NJTPA Update Blog
Posted: 9/4/2024 12:06:45 PM
Public art installations, community vision plans, visitors' guides, virtual walking tours, and engagement plans; these are just a few examples of successful past projects completed through the Vibrant Places Program. The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) is now accepting new applications! This program provides technical support for a variety of creative placemaking efforts that enable future place-based investments in step with other local economic development initiatives.
Eligible applicants range from municipal and county governments to non-profit, community-based, or non-governmental organizations in the 13-county NJTPA region. Special consideration is given to collaborations between municipalities, counties, and non-governmental organizations.
Vibrant Places projects may be chosen to receive technical assistance services in the form of staff time from The Voorhees Transportation Center (VTC) at Rutgers University and other subject-matter experts. Projects should be manageable in scale since they must be completed within three to five months. All projects must conclude by June 1, 2025.
For additional information, including instructions on submitting a Letter of Interest and program project examples/ideas, visit the Vibrant Places Program page.
The application deadline is September 30, 2024. Projects are anticipated to begin in late 2024.
For more information, please contact Miriam Salerno at [email protected].
Posted: 8/22/2024 10:08:23 AM
Tens of thousands of truck trips are being taken off the roads each year in the New York-New Jersey region through a barge operation floating rail cars from Jersey City to Brooklyn. Plans are taking shape to create similar operations to convey freight cleanly and efficiently to many other waterfront locations. This use of the region’s “marine highways” was the focus of presentations at the NJTPA’s Freight Initiatives Committee meeting on August 19.
Kyle McGraw, Manager of Port Infrastructure Planning in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Port Department, told the committee that the Cross Harbor Carfloat at Greenville Yard in Jersey City uses two barges to float 18 railcars at a time to the 65th Street terminal in Brooklyn. In 2023, 5,000 railcars were moved, with each trip carrying the equivalent of 72 truckloads.
The operation, he said, is the last of the once extensive freight barge services in the region. Until the 1950s when goods movement by truck became dominant, cargo was transferred from several major railroads terminating on New Jersey’s “very active and working waterfront” to floats bound for Manhattan and Brooklyn. “Hundreds of these transited the harbor and then the river on a daily basis,” he said.
With the help of federal grants, in recent years the Port Authority has invested $100 million to upgrade and modernize the Greenville facility. It includes a hydraulic bridge to raise tracks to accommodate tides. Still, weather—particularly wind and fog—can hamper operations, McGraw said. At the 65th Street terminal, arriving railcars are transferred to a street track and then are picked up by the New York and Atlantic Railroad for transport to New York City and Long Island destinations.
Complementing the car float, New York City is embarking on its own efforts at expanding waterborne freight distribution, called Blue Highways. It is part of a larger “Harbor of the Future” initiative of the mayor’s office which includes economic development along the waterfront to create technology and other jobs. The intent of the Blue Highways is “reactivating the waterways for freight transportation—kind of going back to where New York Harbor was in the 19th and 20th centuries,” said Chris Canary, Assistant Vice President of Ports, Waterfront, and Transportation at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. But, he said, it has a “21st century twist,” seeking to use zero emission vehicles for much of the movement.
A key component of the program, said Kerry Goleski, Freight Mobility Program Lead–Sustainability Initiatives at the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), is building infrastructure to allow goods to be conveyed to waterfront locations and then moved upland to public or private facilities where goods can be transferred to non-polluting vehicles for final delivery. That last leg can include electric cargo bikes and electric vans. While cargo bikes have much less capacity than vans or trucks, they can travel faster on congested city streets. A city “microhub” program is providing locations where goods can be transferred to cargo bikes for local distribution.
To support the marine aspect of the program, the federal Maritime Administration has provided a grant to upgrade waterfront landings at six locations, which can be accessed by barges and ferries. Yet, the program faces a “chicken and egg” problem: the city wants to find the best places and ways to invest while many businesses are hesitant to commit without the investments in place. The city’s solution is to actively engage with industry while setting up pilot operations using some existing waterfront landings. One effort is the delivery of beer from Red Hook suppliers to Governor’s Island via ferry and cargo bikes. The city also issued a Request for Expressions of Interest to solicit ideas for other pilots.
