New Jersey needs more public transit

New Jersey needs more non-driving options into the city. Half of the nonresident income-tax payments in New York come from people who live in New Jersey and work in New York City. According to 2021 in Data NY in 2014, that was 3.1 billion dollars. Yet, New Jersey is not fully served by New York Metro public transit, for reasons that are mostly political. 

New Jersey and New York may politically be different places, but functionally they are one ecosystem. New York and New Jersey need each other to survive. The 7 subway line on the New York side is already built, but what happened to the New Jersey portion?

In 2005 there was a proposal to expand the then 90-year-old line. Initially, this expansion idea only proposed for the line to go to the Hudson Yard, a project that was delayed for five years. Then in 2010 there was talk of the 7 going to Secaucus. The 7 extension idea was halted in favor of pursuing the Gateway Tunnel, then revisited again in 2018 after the extension to the Hudson Yards was completed.

There is no need for these either or proposals. People need multiple ways of getting into the city. Drivers have the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel, and Lincoln Tunnel to travel in bumper to bumper traffic into New York. Public transit users also need many options. 

The NJ Transit heavy rail is a painful option into the City, especially on the weekends.

We need to begin urban and transportation planning in terms of region. Limiting our communities by political boundaries does not serve everyday people working eight-hour jobs who often go into the City to visit family or soak in the culture. 

When we plan within the silos of political lines, the regular person loses. The regular person gets pushed to the hinterlands and into long commutes that are poorly served by public transit. The cheaper taxes, cheaper housing and transit poverty of Central Jersey translates into higher communing costs and more stress. 

There are some that say that it is a waste of taxpayers dollars to expand public transit that no one takes, in New York Metro people take public transit. It is the best way to get into the city. It is a model to the rest of the country of what our roads could be. People who can’t afford to live in Manhattan shouldn’t be forced to drive in order to pay their mortgage or rent. 

The climate crisis has put us in the position that we must begin to plan for the future. If this year’s hot and miserable summer was any sign of what is coming, then we need to plan to lessen the impacts of the climate crisis. This will involve creating systems that pollute less, that are safer, and accessible to all. Public transit will be a large part of climate crisis solutions. 

Expanding the 7 subway is useful not just because it connects New Jersey to the Hudson Yards and the Javits Center, locations where many people from New Jersey work and play, it is useful because it would break down the fourth wall. It is a fiction that the two states need to be in competition. New Jersey needs to be part of New York’s subway system. A large portion of New York City’s workforce and residents live or have family in New Jersey. We need to plan our transportation in that reality.