In The News

Hunterdon County freeholders okay grant application Buckscountyherald.com, 9/17/20 - NJTPA Mention

New NJ Transit bridge eliminates one more headache for commuters, Murphy says NJ.com, 9/15/2020 -

Switching to electric vehicles could prevent 169 deaths, save $2B a year in N.J., report says NJ.com, 9/15/20

Council Hears About Improvements at 5 Plainfield Intersections TAPinto.net, 9/15/2020 - NJTPA Mention

Some toll hike revenues to be escrowed for future NJ Transit help NJ101.5.com, 9/14/2020

NJ Transit launches ridership app that shows how many aboard Whyy.org, 9/14/20

Massive container ship - bigger than 4 football fields - sets record under Bayonne Bridge NJ.com, 9/13/20 - Bayonne residents have long been accustomed to gigantic container ships quietly passing by their neighborhoods as they ply the waters of the Kill Van Kull and pass beneath the steel arch bridge that bears the city’s name, heading toward the main shipping terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey on Newark Bay.

Turnpike, Parkway, Expressway tolls increase Sunday NJ.com, 9/12/20 - Sunday is a big day for Jersey drivers -- tolls increase go into effect on the state’s biggest toll roads, the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway.

New Jersey Transit Moves Forward with Electric Bus Program Govtec.com, 9/10/2020 - New Jersey Transit’s board approved a $3.23 million contract with Scalfo Electric Inc. Wednesday to build electric bus charging stations and the needed electric infrastructure in Camden.

NJ Transit board approves new $18M Lyndhurst station, told positive train control on target NorthJersey.com, 9/10/20 - After a break for the summer, the NJ Transit board resumed its monthly meetings Wednesday with several high-interest items on the agenda.

Feds award N.J. additional $150M for road improvements ROI-NJ.com, 9/9/20 - Roads in New Jersey just got a little bit better — or will soon. The state received an additional $150 million in federal funding from the Federal Highway Administration, Gov. Phil Murphy and Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti announced Wednesday.

NJ Transit’s electric bus program rolls ahead as opponents push for booting of natural gas plant NJ.com, 9/9/20 - NJ Transit was on two sides of the environmental coin on Wednesday, approving infrastructure that could bring environmentally clean electric buses to the state and facing demands that natural gas-fired electric power plant be reconsidered due to pollution concerns.

Rutgers introduces electric scooters to campus The Daily Targum, 9/8/20 - An alternative transportation option is available for students of Rutgers — New Brunswick: electric scooters (e-scooters). 

NJ Transit's Route 126 in Hoboken gets new stops, bigger buses NorthJersey.com, 9/8/20 - One of NJ Transit's busiest bus routes — the 126 — is receiving additional and changed bus stops, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Will Trump let congestion pricing happen? Cityandstateny.com, 8/13/20 - The Metropolitan Transportation Authority could really do with an extra $1 billion right about now. The MTA expects to face a $16 billion shortfall through 2024, and that’s on top of long-neglected infrastructure modernization needs that congestion pricing was supposed to fund with $1 billion per year in revenue from tolling drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street at peak times. But any hopes of the state’s congestion pricing plan delivering that kind of dough have been dashed for the foreseeable future. 

Corona Bicycle Metrics: Where Bicycling Increased and (Surprise!) Decreased Street Light Data, 7/21/20 - Bike shops sold out quickly, and cyclists seemed to be everywhere during May’s widespread stay-home orders. But were Americans actually cycling more? Our analysis provides cycling facts instead of anecdotes about cycling during COVID. And some of the results surprised us. To understand the shifts in cycling behavior beyond the anecdotal headlines, we used our bicycle Metric from StreetLight Insight. We’ve just released updated data through May of 2020 to enable these sorts of trend analyses. 

I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing The New York Times, 7/9/20 - As coronavirus lockdowns crept across the globe this winter and spring, an unusual sound fell over the world’s metropolises: the hush of streets that were suddenly, blessedly free of cars. City dwellers reported hearing bird song, wind and the rustling of leaves. (Along with, in New York City, the intermittent screams of sirens.)

How Cities Are Trying to Avert Gridlock After Coronavirus Lockdowns The New York Times, 6/26/20 - As coronavirus lockdowns loosen around the world, city leaders are scrambling to address a new problem: the prospect of gridlock worse than before the pandemic. From Shenzhen to Milan to Austin, officials are trying to coax people back onto buses and subways and reclaim road space for cyclists and pedestrians.

Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto Nature.com, 6/24/20 -  The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates perfectly how the operation of science changes when questions of urgency, stakes, values and uncertainty collide — in the ‘post-normal’ regime.

Well before the coronavirus pandemic, statisticians were debating how to prevent malpractice such as p-hacking, particularly when it could influence policy. Now, computer modelling is in the limelight, with politicians presenting their policies as dictated by ‘science’ Yet there is no substantial aspect of this pandemic for which any researcher can currently provide precise, reliable numbers.