Sixth Street Light Rail Recommended in Regional Transit Plan
The independent, non-profit Regional Plan Association has released a report (PDF) making recommendations for a unified regional transit plan for the tri-state area. The Observer breaks down recommendations for additional services in Manhattan, including subway extensions and free cross town buses.
In Jersey City, the report recommends extending the existing light rail line to route 440 and to 8th Street in Bayonne, both plans currently under consideration. In addition, the organization recommends constructing a new light rail line along Sixth Street through the Bergen arches, at least as far as the western slope of the Heights.
Other notable recommendations include extending Newark's light rail subway line, connecting Staten Island via light rail, and building a new light rail station in Hoboken. Missing from the plan is any suggestion of additional trans-Hudson subway lines; we have long advocated connecting the future Second Avenue subway to a new trans-Hudson connection that would service the southern side of Jersey City, Bayonne, and link up with Staten Island's North Shore Line.
While the independent agency has no authority in making policy, the recommendations are not without merit. The report bases conclusions on recommendations "informed by two brainstorming sessions and interviews with 25 transit experts, by existing studies and by the analysis depicted in the tables and figures of the report."
The full report is loaded with plenty of charts and graphs for readers who enjoy that sort of thing.
In Jersey City, the report recommends extending the existing light rail line to route 440 and to 8th Street in Bayonne, both plans currently under consideration. In addition, the organization recommends constructing a new light rail line along Sixth Street through the Bergen arches, at least as far as the western slope of the Heights.
Other notable recommendations include extending Newark's light rail subway line, connecting Staten Island via light rail, and building a new light rail station in Hoboken. Missing from the plan is any suggestion of additional trans-Hudson subway lines; we have long advocated connecting the future Second Avenue subway to a new trans-Hudson connection that would service the southern side of Jersey City, Bayonne, and link up with Staten Island's North Shore Line.
While the independent agency has no authority in making policy, the recommendations are not without merit. The report bases conclusions on recommendations "informed by two brainstorming sessions and interviews with 25 transit experts, by existing studies and by the analysis depicted in the tables and figures of the report."
The full report is loaded with plenty of charts and graphs for readers who enjoy that sort of thing.
Labels: Transportation
12 Comments:
I guess RPA is yet another anti-car group. The light rail makes a one mile trip from Newport to Hoboken take 25 minutes, and leaves you with a 10 minute walk to get out of the station. JC has a ton of public transit needs, but the reason that Journal Square is cut off from the Waterfront and Hamilton Park is fut off from the West Side is the fact that driving in this town is impossible. The idea that expanded light rail is what this city needs is a joke. Tell you what, I'll believe that when I seen any single one of our elected officials riding the stupid thing.
I don't know if light rail is the answer, and I haven't checked the proposal..but according to the nj transit website a trip on the lightrail from Newport to Hoboken takes only 4 minutes.
http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=LightRailSchedulesTo
I didn't realize that there was such a thing as an "anti-car group." And it certainly does not take 25 minutes to get from Hoboken to Newport via the light rail. If you're so vehemently for driving cars, then you should move to LA, highways galore.
Uh, yeah, the anti-car groups pretty much run this city and state.
I'm enamored with cars? No more so than anyone else. I find they are very useful, and I'm realistic about it. The light rail is a lousy way to accomplish local trips in this area, particularly if you have anything to carry, the weather is cold or rainy, if you are in a hurry, if you want to run multiple errands in different places, or if you are traveling with your kids. That's why this area is chock full of cars, and more come in all the time. The city should accommodate auto travel, not make it more difficult. But like I said, when I see Mr. Healy and Mr. Corzine waiting at the Essex Street stop in the windswept rain in February, I'll happily change my tune.
When you compare a car vs. a light rail trip you should factor in waiting time and walking time to your departing station and from your arriving station. Say you live at Montgomery Street and you want to head to 5th and Washington taking the light rail. How much time do you budget for that trip? 45 minutes? What's that about a mile and a quarter maybe?
The bottom line is there is no way to maintain the density of the urban cores in the metropolitan region and continue to rely on the automobile. If this was Kansas and the downtown was four blocks long and the tallest building in the state was 22 floors, then building more roads to provide better access to the local Walmart would be a good idea. But this isn't Kansas. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation; its also going to be the first state to consume all its available open space, sometime in the next 30 years.
