HART Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation
www.hartwheels.org
email.. Hartwheels@aol.com

July 26, 1999

Roseanne Koberle
Information Officer
North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority
One Newark Center, 17th Fl
Newark NJ 07102
Fax 973-639-1953

Comment on NJTPA Performance

As an NJTPA stakeholder, HART welcomes the opportunity to comment on regional transportation planning in the NJTPA region pursuant to periodic federal certification review prescribed by 23 USC 134(i).

HART believes that the NJTPA staff does a good job of reaching out for public comments on pending transportation projects and seeing to it that the public comments reach the relevant public officials and transportation civil servants. HART is also generally pleased with the observable quality of the NJTPA staff.

There are, however, some serious challenges to the NJTPA's professional and political independence. Most serious is the ambient expectation by some elected officials that they make all the major decisions through back-room political deals, which are to be window-dressed by the technicians of the NJTPA and other transportation agencies with the proper legal and engineering terminology and procedures, irregardless of the legislative intent of the NJTPA's enabling federal statutes, mainly TEA-21 and NEPA.

Two examples should suffice. Senator Robert Torricelli told the Jersey Journal (June 26, 1999) that he "considered it essential that it (Bergen Arches) be used for cars. If a federal agency tried to block its use for cars administratively, Congress would specify such use by legislation". Second, also in June, in response to the NJTPA's occasional independence from the highwaymen of the NJ Department of Transportation, Governor Christie Whitman vetoed the organization's planning program, which threatens to cut off federal funds for the MPO come October 1, 1999.

Political interference designed to short-circuit the federally mandated planning process has often led to segmentation of transportation corridors into multiple transportation projects. A good example of this is the corridor comprising the Secaucus Turnpike Interchange, Secaucus Connector (from NJ Turnpike to Tonnele Circle, Jersey City), and the currently unused Bergen Arches railroad cut through Jersey City (from Tonnele Circle to the waterfront). There are multiple viable options for this corridor, including light rail and freight rail. Non-highway options for the Interchange and Connector have been pre-empted by NJ DOT's premature definition of Interchange and Connector projects as highway projects. No meaningful attempt has been made to analyze the more relevant general question of mobility of people and goods between Secaucus and the Jersey City waterfront. Only through vociferous objections from HART and other members of the public has the Bergen Arches study been redefined by NJTPA as a general transportation mobility problem. As described here, segmentation and a priori transportation problem definition has been used by NJ DOT to preclude consideration of non-highway solutions to transportation problems. Unfortunately, the NJTPA Board of Commissioners has often acceded to such attempts by the NJ DOT to run end around the intent of federal legislation designed to promote public participation, fair consideration of alternative transportation corridor uses that may be more relevant to many parts of New Jersey, and environmental justice mandates of the Civil Rights Acts (Title 6) and the federal Executive Order concerning environmental justice.

HART hopes that the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration will recommend new ways to enable the NJTPA and other MPO's to follow the guidelines set forth by TEA-21, NEPA, and other enabling legislation.

We have some other observations based on our attendance at NJTPA meet- ings.

Many NJTPA Commissioners and their designees often appear poorly pre- pared to discuss the issues presented to them. In our conversations with some of them, we discovered that they didn't read the briefing packets pre- pared for them by the NJTPA staff. Such a poorly-prepared board all too often defers to the staff, which all too often defers to NJ DOT.

At the March 8, 1999 meeting of the NJTPA Commissioners, Chairman Paul Sauerland granted Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler virtually unlimited time to plump his proposed Bergen Arches Highway after the Board had already voted on the revised Bergen Arches project definition. Members of the public responding to Mayor Schundler were preremptorily told by Chairman Sauerland to keep their remarks brief. Let everybody keep their remarks brief and to the point! Despite substantial evidence that Jersey City under Mayor Schundler is unable to fairly and impartially manage the federally- mandated public outreach process for decision-making on the Bergen Arches and other transportation corridors, Chairman Sauerland then added insult to injury by nominating Jersey City to supervise public outreach concerning the Bergen Arches!

Project definitions/descriptions given in information packets are sometime too obscure. We found that the February 1999 project definition/description of Route 139 renovation in Jersey City failed to give more commonly-used local names for the highway in addition to its NJ DOT designation. Also the accompanying map was quite inaccurate.

There needs to be better coordination with the downstate New York MPO responsible for New York City. They need, for example, to be apprised of any increased traffic through the Holland Tunnel that would likely be caused by a Schundler-Torricelli Highway through the Bergen Arches.

Finally, we have found that many of the "responses" to public comments on the evolving TIP were non-responsive. To spare our readers, here is but one example from the Appendix of Public Comments (Summary of Public Comments on the NJTPA Draft FY 2000-2002 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

p. 12:
Comment: Ms Balcer expressed concern about New Jersey Turnpike Authority project TPK 112 - Secaucus Interchange and TIP project DBNUM 98552 - Secaucus Connector Study, asking that they be combined with TIP project DBNUM 98537 - Bergen Arches Study.
Response: According to the NJDOT Bureau of Mobility Strategies, the public will be provided ample opportunity throughout the course of the Bergen Arches Study to make their views known. Their comments and suggestions will be given serious consideration

Such non-communication is often considered evidence of a dysfunctional family or organization.

We remain convinced that, in the realm of regional transportation planning, the public interest is best served by the free and frank exchange of information and opinion. The NJTPA must guarantee the openness of this intellectual marketplace. We are hardly naive, and recognize that all marketplaces are subject to the attempted manipulations and distortions of those with less confidence in the power of their ideas. Transportation planning decisions often confer windfall profits (from the public purse) on private interests. In a transportaton context, this means that the aggressive intervention of political contributors, lobbyists and the seemingly ubiquitous dealmakers is to be assumed. The FHWA and FTA should always anticipate such selfish and parochial efforts, and creatively and actively assist the NJTPA in maintaining the integrity of the public plan- ning process.