Transportation Blogs & Reports
Report Release: Outlining the Transportation Priorities and Recommendations of Communities in Camden County
By Carla Villacis, Kristin Curtis, Shaghayegh Poursabbagh, Oğuz Kaan Özalp, and Fawaz Al-Juaid The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers-Camden (WRI) exists to conduct community-focused research that connects [...]
Measuring What Matters: Rethinking School Zone Safety Metrics
By Hannah Younes, Leigh Ann von Hagen, Sean Meehan, and Robert B. Noland Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a national effort that aims to provide safer conditions for school travel and to encourage [...]
Best Practices for Improving Traffic Crash Data in New Jersey
By Hannah Younes and Robert B. Noland According to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), total traffic crashes each year typically exceed 200,000. New Jersey does not currently provide easy access to the [...]
Introducing the New Jersey Induced Travel Calculator
By Robert B. Noland Induced travel occurs when new roads or lanes are built with the goal of reducing traffic congestion. What this means in practice is that new travel fills the new roads [...]
Transportation Options for Older Adults in New Jersey
By Taylor Hughes. One of the fastest-growing populations in the United States is older adults (65+), primarily due to increased life expectancy and the aging of the Baby Boomer generation [...]
Ascertaining Transportation Needs at the Community Level
By Carla Villacis. As researchers, there is a systematic process for conducting research that has been ingrained in us through our training. First, we identify the topic, research question, and target population [...]
Report Release: 15-Minute Neighborhoods: A Pathway to Creating Healthier, More Just, Resilient, & Sustainable Communities in New Jersey
By Jon Carnegie, June Greeman, and Jacob Thompson Read Report Over the past several years, several policy threads have gained prominence in New Jersey. These include adapting to climate change, advancing social justice, [...]
Thoughts and Reflections on a Community-Focused Approach to Data Collection
By Carla Villacis. The Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs (WRI) conducts and highlights community-facing research in and for southern New Jersey, and the process of engaging with community members to amplify their thoughts, experiences [...]
Report Release: The Transportation Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Robert Noland, Hannah Younes, Evan Iacobucci, and Wenwen Zhang. The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on transportation behavior in New Jersey and throughout the world. Our research sought to examine these changes and whether any changes will be long-lasting [...]
Are E-Scooter Users More Seriously Injured than E-Bike Users and Bicyclists?
By Hannah Younes, Robert Noland, and Leigh Ann Von Hagen. Policy makers are grappling with the advent of a variety of new transportation technologies known as micromobility [...]
Tuning in to Camden County Transportation Opportunities and Challenges
By Carla Villacis, M.A. We’re gearing up for our study on transportation issues in Camden County, and there’s a lot of context to be aware of and incorporate as we finalize our data collection tools [...]
Rethinking Complete Streets
By Hannah Younes, Robert B. Noland, Leigh Ann Von Hagen, Jeffrey Dennis, Colin Roche, and Sam Rosenthal. Governor Phil Murphy signed S-147 into law in January 2023 directing the New Jersey Department of Transportation [...]
Voices from Camden County – Amplifying Community Transportation Priorities and Recommendations
By Carla Villacis, M.A., Devon Ziminski, M.S., Kristin Curtis, M.A., & Mavis Asiedu-Frimpong, J.D., M.P.H. Transportation continues to be an area of focus in the Southern New Jersey region. In recent months, Senator Walter Rand Institute (WRI) researchers [...]
What Will It Take to Eliminate Pedestrian and Bicycle Fatalities in NJ?
By Hannah Younes, Ph.D., Leigh Ann Von Hagen, AICP/PP, Robert Noland, Ph.D., Sean Meehan In 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced its Vision for Roadway Safety in which the agency aims to eliminate deaths [...]
Roadside Tree Removal: The Need for Collaborative Decision-Making
By Ellen Oettinger White and Robert B. Noland. Many state highway agencies approach transportation safety from the perspective of maintaining fast and free-flowing traffic. As such, highway design guidelines specify a “clear zone” along highways [...]
Fifteen-Minute Neighborhoods in New Jersey
By Jacob Thompson and Jon Carnegie Over the past several months, researchers from the Voorhees Transportation Center at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy have been leading a graduate planning studio exploring how [...]
