Even without a catastrophe like Super Storm Sandy, there were still plenty of major transportation stories in New Jersey last year. 2013 was a banner year for pedestrian and bicyclist safety in the Garden State: NJDOT was recognized at Tri-State’s 20th Anniversary Benefit for its commitment to Complete Streets, the number of municipalities with Complete Streets policies continues to grow, bike share is taking hold in a handful of communities, and a number of legislators stepped up to the plate to introduce a package of pedestrian and bicycling safety bills.

But for just about every step forward, there has been another step back. One community trashed three years of planning on a network of cycling routes, and the jury is still out on whether NJDOT will translate good policy into good Complete Streets projects when re-building roads damaged by Sandy and in other projects throughout the state.

But by far the biggest fail for New Jersey 2013 was the fact that no progress has been made (or was even attempted) to address the state’s looming transportation financing crisis.

The Good

Complete Streets spread across the state — Continuing on the momentum of 2012, there were nineteen new Complete Streets policies adopted in New Jersey municipalities in 2013.

State leaders introduce pedestrian and bicyclist safety bills — State Senator Diane Allen, along with Assemblymembers Herb Conaway, Timothy Eustace, Celeste Riley, Scott Rudder, Troy Singleton, Grace Spencer and Connie Wagner, sponsored six separate pieces of legislation in 2013 that could help make New Jersey safer for walking and biking.

Growing interest in bike share — Hoboken launched a six-month bike share pilot program last June, the first municipal program of its kind in New Jersey. After the program ended in November, Hoboken officials teamed up with Jersey City and Weehawken to explore the possibility of a bike share system that serves all of Hudson County.

The Bad

The plan for Route 35 is missing bike lanes and sidewalks — The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) has insisted that the 12.5-mile Route 35 rebuild project in Ocean County would follow the department’s award-winning Complete Streets policy. But as of yet, there are no plans to include bike lanes, and some sections won’t even have sidewalks. Fortunately the right-of-way provides enough space to accommodate these features, so there is cause for cautious optimism.

Alternative routes during Pulaski Skyway closure — The Pulaski Skyway’s northbound lanes will close for two years, but NJDOT’s recently-announced “travel options” don’t include enough of an incentive to use transit. There has been no effort to restrict single-occupancy vehicles during peak hours and NJDOT is proposing a de facto road widening by opening the shoulder of the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension as an unrestricted travel lane.

The Ugly

The Rutherford Bike Ring’s sudden demise — The Rutherford Bike Ring, a plan that had been in the works for over three years, was abruptly canned when the Rutherford Borough Council voted to re-stripe Orient Way, a critical part of the ring, with 13-foot lanes (wider than the lanes on interstate highways) and no bicycle facilities. The Borough’s backpedaling on Complete Streets was ugly, but perhaps even uglier, is that the Borough seems to have given up on open government and participatory planning.

The Transportation Trust Fund is (still) bankrupt — The New Jersey Legislature has let yet another year slip by without mustering the political will to tackle the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).  After 2016, the one-shot gimmicks used by Governor Christie to fund the Transportation 5-Year Capital Program will be gone, leaving the program with a $1.8 billion hole over the next 5 years – and that’s just to maintain current spending levels.