only further illustrates the need to restore Transit Village program funding next year and in future years.

Photo: Daniel Case/Wikimedia Commons.

Fixing Black Horse Pike

Steven Higashide — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:10:50 +0000

Dan Burden and volunteers conduct a safety audit along Black Horse Pike. He later said the four intersections surveyed on Wednesday "are among the worst of the many intersections in the 3,500 communities I’ve studied across the country."

On Wednesday, Tri-State Transportation Campaign and AARP joined hundreds of residents, nationally known pedestrian safety expert Dan Burden, and elected officials to draw attention to the deadly Black Horse Pike in southern New Jersey’s Atlantic County. AARP and the Campaign organized surveys of intersections along the road, a workshop to brainstorm solutions, and a local stakeholders meeting. They also called for federal complete streets legislation.

A Tri-State report released in February found that, between 2007 and 2009, 7 pedestrians were killed on Black Horse Pike (US-322/40) in Atlantic County, making it the second-deadliest road for walking in the state of New Jersey.

Before-and-after illustrations of Black Horse Pike show how the road could gradually be transformed.

“Black Horse Pike is an important road, but in too many places it is also an unpleasant, dangerous, and even deadly one,” said Kate Slevin, Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s executive director.

Some problems identified by the survey include:

Wide lanes and other road features that encourage high speeds,
Missing and inadequate sidewalks,
Missing crosswalks and pedestrian median islands that would make it safer to cross the street, and
An absence of safe accommodation for cyclists.

At the workshop, Burden showed illustrations demonstrating how changes such as better sidewalks, street trees, bicycle lanes and other traffic calming measures could eventually transform Black Horse Pike into a pleasant and economically successful boulevard lined with shops and pedestrian traffic. In June, the Campaign released a five-point plan for transforming the road.

“Black Horse Pike is a road that, frankly, makes you want to leave it as soon as you can,” said Matthew Norris, South Jersey Advocate for Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Transforming it into a boulevard where people want to be would be good for business and residents’ quality of life.”

The day concluded with a stakeholder meeting including Egg Harbor Township Mayor James McCullough, Atlantic County Freeholder Jim Schroeder, State Assemblymen John F. Amodeo and Vincent J. Polistina, State Senator Jim Whelan, and local police and community leaders. Both the workshop and stakeholder meeting were held at Atlantic Cape Community College.

AARP and the Campaign also called on Congressman Frank LoBiondo to support federal “Complete Streets” legislation that would ensure that road projects receiving federal funds are designed for everyone who uses them, including pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

“A federal ‘Complete Streets’ law means better-designed, safer roads,” Norris said. “Given how dangerous it can be to walk in parts of Atlantic County, it’s a law that makes sense for Rep. LoBiondo and other elected leaders to get behind.”

Photos and illustration via AARP.

New Jersey’s Shift Toward Road Building Accelerates

Renata Silberblatt — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:40:53 +0000

The percentage of NJDOT's capital program going to road capacity expansion has significantly increased in recent years.

What’s the difference between NJDOT’s Final Transportation Capital Program for Fiscal Year 2012, made publicly available this month, and the agency’s draft program released in March 2011? A lot. And although the agency’s yearly capital programs are commonly considered “fluid documents,” the fluidity between this year’s draft and the Final Capital Program is a cause for a concern.

While overall funding is still largely the same between the two documents – both documents outline a $3.5 billion spending plan, with NJDOT receiving $2.3 billion (in the draft plan) and $2.37 billion (in the final plan) and NJ Transit receiving $1.164 billion in the draft and final plan – there are significant differences between the two documents, most alarmingly in spending on road new capacity projects. The Final Capital Program includes two additional road new capacity projects, and two road new capacity projects funded in the draft program received considerably more money in the final program.

According to TSTC’s analysis, the Final Capital Program spends an additional $25.7 million on projects that increase road capacity. This growth in spending is not insignificant – with the increased spending on these projects, spending on road and bridge new capacity projects grew to almost 12% of the final program, up from 11.15% in the draft program. That draft program would have committed the department to spending the highest percentage of funds on new road capacity in nearly a decade. This further increase from the draft program is extremely troubling.