One of the nation’s largest freight carriers, UPS, is also eyeing the waterways. Chris Lutick, Director of State Government Affairs at UPS, said the company is exploring transporting packages from Bayonne to Brooklyn via barge. The intent, he said, is getting goods from Newark airport into Manhattan without “being caught up in all the congestion of New York City and getting through the tunnels.”
He said the concept could use roll-on-roll-off barges or high-speed ferries to travel between the UPS facility in Bayonne to Red Hook in Brooklyn. The complication is that UPS packages are often time sensitive and bad weather could limit deliveries up to 75 days a year. Also, the travel time to Red Hook could be 45 minutes to an hour, with additional time for final delivery, which may not be competitive with highway transport—though he noted that the George Washington Bridge corridor has consistently been ranked the most congested corridor in the nation and is subject to crashes and closures.
Even with the potential complications, UPS over the past five years has “been doing a lot of due diligence” to launch a viable maritime alternative to truck transport in the New York-New Jersey region, similar to what has been accomplished in Virginia. The company’s initial goal is to move 24 trailers, one round trip a day.
As the Blue Highways program develops other waterfront locations for barge access, Lutick said the UPS effort could be the “springboard” for other companies to create or use similar waterborne services for supplying New York City. The real “home run” from an environmental standpoint, he said, will be when electric barges and tugs, now under development, can be put into service.
Reflecting on the history of waterborne freight movement in the region, he said “the wave of the future is by going back in time and I think it's a very exciting thing for us.” A video of two presentations on marine highways is here.
Posted: 8/21/2024 4:36:02 PM
A safe, convenient and continuous bike network within the state’s largest city would feature dozens of new miles of bicycle facilities, according to recommendations in a new study funded in part by the NJTPA.
Delores Martinez Wooden, Director of Engineering for the City of Newark, presented an overview of BIKENewark to a Joint Meeting of the NJTPA’s Project Prioritization and Planning and Economic Development Committees on August 19.
BIKENewark was among five reports completed in June as part of the latest round of the agency’s Subregional Studies Program. The two-year competitive grant program is designed to provide fiscal and technical assistance for transportation and transportation-related planning studies that advance the NJTPA’s Long-Range Transportation Plan.
The existing bicycle network in Newark extends about 13 miles, including some 10 miles of bike lanes and sharrows (painted markings that remind drivers to share the road with cyclists) and another 3 miles of shared use paths. BIKENewark proposes 74 miles of bicycle facilities, including:
- 36 miles of protected 1-way bike lanes
- 17 miles of bicycle boulevards
- 15 miles of protected 2-way bike lanes
- 6 miles of standard bike lanes
- 1 mile of sharrows
Another 15 miles were identified as future potential facilities that "provide some measurable benefit to biking in Newark," according to the study, but require more study to determine feasibility.
The study incorporated the city’s master plan, Newark360, and previous studies, such as BIKEIronbound. “We wanted to build on what we already had,” Martinez Wooden said. “We know connectivity was lacking, that’s what this plan resolves.”
Along with bike paths, there are supportive aspects that will be required to sustain the infrastructure in the long run, such as bike parking that lets the public enjoy traveling by bike to work, parks, or shopping. The plan reviewed existing infrastructure, assessed demand, and what will be necessary to sustain it in the long term.
There were almost 900 responses to the online survey and interactive map. Consistent feedback across the board was that there are not sufficient facilities and there is a lack of supporting infrastructure. Among the most popular destinations were transportation hubs like Newark Penn and Broad Street stations, parks, and the Arts and Education District in University Heights. This feedback was incorporated into the plan’s recommendations.
Some strategies are aimed at increasing awareness and the promotion and education of safe ridership. At the same time, infrastructure could be implemented to create zones where speed limits are minimized, she said, along with signage and overall messaging to advance Vision Zero priorities.
