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NJIT Studies Toll Plaza Timesaving
State Employees Charitable Campaign: A Good Way To Give
NJIT Celebrates Opening Of College Of Computing Sciences
AIChE Student Chapter Continues Tradition Of Excellence
Deadline Approaching For MJCS&T Pre-Proposals
NSF Program Supports Research, Cultural Experiences
An NJIT study analyzed the impacts on congestion that would result by initiating
one-way tolls on the Garden State Parkway.
NJIT Studies Toll Plaza Timesaving
NJIT’s National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity has found that by initiating one-way tolls on the Garden State Parkway, the greatest timesaving during peak hours would come in areas where the adjacent sections of the Parkway were best able to handle high volumes of traffic.
The study, commissioned by the N.J. Department of Transportation (NJDOT), analyzed the impacts on congestion that would result by the initiation of one-way tolls. The analysis and modeling was based on data provided by the New Jersey Highway Authority, the agency that operates the Garden State Parkway.
NJIT also found that removing toll barriers where adjacent sections of the roadway are constrained would result in lower timesaving during peak hours because of the lower roadway capacity.
The analysis and modeling were done for the most congested northern 50 miles of the Parkway, including Middlesex, Union, Essex, Passaic and Bergen counties, and five barrier toll plazas.
The timesaving and congestion relief projected by NJIT was for the peak weekday, morning/evening traffic hours on the Parkway.
Based on these principals, the NJIT model projected timesaving as a result of the installation of one-way tolls with free-flow E-ZPass at these plazas.- Hillsdale - approximately one minute.
- Bergen - approximately one minute.
- Essex - one minute or less.
- Union - one minute or less.
- Raritan - in excess of two minutes per vehicle in the southbound direction during the evening, peak periods; one to two minutes per vehicle in the northbound direction during morning, peak periods.
“While the time savings listed may seem insignificant, they are not,” said James Weinstein, NJDOT commissioner, in a letter to acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. “If you’re an E-ZPass commuter who travels during peak hours on the Parkway between Hillsdale and Raritan five days a week, after this plan is implemented, you will save 25 hours a year in travel time, and almost $650 a year in `congestion costs’ - costs associated with delay, fuel consumption and wear-and-tear on your vehicle.”
NJIT’s report was provided to Weinstein in the preparation of the Garden State Parkway Congestion Relief Plan. Some of the commissioner’s findings include:- The Parkway already is part of the National Highway System and is included by the federal government in calculating New Jersey’s share of federal highway funds. The federal government already recognizes the toll revenues spent by the Parkway as part of New Jersey’s matching funds required to draw down federal transportation aid. New Jersey would not be eligible for additional federal funds when Parkway tolls are eliminated. The revenue eliminated by abolishing tolls would have to be replaced with new State general fund revenue to operate, maintain and improve the Parkway.
- Eliminating toll barriers alone would not eliminate congestion and safety problems that drivers face on the Parkway. The report recognizes that addressing congestion and safety would require an investment of more than $800 million in new capital projects [e.g., $175 million Driscoll Bridge; $58.7 million interchange with I-78].
- Some 400 million trips - more than 1 million per day - were traveled on the Garden State Parkway in 2000. In the next 10 years (2001-2011), traffic on the Garden State Parkway will increase by 24 percent - of which 70 percent will be New Jerseyans. Removing tolls could create the lure of a free ride and could possibly increase traffic and congestion.
- The Parkway is the second busiest Toll Road in the USA and has the lowest user-cost in the nation - 2.2 cents per mile (Public Works Financing, June 2001).
- Current Garden State Parkway Debt: In its 48 years, the Parkway has expanded from 692 lane miles to its current 1,260 lane miles with capital improvements paid by toll revenue. Today, the Parkway has $650 million in outstanding debt.
- Current Parkway Budget is $225 million of which $197 million is generated by tolls. Out-of-state drivers contribute more than $40 million through tolls, which is about the cost for collecting all tolls. Maintenance, operations and administration cost $95 million.
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