Adding cars and building more roads is not a solution. A car dependent culture will mean both less parking and more parking garages. It means that despite Jersey City's proximity to Manhattan, residents will still be at the mercy of oil prices. Cars add soot and fumes to the air, to say nothing of the global impact.
Instead, zoning codes should be amended to encourage a pedestrian friendly culture-- so there isn't a need to travel to Hoboken from Newport to accomplish everyday tasks. Rather 10 story parking garages or gated communities, the streets should be lined with shops and restaurants, not cars and fences. There should windows with people, not brick walls and utility vents.
Perhaps Jersey City doesn't need expanded light rail service; perhaps what it really needs is more high speed subway services connecting the western and southern parts of the city with the downtown, Manhattan and northern Hudson county.
Well said, Ian...surely its like trying to talk sense to an idiot, but very well said....here, here!!
I think you need more of everything to be sure. But JC's lay out makes auto travel very difficult and it does no one any favors. The city needs safe, grade separated through routes so that people can get around by car (which they will use whether you like it or not) without endangering bicyclists, pedestrians or each other. This is not something we need instead of better mass transit -- it's something we need in addition to mass transit. It should not take 45 minutes to drive from the JC downtown post office to the ferry terminal in Weehawken.
The fact is that people like cars, want cars, and will continue to bring cars to JC. You can pretend that a walkable, cute, new urbanist downtown will obviate the need for cars. I think that's nuts. You need look no further than Hoboken to see what I'm talking about. Cars stacked on every available chunk of space and families that move out when the kids hit the age of 5, in part because the mobility challenges of raising kids in a car constrained area are too tough to handle.
JC is bringing mobile, professional types into its midst. They are bringing cars -- right now, look around, they really are. There is no car-free utopia. It isn't coming and if you could socially engineer it it wouldn't be a utopia. You want to eliminate cars from JC -- that's easy to do, just lower everyone's income to below the poverty line. Middle class people want mobility and mass transit is second best for most trips. If you think that's idiocy try looking out your window.
The Personal Pod is the solution. Initally it could start as mass transit, but later turn into something like personal smart cars.
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/10/personal-pod--1.html
Also, one little point on open space. It strikes me that the "answer" to open space preservation is not to bring a few million new people into the country every year, but I know that's WAY controversial in these parts. So we have dueling policies of (1) mass immigation and (2) sprawl prevention, and no one is allowed to point out the conflict.
Anyway, NJ does in any case have tons of off limits open space. The pine barrens alone is approximately 1/3 of NJ's land area. It has been off limits for over 30 years. Most people never see the vast area or even drive through it, but it's there, very open, utterly off limits and massive as can be.
i neither like cars nor do i want cars, and since i don't have a driver's license, i'm awfully unlikely to bring any cars to jersey city. your anonymous commentator might be the driver who finally runs me down; until then, i'm walking or biking everywhere i go.
i would welcome any expansion of local mass transit. but i am not going to get it. the reason i am not going to get it has nothing to do with politicians or study groups or corruption or susan bass levin. as i have come to realize, the reason i am not going to get it is because most people living in jersey city think like your anonymous commentator. we are going to get the city planning we deserve: one that caters to folks who'd happily drive from hamilton park to city hall, and see no problem with it when they do.
that's okay, i can live with that -- i'm not selling the house and moving to portland because of it. but it is just as emotionally taxing to hear drivers whine as it is physically taxing to dodge their gigantic road-hogging sport utility vehicles. every time an egghead study group floats an idea for an expansion of mass-transit (ideas that are almost never implemented), motorists behave like they've been personally assaulted by a commie conspiracy. i have been tangentially involved in jersey politics for years, and never have i encountered an anti-car group. if i ever had, chances are good that i'd be an undersecretary by now.
it is the height of motor-centric nonsense that it takes the light rail twenty-five minutes to get from newport to hoboken. and unless you're having an epileptic seizure, it doesn't take ten minutes to walk out of the station. no part of this town is cut off from any other: i can bike from the downtown to the university in fifteen minutes, and i am hardly lance armstrong. as you have pointed out elsewhere on the site, two local bicycle shops are opening soon. if your anonymous commentator would really like to see those imaginary divisions fall (and get from place to place quickly in the process!) i encourage him to pay mr. james vincent a visit.
That's awesome! You can do your family's weekly grocery shopping by bike in January! I can't though.
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