The city is linking road surfacing projects and pedestrian projects with the bike plan. “We’re trying to make it cohesive,” Martinez Wooden said, keeping road users of all kinds in their appropriate areas, and ultimately keeping pedestrians alive.
She said one of the goals of the plan is to address connectivity issues, by creating a network that not only connects different communities within the city, but also ties into surrounding municipalities.
The complete 100-page BIKENewark study can be downloaded
here.
Posted: 8/19/2024 9:11:14 AM
Understanding the important role transportation plays in the local economy, Passaic County recently completed a study to identify priority locations where strategic infrastructure investments could help spur private investment, development and redevelopment.
Adam Bradford, a supervising planner with Passaic County, presented on the study and its recommendations at the NJTPA’s Regional Transportation Advisory Committee (RTAC) meeting on August 12. The Passaic County Strategic Infrastructure Investment Plan is among five studies that were completed in June with funding from the NJTPA’s Subregional Studies Program.
The County evaluated socio-economic and market trends to identify economic strengths and constraints, growth industries and the needs of underserved communities. Data analysis considered land uses, population and employment and stakeholders and the public were also engaged to help select five priority investment areas. A vision was developed for each of the five areas, along with recommended actions and strategies to help implement them. The five areas are:
Pompton Lakes – Wanaque Avenue
The vision for this area is to create a vibrant downtown, for people to live, work and visit. Key recommendations are improving vehicular and pedestrian access to the parking lot west of Wanaque Avenue; exploring sidewalk widening to improve walkability and create an opportunity for sidewalk cafes and public spaces; add bike lanes; and slow down traffic to make it safer for people walking and biking.
Wayne – Route 23 Willowbrook
The vision for this area focuses on leveraging the strengths of Willowbrook Mall, the Mountain View Train Station and Wayne Route 23 Transit Center to create a regional destination. Recommendations include improving bus circulation between the three sites, improving pedestrian access between Willowbrook Mall and surrounding properties; and adding bike lanes, particularly near the two train stations. Bradford said. Walkability around the Mountain View Train Station could be improved by addressing issues like multiple driveways, signage, and traffic.
Clifton – Route 3
Route 3 is the major corridor that runs through the south part of Passaic County but is more like an interstate than a state route, Bradford said, with lots of traffic, high speeds, three lanes and all kinds of buses. Existing bus stops are on small triangular islands which are part of on- and off-ramp areas but have no protections to prevent commuters from getting hit if a vehicle came up onto the island. The vision for this area is to consolidate driveway access to businesses to improve traffic flow and safety, explore bus route improvements to make it safer for riders and pedestrians walking to stops, and fill in missing sidewalks.
Paterson – Hospital complex
The vision for this area is to grow St. Joseph’s University Medical Center into a world-class health campus, encouraging investment in complementary businesses and services. The recommendations also call for road safety improvements to make it easy for people to get to the hospital for treatment or work, creating a network of bicycle lanes, and exploring the feasibility of a train station.
Paterson – Presidential Boulevard
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Recommendations for this area capitalize on key tourist destinations like the Great Falls National Historic Park and the recently renovated Hinchliffe Stadium, with the goal of creating passive and active recreational opportunities along the Passaic River. The vision includes a mixed-use waterfront, that in addition to recreation, would feature housing and commercial amenities. Recommendations also include resiliency measures to address flooding, and improving freight movements between nearby highways, like Interstate 80, and warehouses and industrial complexes in the Bunker Hill industrial area.
The final report is available on the NJTPA’s Subregional Studies page here.
Posted: 8/12/2024 4:18:03 PM
Eight counties in the NJTPA region are seeking public input to help them develop Local Safety Action Plans.
These plans help county and local governments identify and prioritize safety improvements to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. Developing these plans requires a diverse set of participants working together to match local needs with solutions to reduce these crashes, with the ultimate goal being zero. Public involvement plays a critical role in creating these plans.
Public events are being planned, and the NJTPA recently launched a survey and interactive map to gather input online.
