NJ Highways Encourage Sprawl

From the Courier Post:

Highways said to speed travel, contribute to sprawl
By RAJU CHEBIUM

Traveling across New Jersey would be more difficult, the state would be poorer and cities would be a lot more crowded if not for the interstate highways crisscrossing the Garden State.

The drawback, transportation experts say, is the U.S. interstate system -- which is 50 years old this month -- encourages people to live far from work and school and leads to suburban sprawl.
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In New Jersey, interstates 80, 78 and 287, combined with the New Jersey Turnpike and other major roads like the Garden State Parkway, give people the freedom to engage in that most American of activities -- driving on the open road, experts say. The turnpike precedes the interstates; construction began in 1949, seven years before President Eisenhower authorized the interstate system to be built.

Rutgers University transportation expert Martin Robins said the interstates and connecting state and local roads have opened up rural western New Jersey to economic development. But more and more people are fleeing larger cities to buy bigger homes in suburbia or farther out in "exurbia," where home prices and property taxes are lower.

As commuting times increase and traffic jams grow bigger, people have less time to spend with their families, said Jim Coyle, who heads the Gateway Regional Chamber of Commerce in Elizabeth. People have the option of deciding whether to live close to work or far from it.

"Downtowns are no longer the focus of economic activity. As people have moved, jobs have moved as well. I do know people who spend hours commuting each day," he said. "I put it down to personal choice. Everybody knows what the tradeoff is."