New Study to Reduce Traffic on 78

Anyone living in our area knows that we are happily located close to major highways that can take us just about anywhere in the State and beyond.  As always there is a price to pay for convenience, the price paid for our convenient location is traffic congestion.  NJ Transit will be having an additional study done in regards to traffic congestion on Route 78.  There was recently a similar study done on the same area however, the new study will focus on alternative solutions that can be made to improve the situation.

According to a recent article in the Star Ledger “Traffic volume on the highway between 1980 and 2005 grew by nearly 5 percent a year in Hunterdon County and by 5.7 percent a year in Somerset, according to the planning authority study. There are traffic jams on the eastbound side of the road nearly every morning in Union and Clinton townships and on the westbound side nearly every afternoon in Bedminster Township, the study found.”  With the building of new homes and additional new jobs coming to the area this situation could soon become even worse.

Possible proposed improvements may include extending the Raritan Valley rail line from High Bridge, where it ends now to Phillipsburg.  “The Raritan Valley Line used to run all the way to Phillipsburg, but service west of High Bridge was halted during the 1980’s.”

The cause for the termination of service to Phillipsburg was low ridership.  The number of people who could potentially take advantage of mass transit in that area has increased significantly since that time.  It could also possibly be proposed to add more park-and-ride places to several over crowded locations along rail lines. 

Whatever the results are of this particular study there is no doubt that the population in our area continues to increase and that traffic problems will continue to persist if something is not done about it.