Exciting new development? How about New Jersey, 1989!
From the Trenton Times, 13 February 1989:
Commissioner Hazel Gluck: “The automobile - that symbol of freedom - has become a prison entrapping us in endless traffic jams. Our love affair with the automobile has made us build more and more roadways to meet ever increasing demands. But, this cannot, and will not, continue.”
What alternatives were proposed?
One was improving and expanding transit. A quote from yours truly: “We know that the potential carrying capacity of the transit corridor can be expanded considerably more than the same amount of land can carry when it is devoted to a highway purpose.” Perhaps not my most fluent statement, but the reporter got the meaning across.
The point here is that the impetus to move away from highway expansion and toward transit, system management, and better land use planning (also a big topic in New Jersey in the 1980s) started a long time ago and has been only slowly advancing. We did some good stuff in New Jersey in those days (see the 1989 Transportation Plan, Transplan land use legislation, etc.). Much more still needs to be done - and with the climate emergency upon us it is urgent.