The NJTPA is working with Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, Ocean, Somerset, Sussex, Passaic and Warren counties to develop plans. Essex, Hudson, Monmouth and Union counties received federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grants to create their own plans and Middlesex County already has one in place. Once this effort is completed, every county in the NJTPA region will have a Local Safety Action Plan, enabling the counties and municipalities in the region to seek federal funding to implement recommended safety improvements.
The planning process relies on input from residents and technical experts to match local needs with solutions that will reduce and eliminate serious injuries and fatalities. There will be several opportunities for public and stakeholder feedback to help guide the creation of this plan, including virtual and in-person events.
To learn more and stay up to date about ways to contribute to the plan, visit the project website at SafetyPlansNJ.com.
Posted: 8/7/2024 3:04:20 PM
Following vision workshops this past spring and pop-up outreach events this summer, the next phase of the Palisades Shared Use Path Study seeks public input on potential amenities, safety concerns, and missing connections via an interactive online map. Input will be accepted through Aug. 20.
The study, spearheaded by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, is exploring the feasibility of a more accessible connection for walking and biking between the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee and the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in South Nyack, New York.
The study area extends about 20 miles along the west side of the Hudson River through Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Tenafly and Alpine, following the Palisades Interstate Parkway and U.S. 9W, and across downtowns and public parks, like Palisades Interstate Park and Tallman Mountain State Park.
A shared use path at the new Cuomo Bridge – the first for walkers and bikers across the lower Hudson River in almost a century – and ongoing improvements to the GW Bridge shared use paths are expected to increase bicycle traffic along the U.S. 9W corridor in the coming years.
Public review meetings will continue through the fall, with a final study report and draft recommendations expected by the end of this year.
Posted: 7/11/2024 1:28:39 PM
Sixteen projects to make walking and bicycling to school safer within the NJTPA region will receive almost $14 million through the state’s Safe Routes to School program.
Overall, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) awarded 23 grants totaling $21.1 million through the federally-funded program to increase pedestrian safety among motorists and schoolchildren. SRTS is administered by the NJDOT in partnership with the NJTPA, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization.
“The Murphy Administration is committed improving safety by providing resources to improve sidewalks and bike paths near schools,” NJDOT Commissioner Fran O’Connor, who sits on the NJTPA Board of Trustees, said in a press release announcing the awards. “The Safe Routes to School program encourages children to stay active by walking and biking to school, and is a great example of how NJDOT, working with the state’s three regional planning authorities, helps utilize federal funding to support communities through local transportation projects.”
Infrastructure improvement projects to be funded through this program include sidewalk upgrades, pedestrian and bicycle crossings, and on-street bicycle facilities. Special consideration was given to applications that addressed equity by providing benefits to underserved communities, low-income residents, minorities, those with limited English proficiency, persons with disabilities, children, and older adults.
The goal of the program is to make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age. Projects are designed to improve safety, reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution near schools.
NJDOT received 62 eligible applications in the NJTPA’s 13-county region, awarding 16 top-scoring projects with $13.996 million in funding. The NJTPA Board of Trustees approved the following grant awards during its meeting on Monday:
- Teaneck: Pedestrian Bridge over CSX Railroad Project, $1.5 million
- Rockaway: Pedestrian Safety & Connectivity Improvement, Copeland Middle & Stony Brook Elementary School Complex, $1.199 million
- Berkeley Heights: Mountain Avenue Sidewalk Project, $1.27 million
- Passaic: Parker Avenue and Van Buren Street Improvements Project, $1.089 million
- Freehold: Freehold Safe Routes to School Project, $972,000
- West Orange: Gregory Avenue and Lowell Avenue Safe Routes to School Project, $966,000
- Belleville: Belleville Public Schools Pedestrian Safety Project, $962,000
- Orange: Lincoln Avenue School Pedestrian Safety Improvements Project, $912,000
- Little Egg Harbor: Sidewalk Safety Improvements to Frog Pond Road, Railroad Avenue, and Parkertown Drive, $800,000
- Bridgewater: Garretson Road and Easton Turnpike Pedestrian Improvements, $768,000
- Keyport: Maple Place, West 4th Street, St. Peter’s Place and St. George Place, Safe Routes to School Improvements, $749,000
- Point Pleasant: Proposed Sidewalk near Ocean Road Elementary School, $725,000
- Nutley: Nutley Schools Intersection Improvement Project, $557,000
- New Providence: Various Bike Route Improvements, $534,000
- High Bridge: Fairview Avenue and Church Street., $530,000
- Essex County: New traffic signal at Lakeside Avenue (County Route 636) and Pease Avenue in Verona, $436,000
Posted: 7/10/2024 4:09:33 PM
An Austin, Texas shopping mall is now a satellite campus of a community college, served by a light rail line.
