Middlesex County, NJ

MiddlesexCounty is located in the heart of New Jersey, just south of New York City. It is bordered to the North by UnionCounty and the RahwayRiver, to the East by New York City, RaritanBay, and MonmouthCounty, to the South by MercerCounty and to the West by SomersetCounty.

Middlesex is one of the fasted growing counties in New Jersey, having gained 154,000 residents between 1980 and 2000, and it was estimated at 786,971 residents in 2006.[1] The population is denser in the north and northeast areas, while the southern part of the county is less populated.

Current Transportation

Current public transportation in the county includes a few small airports, the two public ones being MonmouthExecutiveAirport and OldBridgeAirport. There are eleven NJ Transit rail lines, including the Hoboken Division (Morrix & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, Main/Bergen, and Pascack Valley lines), the Newark Division (Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, and Raritan Valley lines), and the Atlantic City rail line. These lines access 10 stations within the county. NJ Transit buses also access most of the county. Sea Streak Ferry operates a ferry service from South Amboy to Manhattan.

Middlesex is located in the largest transportation corridor in New Jersey, which includes major state roads I95 (New Jersey Turnpike), which runs NE to SW between New York and Philadelphia, and I287 (Garden State Parkway), as well as public transportation. Of the commuters in the county, about three-quarters drive alone to work, while 11% carpool and 9% take public transit. A little over half of residents work in MiddlesexCounty and 10% commute to New York.[2] The northern half of the county has many more households with that do not have vehicles available. In New Brunswick on the west and Perth Amboy on the east side, between a quarter and a half of households do not have a vehicle available. In the southern half of the county, generally at least 95% of households have access to a vehicle.

Land Use

Of the 375 square miles in MiddlesexCounty, it breaks down into about half developed land and half undeveloped. Almost one quarter of the county is residential and one tenth is commercial and industrial.

Land Use Description / Square Miles / % of County
Residential – Low Density / 7.8 / 2.31
Residential – Moderate Density / 65.12 / 19.28
Residential – High Density / 7.73 / 2.29
Residential – Total / 80.65 / 23.88
Commercial – Urban / 9.61 / 2.85
Commercial – Suburban / 3.92 / 1.16
Commercial – Total / 13.53 / 4.01
Industrial / 21.26 / 6.29
Recreational / 27.31 / 8.09
Agricultural / 41.88 / 12.40
Forested / 82.85 / 24.53
Wetlands / 70.28 / 20.81
Land Area – Total / 337.76 / 90.25
CountyArea – Total / 374.25 / 100
Developed Land – Total / 179.25 / 47.90
Undeveloped Land – Total / 195.00 / 52.10

Major recreational areas include two shopping malls over 1 million square feet: Woodbridge Center Mall in Woodbridge and Menlo Park Mall in Edison. There are also many parks and open space areas, including Thompson Park in Monroe/Jamesbury, which totals 675 acres, and Johnson Park in Piscataway/Highland Park, which totals 473 acres.

Within MiddlesexCounty, there are clusters of employment sites, including offices and industrial parks, along the Turnpike and also along US Route 1.

The top 10 major employers in the county (serving 2000 or more employees) are:

  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Merrill Lynch & Company
  • Prudential Insurance Company
  • Telcordia Technology
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • RobertWoodJohnsonUniversityHospital
  • SilverlineBuilding Products
  • JFKMedicalCenter
  • RaritanBayMedicalCenter
  • St PetersUniversityHospital

Commuters travel to five sites of higher education within the county: MiddlesexCountyCollege, RutgersUniversity, PrincetonUniversity’s Forrestal Campus, University of Medicine and Dentistry, and DeVry Institute.

MiddlesexCounty contains 22 major high schools, as well as over 100 lower educational facilities. Some of the largest high schools, with enrollment over 2,000 students, are East Brunswick HS, Edison HS, JP Stevens HS, Old Bridge HS, Perth Amboy HS, Piscataway Township HS, and South Brunswick HS.

Personal Rapid Transit

Our Personal Rapid Transit system was designed with 444 stations, connected by 765 sections of guideway, totalingalmost700 miles.

Because three-quarters of the commuting county population drives alone to work, a PRT system should be convenient for workers and provide accessibility to employment sites. The system was designed with stations added near major employment, industrial, and recreation sites and existing transportation sites. There are also stations in residential areas with the goal of stations within a half kilometer of most houses. The northern half of the county is more densely populated and so there are more stations there than in the southern half, which has more open space.

The stations are connected with sections of guideway to create small loops that are then connected to other loops by interchanges. The guideway between stations travels in one direction around the loop and the interchanges are connected in both directions.

Trip Estimates

We estimated the number of productions and attractions through each of the stations, based on the land use of the surrounding area, using the following assumptions.

Residential: For all residential stations, the number of estimated trips is 4 times the approximate population within a half mile of the station, calculated using population density for each township. This is based on the national transportation average of 4.1 trips per person per day.

Education: For stations serving educational facilities, it is assumed that each student, faculty member, and staff member would make two trips through the station per day.

Transportation: We assumed that there were two daily trips through the station for each weekday boarding at the train stations, recorded by NJ Transit. We also assumed there were four daily trips made for each flight at the two airports.

Industrial and Office: If there were available employment numbers, it is assumed that each worker used the stations twice each day. If the information was not available, estimates are based on the area of the buildings or the number of buildings (estimated by Google Earth), with the assumption of 1000 employees per building, 400 employees per acre, or 200 employees per square feet.
Recreation: For shopping centers, we assumed 25 visitors per 100 square feet of mall space. For parks, we assumed that there was 1 visitor per 10 acres of open space, based on national park estimates, with the assumption that each visitor made 2 daily trips through the station.
Hotels: Trips were based on the assumption that the residents of each room made 4 daily trips and that half of the rooms were occupied.

Value of the PRT System

Current public transportation in MiddlesexCounty is limited to a few rail lines and bus service, but the majority of travel is on major roads. A Personal Rapid Transit system would be extremely valuable to MiddlesexCounty because of both the number of households without cars and the number of commuters who drive alone to work. By offering access to major employment sites and covering the developed land of the county with stations, our network would serve both of these groups.

Located in a major transportation corridor in New Jersey, Middlesex sees a significant amount of automobile traffic. An effective PRT system would help to alleviate that traffic, while still being accessible and efficient for travelers. With fewer people in cars, there would also be a positive effect on pollution and air quality.

Middlesex’s roads are crowded and likely to get more crowded without an effective public transportation system. Middlesex’s residential development increased by 9.4% from 1990 to 2000, greater than New Jersey as a whole, which increased development at 7.6%. The county is expected to grow at a rate of 8% between 2000 and 2010 and it lacks the capacity to handle these travelers.

In order to clear up the traffic, the county needs to find a compromise between the crowded public transportation and the congested roads. A PRT vehicle would allow solitary travel, while also providing a convenient opportunity to share vehicles. The next step in MiddlesexCounty transportation is a Personal Rapid Transit system.

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