The final program also decreases funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects by $2.9 million. This means that total bike/ped funding in the final program is 2.8% of total NJDOT funding, down from 2.94% in the draft program, although new projects have been added. New to the list are: Essex County’s Rahway River Corridor Greenway Bicycle and Pedestrian Path ($400,000), Hudson County’s 6th Street Viaduct Pedestrian and Bicycle Pathway ($1.4 million) and a bike and pedestrian path along the Delaware River between Stacy Park and Assunpink Creek (Mercer County, $944,190). But it does not fund the New Brunswick bikeway (Middlesex County, $7.1 million) or a project to make pedestrian improvements at Route 322 and Woodland Drive in Atlantic County ($600,000).

The two new road capacity projects that appear in the 2012 Final Capital Program but not in the draft document total $8 million. One project addresses sections of Route 206 in Somerset County and the other widens Gloucester County’s Egg Harbor Road. The two other capacity-adding projects that receive more money in the Final Capital Program than they did in the draft program address parts of Route 17 in Bergen County, funded at $14.7 million, up from $2 million; and Route 295/42/I-76 in Camden County, funded at $101.7 million, an increase from $96.7 million.

While there was opportunity for public comment on the draft program, no such opportunity exists for the final document. But the changes between the Draft and Final Capital Programs are notable and not immaterial, exacerbating the existing trend towards new road expansions. Even as the amount New Jersey spends on roadway expansion is growing to levels not seen in years, spending on transit is shrinking.

Image: TSTC.

New Jersey’s Shrinking Commitment to Transit

Tri-State Transportation Campaign — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:04:14 +0000

New Jersey’s public transit system links residents with economic centers both inside and outside the state. But the state has committed steadily smaller shares of transportation capital spending to transit, as shown by a review of its transportation capital programs. In fiscal year 2004, nearly half of the program was dedicated to transit. In the FY2012 capital plan, which the state recently finalized, that has shrunk to a third.

(Note: In FY2012, spending on transit from the state's Transportation Trust Fund actually slightly increased over FY2011, but the federal contribution fell sharply due to the cancellation of the Access to the Region's Core rail tunnel. The capital program includes state and federal funds going to NJDOT and NJ Transit.)

In absolute terms, New Jersey’s combined state and federal funding for transit projects has stayed more or less flat. In FY2004, state and federal funding for transit projects added up to $1.27 billion. Fast forward to FY2012 and transit funding is $1.16 billion, even though the overall capital plan grew by a billion dollars.

In FY2004, New Jersey's transportation capital plan was nearly $2.6 billion. The FY2012 plan is over $3.5 billion. But the transit component of that plan has essentially stayed flat over that time period.

In a statement released today, Tri-State said that NJ Transit’s difficult summer showed the need to increase investment in the system. ”It’s been a summer of woe for commuters, who have endured delay after delay,” said TSTC Executive Director Kate Slevin. “NJ Transit does the best it can with limited resources, but train and bus riders have the right to ask why the state’s commitment to them seems to be slipping.”

Much of the transportation capital program dedicated to NJDOT will pay for needed road and bridge maintenance. NJ also does a better job than most states of funding pedestrian and cycling projects. But NJDOT is also spending significantly more on road expansion than it has in the recent past. If NJ instead brought its commitment to transit back up to historical levels, it would mean less traffic and wear on the roads, and be a more sustainable, sensible way to keep New Jerseyans moving.

Images: TSTC graphs using data from NJDOT.

NJ Transit Village Program Doesn’t Survive Budget Fight

Janna Chernetz — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:45:55 +0000

Gov. Christie and New Jersey state legislators have been wrangling for weeks over the budget. Lawmakers passed their own budget on June 29 in an attempt to reverse some of the governor’s cuts. The next day, mere hours before the state constitutional deadline to pass a balanced budget and avoid a state government shutdown, Governor Christie used his power to make multiple line-item vetoes to the budget bill and signed it into law, enraging Democratic leaders. Legislators unsuccessfully tried to override some of the vetoes this week, and will hold public hearings on the budget next week.

