Potholes and Fare Hikes… Perfect Together

Posted February 6, 2008

Regardless of the length of your commute or your mode of transportation, there’s little for morning warriors to take pride in as they travel the Garden State’s roads or rails. Although we don’t have to pump our own gas, traffic jams and the behavior of our fellow commuters can be detrimental to our health. This month we examine the rush-hour jungle with Thomas A. Bracken, president & CEO of Sun National Bank and chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce; Valarie Smith, regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education (and a Cherry Hill-to-Manhattan commuter), and Shannon Harrington, transportation reporter for the Record of Hackensack.

What was your worst traffic nightmare?

TB: Which one?—that pretty much answers it. Traffic issues are a daily event for me. The traffic nightmare I tell you today will be different from the one I tell you tomorrow. And each one feels like the worst.
SH: Having spent two years commuting from Brooklyn to Hackensack, let’s just say it’s tough to boil it down to one nightmare.
VS: My very first day on the job, it took me over five hours to get to Lower Manhattan, because a train derailed somewhere between Penn Station–Newark and Penn Station–New York. Thousands of commuters were confused because, at that time, the PATH to the World Trade Center was still closed. It was a nightmare, and there was no information being given out by transit authorities. You were truly on your own. Another time, trains were running late, and the Princeton Express was getting ready to leave Newark. People were cramming to get on, the doors were trying to close, and I saw one commuter punch another right through the door and back onto the platform.

Why isn’t something that affects virtually every New Jerseyan getting any better?

SH: It seems like the state is always playing catch-up with the poorly planned development that keeps dumping more and more cars onto our already crowded highways. It seems that for every transit village being built under the latest smart-growth effort, there’s a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and strip mall going up on some previously undeveloped land. Take Route 17 in southern Bergen County. The state has been looking at whether to widen it to get rid of bottlenecks. But let’s say they do and the construction along that stretch continues. There’s a Lowe’s going up now, a strip mall that opened not too long ago, and the mammoth Xanadu complex being built nearby. How long before the widened road becomes obsolete?
VS: More thought has to be given to making what works work better. Forget about expanding and trying to force new [train] lines on people who won’t use them. There are times when the weather is bad that I will drive because I can’t deal with late trains with passengers packed like sardines. I’ve heard that more attention will be given to the Northeast [Corridor] train line by adding double-deck cars and building a badly needed parking garage for the Hamilton train station. I love the idea of getting a real parking space at Hamilton, but I dread the one-year nightmare it will take to have it built.
TB: It doesn’t get better because mass-transit issues have not been addressed. Roads are not maintained. There have been no significant investments in the state’s transportation infrastructure. Without addressing one or all of these issues, the problems will only continue to get worse.

Will an increased gas tax subsidize necessary upgrades for our highway infrastructure?

SH: Not unless the state Legislature first fixes some truck-size holes in the fund that those taxes go into now. Over the years, politicians and transportation officials have been siphoning and diverting billions of dollars from the fund to plug operating-budget gaps. Think of the bridges and highways that could have been fixed and train lines that could have been built with that money. The good news is that lawmakers from both parties seem determined to plug those holes in the fund before raising the gas tax, which they’ll almost certainly have to do if the state wants to spend any money on highway construction next year.
VS: If our highway authorities stayed in the business of transportation as opposed to underwriting bonds for other ancillary ventures, I believe the Transportation Trust Fund would be in better shape. I also think there could be a savings in eliminating administrative costs by combining the three major authorities—the Atlantic City Expressway, the Parkway, and the Turnpike.
TB: You have to address maintenance before you can talk about upgrades. An increased gas tax will maintain the state’s transportation infrastructure at a level necessary to prevent further deterioration. Only the money left over from that can be put toward upgrades. One caveat: Any increased dollars available through the gas tax must be dedicated to transportation only.

Will commuters ever use mass transit more?

SH: Into the cities, yes. As train lines expand and improve, of course people working in Manhattan will opt for a cheaper and quicker ride when it becomes available to them. But let’s remember, a majority of New Jersey’s workforce commutes within the state. Sure, it may be cheaper and easier for some to take the train into Newark, Hoboken, Trenton, or Jersey City, but not for those working at the corporate campuses and office parks that dot our suburban landscape. How appealing is a four-transfer commute by bus and train to get from a home in Ridgewood to an office suite in, say, Cranford?
VS: For the most part, South Jersey commuters within South Jersey will continue to drive simply because public transportation is not convenient. There are thousands of us from South Jersey who commute to Newark and New York by way of trains and buses. You don’t hear from us because we’re too busy commuting. The Northeast Corridor train line is packed. I’ve had to stand from Newark to Princeton. I can’t imagine North Jersey without public transportation. Up there, it’s a way of life.
TB: If mass transit adds capacity that is convenient and affordable, I think, yes, people will use it more.