How many people will live in northern New Jersey 10 years from now? How about 25 years in the future? Which counties and towns will experience the most growth? How many jobs will there be in the region? How will all these factors affect our transportation system? And how will the transportation investment decisions we make affect these trends?
The NJTPA has completed an ambitious project that seeks to answer these and related questions. Final forecasts were approved by the NJTPA Board on March 14, 2005. These forecasts of future population and employment are critical pieces of information to guide transportation planning and investment decisions in our region.
Creating up-to-date forecasts that are as accurate as possible is a critical task for the NJTPA region. These forecasts are used as a basis for transportation studies throughout our region and in updating the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) for Northern New Jersey, the region's long-range blueprint for transportation investment. In addition, forecasts underpin a number of other NJTPA products that are reflected in the RTP. These include:
A key aspect of this study was coordination with other agencies, many of which create forecasts of their own. By coordinating with these other efforts, NJTPA developed forecasts that can provide a common foundation for planning activities and future forecasting in the region.
The Louis Berger Group, Inc. of East Orange, New Jersey was retained as the prime consultant for this project, while CHPlanning (Philadelphia) and EcoNorthwest (Seattle) were retained as subconsultants.
In addition to producing an “official” set of forecasts, this project also developed user-friendly computer models to allow NJTPA staff and member agencies to examine how various future scenarios might affect travel, land use and other regional features.