Some of the loudest rancor has come over issues like social services and women’s health care. Behind the headlines, the line-item vetoed budget cuts programs that offer New Jersey residents better transportation, housing choices and business opportunities. The governor cut funding for the Transit Village program, cut $10 million from local aid and cut $10 million from NJ Transit’s operating budget. Lawmakers also passed fast-tracked legislation to provide subsidies for American Dream, the Meadowlands mega-mall that still lacks a proper transportation plan.

Transit Villages

The Transit Village program has helped strengthen many of New Jersey's downtowns, such as Metuchen.

As previously reported in MTR, NJDOT’s fiscal year 2012 capital program would defund the Transit Village program. TSTC, along with NJ Future and others, has been campaigning tirelessly to see that funding is restored this year.

Through those efforts, funding was restored in budget bill, S4000 (Sarlo)/A4200 (Greenwald), the state appropriations bill for FY2012. But the program was among those cut by line-item veto.

Important to note is that the funding of the Transit Village program did not require any additional state appropriation; merely an allocation of existing funding for a program NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson admitted was a mistake to defund in the first place. So why veto it?

Other Transportation Cuts

Governor Christie also reduced NJDOT’s Local Aid Infrastructure Fund, which is “established to address emergencies and regional needs throughout the State,” by $10 million, bringing total Local Aid down from $200 million to $190 million. The governor also cut $10 million from NJ Transit’s budget, the last thing the agency needs in light of last year’s fare hike and service cuts. NJ Transit officials assured MTR that the cut in funding will not have an effect on services or fares, but only time will tell.

Ironically, Governor Christie made the aforementioned cuts from his own budget proposal’s funding levels, not any increased funding under the budget bill. Since releasing his budget proposal, the Governor has touted increased funding for transportation. To turn around and cut a portion of that funding seems counterintuitive.

Rail stations and transit hubs are key to the state’s economic recovery and future economic vitality. Investing in transportation and smart growth must be made a priority. Restoring funding for Transit Villages would demonstrate a key fundamental government understanding of the symbiotic relationship among the environmental, business and transportation needs of New Jersey.

American Dream

Sitting on the Governor’s desk is S2972 (Lesniak)/A4161 which, when signed, will permit $200 million in tax breaks for American Dream, formerly known as Xanadu. This is made possible by expanding the definition of “qualifying economic redevelopment and growth grant incentive area” under the NJ Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 to include the Meadowlands in areas eligible for the Economic Redevelopment and Growth Grant program.

Seems like things are full steam ahead for American Dream, despite the lack of a real mitigation plan for the traffic and environmental impacts which will result from this project.

The bill also makes changes to the state’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit, which provides tax credits for major office and residential development near transit stations in nine cities. As part of the credit, residential projects of more than $50 million are currently eligible for a credit of up to 20% of the capital investment made in the project; this law will increase that to 35%, extend eligibility to mixed-use projects, and remove a requirement that the project include affordable housing (localities can implement their own requirements, however).

Photo: Looney Ricks Kiss.

Transportation Missing From NJ’s Environmental Plans

Steven Higashide — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:46:04 +0000

One reason to oppose the Christie administration’s plan to pull the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) cap-and-trade program is that this removes a source of funding for sustainable land use and transportation planning. But, as a reader correctly points out, the funding provided by RGGI for these purposes is quite limited. And that’s par for the course. Even though transportation accounts for 40% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is almost entirely missing from the Christie administration’s environmental approach.

NJ's Energy Master Plan envisions increased use of natural gas, electric, and other alternative fuels, but has little else to say about transportation.

New Jersey has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under a 2007 law, the Global Warming Response Act, which says the state must reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and cut them to 80% below the 2006 level by 2050.