A former motel outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, serves as memory care housing.
Mizner Park, a mixed-used shopping, residential and entertainment district has now been around longer than the original mall that was built in Boca Raton, Florida.
Those are just a few examples of “suburban retrofitting” but with thousands of strip malls across the country in nearly every community, there is “a lot of latent opportunity,” for more, according to June Williamson, Professor and Director of Programs in Graduate Architecture at The City College of New York.
The author of Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia, Williamson presented “Building Better Places: Urban Design Strategies for a Connected Region” at the July 8 meeting of the NJTPA Board of Trustees.
Williamson offered an array of case studies illustrating three urban design strategies for suburban retrofitting used alone or in combination:
- Redevelopment, urbanizing selected “nodes” by increasing density, walkability, transit readiness, and use mix;
- Reinhabitation, or adaptive reuse of existing buildings; and,
- Regreening, introducing small parks, plazas and greens to have a social or public space where there wasn’t any in suburban settings, restoring wetlands ecologies and wildlife corridors.
Among the urgent challenges of suburban retrofitting cited by Williamson are adding water and energy resilience and supporting an aging population that has already reared their children.
The larger goal is to promote progress toward “incremental metropolitanism.” She said these transformations can take time but offer a lot of benefits to communities that undertake them. Williamson said vacant and obsolete shopping malls, big box stores and office/industrial parks are prime locations to consider for retrofitting. Reimaging these sites can provide economic benefits and address a community’s housing or recreational needs.
“Broadly, I’m here to advocate for the idea that implementing a suburban retrofitting approach can lead to a better, more connected and vibrant region,” Williamson said.
Inspired by her work, the
Boston Metro Area Planning Commission mapped every strip mall in the region, assessing sites to determine which were most favorable because of their proximity to transit, Williamson said. The study concluded that redeveloping just 10 percent of the more than 3,000 sites into mixed-used projects would meet the entire new housing demand projected for the region, creating some 124,000 homes and increasing building values by $479 million in extra tax revenue for host communities.
There are issues to overcome, such as dealing with site owners and addressing land use concerns in communities, she said. It’s a significant finding and many communities can make similar strides.
A recording of her presentation is available on
our YouTube channel.
Posted: 6/27/2024 1:12:11 PM
Sales of electric vehicles (EV) continued to grow in the second half of 2023, though not quite as strongly as the exceptional growth of the first half.
Zenon Tech-Czarny, Principal Planner, Environmental Planning, provided a regional electric vehicle update to the Joint Project Prioritization and Planning and Economic Development Committee during its June 17 meeting.
There was a 24-percent increase in EV registrations in the last six months of 2023 compared with a 35-percent jump in the prior six months, but the difference only came down to about 2,000 vehicles overall. There were 23,865 new vehicles registered in the most recent period versus 25,824 in the previous six-month period. “Growth is still fairly strong, but it needs to be much more to reach the statewide goal of 330,000 by 2025,” Tech-Czarny said.
Total registrations are rising overall but they’re also rising in every county in the NJTPA region and in relationship to other vehicles, Tech-Czarny said. Somerset County leads in EV percentage relative to total vehicles at almost 4 percent, followed by Bergen and Middlesex counties. Bergen and Essex counties have the highest numbers of EVs and saw the most gains. The EV Index, which accounts for both the number and percentage of EVs, showed high adoption rates in municipalities like Edison and South Brunswick.