Walking During and After the Pandemic
By Robert B. Noland, Hannah Younes, Leigh Ann Von Hagen, James Sinclair. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when non-essential businesses were closed and entertainment options were limited, one could observe a noticeable increase in walking activity [...]
Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Spark a Bicycling Boom?
By Robert B. Noland, Hannah Younes, Leigh Ann Von Hagen, and James Sinclair During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020, there were reports of a surge in bicycling activity. [...]
15-Minute Neighborhoods: Lessons from Outside New Jersey
By Jon Carnegie, James Kenah, and Maarten Roose. Fifteen-minute neighborhoods provide residents with access to frequent and reliable public transit, parks, schools, gathering places, social services, places to buy healthy fresh food, and other amenities within a comfortable walk or bike ride [...]
Exploring Stress Levels of E-Scooter Riders
By Wenwen Zhang, Hannah Younes, Leigh Ann Von Hagen, Clint Andrews, and Robert B. Noland. E-scooters are a low-emission and affordable mode of transportation that contributes to environmental and mobility equity goals [...]
Can 15-Minute Neighborhoods Reshape New Jersey’s Landscape?
By Jon Carnegie Over the past several years, a number of policy threads have gained prominence in New Jersey. These include adapting to climate change, advancing social justice, and addressing the needs of overburdened communities [...]
Working at home: what will the long-term effects of the pandemic be?
by Robert B. Noland, Hannah Younes, Wenwen Zhang It has now been over two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began and many people were forced to start working at home. While the initial phases of [...]
What to do with all the new transportation funding?
Robert B. Noland The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), more commonly known at the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will soon be delivering large amounts of transportation funding to the states, including New Jersey. The Bill [...]
Lowering Tax Rates on Motor Fuels: A Bad Idea That’s Gaining Momentum
By Michael L. Lahr, Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/Econ™) Policymakers’ hearts are in the right place. Presently, the United Kingdom and a few U.S. states are enabling at least a temporary reprieve from fuel taxes [...]
What’s Up with Gasoline Prices?
By Michael L. Lahr, Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/Econ™) Here we are in mid-March of 2022 and the average price of a gallon of regular grade gasoline in New Jersey is $4.335; a year ago [...]
Now is the Time to Save Oil in a Hurry
Robert B. Noland and Lewis Fulton The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp increase in the price of oil in the last couple weeks. In New Jersey, a gallon of gasoline [...]
Emerging transportation modes: what are the implications for policy?
Robert B. Noland, Hannah Younes, Wenwen Zhang, Clint Andrews, and Leigh Ann Von Hagen Over the last decade, a variety of transportation solutions facilitated by new technologies have emerged. Of these, self-driving vehicles seem to [...]
New Jersey Intercounty Migration Trends, 2018-2019
by Tia Azzi and Michael Lahr, R/Econ™ The latest report from R/Econ™ examines the migration trends across counties within New Jersey between 2018 and 2019. This report uses Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, rather than [...]
Bicycle Lanes: Motivating Active Transportation
Tia Azzi, R/ECON Not all bike lanes are created equal. New Jersey is trying to encourage bicycling as a main form of transportation by enhancing existing ways and expanding bike lanes. But only about 0.3% [...]
Interstate Migration: A Lost Cause for New Jersey?
Tia Azzi For many years, New Jersey has lost population via net in- and out-migration. From 2011 through 2019, this has resulted in the state hemorrhaging a total of more than $23.6 billion in net [...]
Will online shopping for groceries persist after the pandemic?
Hannah Younes, Robert B. Noland, and Wenwen Zhang The pandemic altered the way we shop for food. People in the U.S. started to shop for more groceries while decreasing their consumption of take-out food. For [...]
The Benefits of Not Commuting to Work
Robert B. Noland and Wenwen Zhang The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in major changes in how people work and travel. Our research suggests that some of these changes are likely to endure. While not every [...]
How has transportation been affected by COVID-19?
Robert B. Noland and Wenwen Zhang Over the last year and a half, the transportation system in New Jersey and throughout the country has seen dramatic impacts due to the pandemic. The lockdowns in effect [...]