One of the state’s main strategies to address this was RGGI, a 10-state program in which power plants buy emissions permits at periodic auctions. Ten percent of New Jersey’s auction revenue goes to local programs, including grants for “energy efficiency, renewable energy, and distributed energy programs and land use planning.” This is a relatively small pot of money — about $5 million since RGGI’s first auction in 2008 — and it’s not clear how much of it has gone to land use planning, as opposed to energy programs. In fact, transportation isn’t mentioned in the rules proposed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection to implement RGGI.

Transportation is also barely mentioned in the state’s new revision to its Energy Master Plan, as NJ Future recently pointed out in an op-ed. The plan suggests increased use of natural gas and other alternative fuels in the state fleet and commercial vehicles, but doesn’t mention public transit and more compact land use as ways to reduce driving. The state did include transportation and land use strategies in a 2009 DEP report, but this report has sat on the shelf since its release, according to NJ Future.

The state’s actions speak as loud as its lack of words. Since 2010, New Jersey has canceled the Access to the Region’s Core rail tunnel, continued to support widenings of its major toll roads, increased subsidies to the Xanadu mega-mall, and attempted to divert Port Authority funds away from regional transit projects. It may be that the state has avoided claiming that its climate change efforts include transportation because there’s simply no way to make the claim with a straight face.

Photo: WBMike/Tek.

Jersey City, Ridgewood Pass Complete Streets

Steven Higashide — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:45:30 +0000

Jersey City is the largest municipality in the state to adopt a Complete Streets policy.

Jersey City and Ridgewood are the latest municipalities in New Jersey to adopt local Complete Streets policies saying that roads should be designed and built with pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders in mind, reports NJ Future’s Jay Corbalis. There are now 12 municipalities with a local Complete Streets policy in the state, as well as Monmouth County. (Read Jersey City‘s and Ridgewood‘s policies on the National Complete Streets Coalition website.)

New Jersey DOT also adopted an internal Complete Streets policy in 2009 and has said that towns with local policies will get priority for local aid. Another good incentive would be for NJDOT to create a separate pot of funds dedicated for those towns. This could work in a similar fashion to the state’s Transit Village program, which provides money for projects exclusively in towns that have earned a Transit Village designation by committing to developing around rail and bus stations. (The Transit Village program, however, is at risk of being cut.)

NJ Future also highlighted a series of workshops for local advocates and officials interested in adopting local complete streets policies in their towns. The workshops are hosted by Sustainable Jersey and will take place:

July 14 at Stockton College, from 1pm to 3:30pm (register here).
July 19 in West Windsor, from 9:30am to noon (register here).
July 21 in Rahway, from 6pm to 8pm (register here).

Photo: Via Urban Art & Antiques blog.

Walking the Black Horse Pike: Atlantic City to Egg Harbor

Matthew Norris — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:50:34 +0000

As MTR has reported extensively, Black Horse Pike (US-322/40) in Atlantic County, continues to be one of the most dangerous roads in the state of New Jersey. With little in the way of pedestrian infrastructure, fast moving automobile traffic and retail sites that lining the roadway, Black Horse Pike, is precisely the type of suburban ”arterial” road that tends to be particularly dangerous for non-drivers. Year after year, pedestrians are killed in alarming numbers while walking along or attempting to cross this roadway. In fact, due to the extremely high number of pedestrian fatalities, NJDOT Commissioner James Simpson has pledged to personally inspect Black Horse Pike in the coming days.

There is a significant residential population within walking distance of Black Horse Pike (particularly in Pleasantville and Egg Harbor Township). Ideally, these residents would be able to safely access area businesses and local bus stops on foot, but the pike’s current design presents them with a number of major obstacles. Wanting to better understand the conditions that these and other pedestrians face, I visited Black Horse Pike in Atlantic City, Pleasantville and Egg Harbor Township and documented what I discovered. The following photographs illustrate the hazards, inconveniences and the, quite frankly, shocking conditions that I encountered while walking the Black Horse Pike.

Atlantic City

Black Horse Pike (known briefly here as Albany Avenue) begins its westward crawl across the Garden State in Atlantic City. I began my journey on a fairly wide sidewalk about a mile from the boardwalk and casinos–almost instantly, the paved sidewalk ended.