The significant surge in EV adoption is thanks in part to New Jersey’s Charge Up program and the introduction of the Tesla Model Y, which both occurred in 2020. The Model Y is the most popular EV in New Jersey with more than 31,000 in the NJTPA’s 13-county region. Overall, Tesla makes up 66,529 vehicles out of the more than 122,000 EVs in the region.
Tech-Czarny said the NJTPA collects and analyzes EV data, incorporates EV data into greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and develops strategy documents to promote EV adoption. EVs are also key to part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality and Carbon Reduction Programs, among others. The approach is cyclical, where data informs strategy, leading to implementation, which in turn generates new data.
More information on EVs is available at the NJTPA's EV Resources Hub at NJTPA.org/EV including funding opportunities for EV infrastructure through Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) programs.
A recording of the Joint meeting, including the EV data presentation, can be accessed here.
Posted: 6/20/2024 3:17:28 PM
The explosion of e-commerce since the pandemic makes it easy for consumers to order almost anything at any time but the flip side is that it’s created challenges for towns and cities overrun with delivery trucks.
The NJTPA’s Freight Initiatives Committee hosted a panel discussion during its June 17 meeting, featuring three planners in the region to provide their perspectives on truck routing and curb management.
“If you are going to guarantee delivery of something within an hour, you can’t have it on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel to be delivered into Manhattan," said Alison Conway, associate professor of civil engineering at The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering “So that means we have to have distribution facilities in the heart of the city, which would have been unheard of 10 or 15 years ago,” she said. That’s led to the emergence of combined retail distribution models, where retail stores have become delivery points, as well as “dark stores,” which are retail stores that don’t provide a retail function but serve as small-scale distribution facilities fulfilling on-demand, even 15-minute deliveries, mainly via e-bike.
The City Council recently approved the first major rezoning in New York City since the early 1970s. The changes have the potential to enable some innovative distribution, Conway said, such as the allowing the development of micro distribution facilities in commercial districts zoned primarily for retail, and and flexible use of private parking garages, which have become underutilized in many cities with the shift to work from home.
The growing use of E-bikes, including E-cargo bikes, for deliveries is an area where “the industry is ahead of regulation so there’s still more work needed to figure out exactly where we define the vehicle as a bicycle and a motor vehicle,” Conway said. “We need to figure out how to set uniform regulations for these things."
Freight and Complete Streets
Kristen Scudder, Freight Program Manager for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) , which covers nine counties in the Philadelphia region, including parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, discussed the Philadelphia Truck Network and Complete Streets Integration Guidebook. It was developed in conjunction with Philadelphia but many elements are applicable around the region and beyond.
"Freight considerations are not only about the efficiency and effectiveness of goods movement, they’re really more about the safety and quality of life of other road users and of members of our community,” Scudder said."We have clear networks for other modes on our streets” -- cars, bikes, transit – but what’s mostly lacking is a truck network. Defining a truck network can help communities better understand where trucks are moving and be used across all transportation planning efforts, she added.
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Kevin Force, Supervising Planner at the Hudson County Division of Planning served as program manager for the Hudson County Truck Routes Assessment, funded through the NJTPA’s Subregional Studies Program. The assessment offered a variety of recommendations, organized around the needs of the commercial, residential, and industrial sectors to address issues like delivery trucks using local streets as cut-throughs, the need for loading zones, and trucks operating in restricted areas.
In commercial or mixed-use districts, Force said, designated curbed loading zones at peak delivery times could serve as parking at other times and different pricing levels could encourage the turnover of those spaces. In residential areas, consolidated deliveries and the use of e-cargo bikes could be encouraged. Industrial areas are about accommodating large trucks while reducing emissions and noise and the study found a need for truck parking and rest stops.
A recording of the FIC meeting can be accessed here.