Despite budget woes, New Jersey recognized that it had to continue investing in transportation. The state broke ground on the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel connecting it and New York City, and increased the size of the 2010 capital plan for NJDOT and NJ Transit by 10% over the prior year’s.  But the state often invested in the wrong transportation projects. The NJ Turnpike Authority broke ground on widenings of sections of the Garden State Parkway and NJ Turnpike. NJDOT began to fund road widening projects to a greater degree than in the past and showed few signs that it was following its old smart growth philosophy. In November, former US Attorney Chris Christie, a Republican, defeated Gov. Corzine in the gubernatorial election, providing an opportunity for the state to rethink parts of its transportation policy.

NJ Department of Transportation

NJDOT displayed an admirable commitment to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure this year, releasing a capital budget for 2010 that increased funds for bike and pedestrian projects by 50% over the previous year. In the summer, the agency released grants from the new Safe Streets to Transit program aimed at making it safer to walk and bike to transit stations. In response to advocates, the department closed out the year by issuing an internal complete streets policy that requires projects to accommodate all road users, though numerous exemptions may render it toothless.

However, the year also saw road expansion creep back into the department’s agenda. The 2010 capital plan more than doubled the share of the road budget going to expansion, to 7.5%. Improvements to Route 1, originally planned as part of a smart growth and transit project, moved forward without an indication of whether smart planning principles will continue to be followed. Near the end of the year, NJDOT abruptly broke ground on a widening of Route 206 in Byram which had been opposed by community members for a decade.

The Route 206 widening was just one sign of a disheartening trend: The near-complete erosion of NJDOT’s smart growth philosophy. Few of the projects in the “NJ Future in Transportation” program, which was created in 2004 and linked transportation planning and land use planning, have progressed, and no new NJFIT projects were announced in 2009.

NJ Turnpike Authority

The Corzine administration continued its push to widen the Garden State Parkway between exits 30-80 and the NJ Turnpike between interchanges 6 and 8A, at a combined cost of nearly $3.5 billion. The state originally sought to use federal stimulus funds for the projects, but this proved illegal as the projects had not gone through federal environmental review. In February, TSTC filed suit to block the Parkway widening, as project permits had been granted without public notice and the study did not accurately assess current traffic numbers and future traffic projections, and did not address secondary impacts or alternatives to widening. The lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss in August and continues to make its way through the legal system, providing an opportunity for changes to be made to the project. However, the state broke ground on a section of the Parkway widening (between exits 80-63) in July.

Tri-State released an independent traffic analysis of the Turnpike widening in March. The analysis identified several flaws in NJTA’s methodology and found that congestion relief could be achieved through less expensive and environmentally threatening means.

NJ Transit

It was a good year for NJ Transit riders, who saw progress on a slew of transit projects. Despite state budget cuts announced early in the year, NJ Transit was able to avoid a fare increase.  In May, Gov. Corzine announced that the transit agency and Delaware River Port Authority would jointly study a series of transit projects in South Jersey, including light rail and bus rapid transit. In June, the federal government committed to awarding the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel a full funding grant agreement, and NJ Transit awarded the first contracts for the project, which will permanently change travel in the region.  Train service to the Meadowlands opened in the summer, with high demand for events. In July, Gov. Corzine announced that NJ Transit would extend the Hudson-Bergen Light rail to Tenafly. In Newark, an expansion of the GoBus rapid bus system to the airport opened in October.  The agency even redid its website in October to make it more convenient for riders.

These projects mean better service for riders and are desperately needed expansions to the transit system.  But they could create funding problems for NJ Transit in the future if state leaders do not fix the agency’s financial structure. Each new project puts additional pressure on the operating budget, which has been propped up with money from the capital budget — much of it borrowed — for many years.

Other Trends and Events

New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection continued to work on implementation guidelines to determine how the state would meet greenhouse gas reduction goals passed under the Corzine administration. The draft guidelines include several progressive transportation suggestions, but are not specific enough to be effective.

State politicians made little concrete progress towards fixing the Transportation Trust Fund, which funds capital projects and will go bankrupt by 2011 (or earlier). The Trust Fund barely came up in the gubernatorial campaign until October, when a Tri-State issue survey got candidates on the record, and third-party candidate Chris Daggett raised the issue during the first debate.  Christie wisely promised not to increase debt to replenish the fund, but also said he would not support new sources of revenue for the fund, a position that could bring most transportation investment in the state to a halt.

Christie’s victory in the November elections will put a new face in Trenton, though it’s not clear how it will change state transportation policy. Christie said little about transportation during the campaign, though he has been supportive of smart growth principles and has called for investment in cities.

A Chance for a Policy Reset

Incoming governor Chris Christie has a chance to reset the state’s transportation policy, which has become unfocused and contradictory. In November, Tri-State and NJ Future released a platform for the Christie administration, calling on the governor to encourage transit use, improve transportation safety, use transportation to grow the economy, and fund projects that are sustainable and cost-effective in an accountable manner. As part of this strategy, Christie should emulate the best parts of the Corzine administration’s policy — strong financial commitments to transit, walking, and cycling.  But these must go hand in hand with smart land use policies that support sustainable modes of transportation, which were absent under Corzine. When it comes to roads and bridges, the state must stick with fix-it-first policies that have succeeded in improving the condition of its still-dismal infrastructure. The Transportation Trust Fund needs to be put on stable footing, without financial gimmickry.  Finally, the candidate who campaigned on a pledge to cut government waste must take a close look at the billions of dollars the state will throw away by expanding its toll roads.