New Jersey Future in the Star-Ledger

October 1st, 2009 by Jay Corbalis

The following Letter to the Editor from New Jersey Future was published in Monday’s Star-Ledger. Here is the link.

Transportation fund

The Star-Ledger is right on in its call to replenish the state’s Transportation Trust Fund (“Rough riding,” Sept. 20), which is nearly broke, to help repair New Jersey’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure. But the editorial missed the mark by focusing exclusively on roads.

New Jersey’s public transportation system, one of the most extensive in the nation, also relies on the Transportation Trust Fund for capital dollars and, like roads, is a critical piece of our state’s economy. An average of 847,000 trips are taken on NJ Transit every day and public transportation ridership has expanded much faster than driving in recent years, growing 45 percent between 1997 and 2007. Indeed, this trend continued in 2008 as public transportation ridership grew by 5 percent while driving decreased by 4 percent.

Recent reports by both Tri-State Transportation Campaign and Environment New Jersey highlight these trends. Keeping both our public transportation and road network in a state of good repair by refunding the Transportation Trust Fund is an absolute must if we are to continue to grow our economy in years to come.

Peter Kasabach, executive director, New Jersey Future