Sidewalks start and end with no apparent rhyme or reason all along Black Horse Pike. Pedestrians on this section of roadway in Atlantic City are forced to walk on gravel and turf.

Continuing my westward trek, I encountered a crosswalk that was clearly added to the pike to make it safer for pedestrians to cross between local businesses on either side of the roadway. While this crossing is well-marked and has a pedestrian-activated walk signal, those who are unable to make it all the way across this wide stretch of road before the light turns red will be stuck in the middle of the roadway, with little clearance from passing vehicles:

Pedestrians who are unable to cross quickly are forced to wait in the center of the road, only inches away from speeding traffic.

Pleasantville

West of Atlantic City is Pleasantville. Pedestrian infrastructure here is extremely lacking. While school children, seniors and those with physical disabilities are probably most at risk, the conditions here are so deplorable that, even with extreme caution, it felt unsafe for me to walk here.

Sidewalks here are unpaved, narrow and dotted with obstructions like this post, making the pike difficult to walk along for even the most able-bodied individuals.

Reaching the intersection of Black Horse Pike and Route 9, I was shocked to see that there were no crosswalks. I crossed here with trepidation.

No sidewalks, no crosswalks, no pedestrian walk signals, two extremely wide roads with fast moving traffic and a school crossing zone. The intersection of Black Horse Pike and Route 9 is truly dangerous.

Yet again, a brief section of paved sidewalk ended in the grass.

Black Horse Pike in Pleasantville is clearly not accessible for those in wheelchairs or with limited mobility.

Even portions of the pike with sidewalks can be difficult and dangerous to walk on due to trash, debris and other obstructions.

This school crossing sign is clearly not serving its purpose and is a hazard to those utilizing the section of sidewalk.

Egg Harbor Township

Conditions on Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township were similar to those elsewhere, but there are an even greater number of roadside businesses that have entrances designed to be accessed only by automobile. The vast number and size of area curb-cuts put pedestrians in constant danger of being hit by turning cars and trucks. Adjacent lands are underutilized and businesses are difficult to reach on foot.

Vast, empty parking lots and abandoned businesses are not uncommon along Black Horse Pike. These underutilized land parcels are almost exclusively automobile-oriented and create hostile and inconvenient conditions for pedestrians.

Some obstructions on the side of the road force pedestrians to step into the street to get around them.

Pedestrians must either crawl through the bushes or balance on one foot on uneven turf, next to 50 mph traffic, to get around this tree. This is fewer than 50 feet from an NJ Transit bus stop.

There are numerous bus stops along Black Horse Pike, but very few are placed beside paved sidewalks and even fewer have bus shelters to shield riders from the elements. Many seniors and those with limited mobility must negotiate uneven grass and gravel. New Jersey’s “Safe Routes to Transit” program provides funding to alleviate such conditions, but the 2012 Capital Plan would halve its funding.

It is extremely unsafe for anyone to reach this bus stop on foot. Once there, riders are exposed to the elements.

Ways to Fix the Pike

The section of Black Horse Pike covered in this walk.

My journey along Black Horse Pike in eastern Atlantic County really put into perspective the conditions that pedestrians who walk along this road face on a daily basis while traveling to work, school or to visit the doctor’s office. Nearly all sections of the roadway that I visited were unsafe; all were inconvenient and unpleasant. The scale of the needed improvements along the corridor is large, but re-designing Black Horse Pike and surrounding areas in a way that is beneficial for area businesses, pedestrians and other road users will produce widespread benefits.

As first steps, street trees and improved roadway striping should be added in areas that currently lack them. Continuous sidewalks that are protected from traffic, additional crosswalks and other features such as bike lanes and pedestrian median islands will also need to be installed.

However, to truly transform the Black Horse Pike corridor, there must be a broader overhaul aimed at producing a safe, attractive and prosperous regional boulevard. In order to accomplish this, the state Department of Transportation, area municipalities, advocates, and local stakeholder groups need to come together to create a plan that benefits all road users, as well as future business owners and residents. If local governments agree to encourage the development of walkable, mixed-use projects along the road, Black Horse Pike will become more economically viable, and area residents will find it safer and more convenient to reach area businesses on foot.

