Publication date: January 2007
  

Planning

Transportation planning in NJDOT is done using several formats and timeframes. One is a long range look at strategic transporation issues through 2030. There are also short-term agendas. One example is a plan to reduce the backlog of deteriorating bridges through several funding plans. Alternative analyses, environmental analyses and feasibility assessments for projects to address specific needs are also planning tasks.

The NJDOT planning process is collabrative: the desires of the people who live, work or pass through transportation facilities are central to it. Priorities are not only safety and mobility but also societal, aesthetic, historic and environmental values. Continued dialogue with constituents is central to NJDOT's Context Sensitive Solutions techniques.

The state's long range plan Transportation Choices 2030, identifies and addresses the needs and priorities of New Jersey's transportation system over the next 25 years. It establishes a policy structure to support the changing system and sets out the strategies and financial resources needed to sustain this vision.

The plan contains five-year and 10-year improvementprograms and a 25-year strategic direction; technical analyses of core issues and the results of extensive public outreach through focus groups, surveys, interviews with public agencies and interest groups, information center, NJDOT employee commentsand and interactive web site. Copies of the plan are available online at www.njchoices.com. An update, Transportation Choices 2030, is underway.

NJDOT Staff meets with local officials on a construction project in Trenton

Major partners in the planning process are the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). The MPOs are composed of locally elected officials and representatives of transportation and other state agencies. They are federally mandated and designated by the Governor in each urban area.

Each is a forum for continuing coordinated and comprehensive transportation planning for its region and for producing a long-range regional transportation plan.

The MPOs also are responsible for programming federal funds in a document called a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

NJDOT is a voting member of each of the state's three regional MPOs and coordinates their TIPs. Following MPO approval of the TIP, NJDOT collects them into a statewide document that is submitted to the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

Transportation Choices 2030 provides a strategic transportation direction for the MPOs to conduct the corridor studies and complete other preparatory work for identifying regional projects. MPO plans and Transportation Choices 2030 support New Jersey's State Development and Redevelopment Plan, a guide to direct investment and growth that can be sustained in areas in New Jersey where a transportation infrastructure already exists. This approach also protects rural and sensitive lands from development.

Regional Planning and Coordination

North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), Inc.
Counties: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren.

Cities Newark and Jersey City

6 million people

Joel S. Weiner, Executiver Director
One Newark Center, 17th Floor
Newark 07102
973.639.8400; FAX 973.639.1953
njtpa@njtpa.org

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
Counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer
The Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia

Barry J. Seymour , Executive Director
190 N. Independence Mall, West 8th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1520
215.592.1800; FAX 215.592.9125
bseymour@dvrpc,org

South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization (SJTPO)
Counties: Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem

Timothy G. Chelius, Executive Director
7825 Brewster Road
Unit B6
Vineland 08361
856.794.1941; FAX 856.794.2549
tcheliuss@sjtpa.org

I-95 Corridor Coalition
The I-95 Corridor Coalition advances the intelligent transportation systems of its membership of state local and regional agencies. NJDOT is a member of this Maine-to-Florida organization.

George Schoener, Executive Director
I-95 Corridor Coalition
3206 Tower Oaks Blvd.
Rockville, MD 20852
703.389.9281; FAX 703.997.5531