Walking along Black Horse Pike, one sees how previous piecemeal planning, design and roadway engineering decisions have produced an environment that is hostile to pedestrians and is becoming more and more unattractive to business owners. However, it is possible to turn this disjointed and outdated roadway into a modern, thriving thoroughfare. By doing so, the quality of life for area residents will be vastly improved, and, most importantly, lives will be saved.

Photos: Matthew Norris/TSTC.

Cranford Touts Its Transit Village Grants

Steven Higashide — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:15:08 +0000

Downtown Cranford, just north of the train station.

Municipalities in New Jersey continue to sing the praises of NJDOT’s Transit Village program, which helps towns support walkable, transit-oriented downtowns but has been cut out of the department’s fiscal year 2012 capital program. In the spring/summer issue of the Cranford Downtown Management Corporation’s Downtown Cranford magazine, Cranford DMC Director Kathleen Miller Prunty touts a $500,000 Transit Village grant the town received from NJDOT in February, which will be used for pedestrian walkways and landscaping.

When the grant was first announced in February, Cranford Mayor Dan Aschenbach said the grant would allow the town to “creat[e] well-defined pedestrian routes to the train station and through the downtown.”

Prunty said “These improvements will help to create a much needed pedestrian-friendly link between the south and north areas of the downtown,” and said the grant would help the town use its train station “as a connector rather than barrier.” The Riverfront, a mixed-use development including at least 108 residential units, is planned near the train station.

Cranford was first named a Transit Village in 2003, and leveraged a study paid for by its 2003 grant to win these improvements. Although NJDOT officials recently claimed the Transit Village program “didn’t get any big bang for the buck,” evidence from town after town seems to refute that.

Photo: asj2012/Flickr.

NJ 101.5 Listeners: State Needs Better Maintained Roads

Steven Higashide — Wed, 18 May 2011 18:00:54 +0000

The above poll ran with an NJ 101.5 story recapping Tri-State's analysis of NJDOT's fiscal year 2012 capital program.

Listeners of NJ 101.5 certainly seem to agree that the state needs to continue a “fix-it-first” approach to roads and bridges that prioritizes maintenance and repair. The poll above came at the top of a 101.5 story recapping Tri-State’s annual analysis of NJDOT’s capital plan. That analysis found that in fiscal year 2012, the state would continue to spend the largest portion of its plan on road and bridge maintenance, but would also devote more than 11% of the plan to road and bridge expansion, the most in nearly a decade.

In response, NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson disputed TSTC’s categorization of some projects as capacity expansion, such as the I-295/I-76-Route 42 Direct Connection in Camden County. Talking to 101.5, Simpson described the project as one that would fill in a “missing section for 295.” Sounds like a project that will add new road capacity, just as Tri-State classified it.

As Tri-State’s analysis says, “Not all road expansion projects deliver negative results.” But new infrastructure adds to the state’s maintenance needs, and it’s very worrisome that the amount the state spends on road and bridge expansion has increased every year since 2009.

State Still Not Making Sense on Transit Villages

New Jersey’s explanation of why it is defunding the popular Transit Village program, which Simpson repeated on 101.5, continues to puzzle. As NJ Future puts it, the department’s line boils down to “$1 Million for Transit Villages Not Enough, So We Made It Zero“:

[Simpson] likened distributing the $1 million grant pool to “trying to spread peanut butter around the state…you really didn’t get any big bang for the buck.”

We’ve already used this space to dispel the notion that grants made under the Transit Village program are inconsequential. The short version is: The grant money provides an incentive for municipalities to participate in the program, which requires them to adopt a number of transit-friendly development policies. Without this funding … the state loses out on increased transit-oriented development and the economic activity it generates.

NJ Future also finds recent projects, in Bound Brook and Somerville, which represent just two of the many downtown redevelopment projects that have their roots in the Transit Village program.