Warren County
Warren County is located in the Northwestern region of New Jersey. It occupies an area of 365 square miles and takes the shape of a sock (See Figure 1.). It ranks ninth in size among the state’s twenty-one counties but only second in population with a 2005 estimated population of 110,000. The county consists of some of the most undeveloped, rugged terrain in New Jersey, a large portion of which is deemed unbuildable. The landscape is characterized by a series of ridges and valleys, ranging from 100 to 1,600 feet above sea level. Fertile valleys have enabled the county to become an important agricultural district in the Garden State. Over 50% of the county is undeveloped woodland and wetlands comprise another 25%. Warren County land use is primarily agricultural with four small urban areas. These urban centers are Hackettstown, Belvedere, Phillipsburg, and Washington Township. The county contains 42 public schools, 9 private schools and 2 colleges with a total enrollment of 19,500 students ranging from Kindergarten to Undergraduate.
Of the 110,000 residents there are 31,000 in county non-farm employees. The largest employer in the county is Masterfoods/Mars M&M factory, which employs 1,550 workers. There are also a substantial number of residents who travel to New York City or Philadelphia for their employment.
The current transportation system in Warren County is set up to accommodate these out going workers. There are two interstates that travel through Warren County which provide outlets to these two major cities. There is also a single New Jersey Transit train station located in Hackettstown. It is connected to both the Morristown and Boonton lines that lead to Hoboken. It provides access to other counties of New Jersey including Morris, Essex, Somerset, and Union as well as links to Penn Station in New York City.
Warren County’s intra county transportation system is less developed, consisting of only a single bus line provided by NJ transit. It connects the townships of Hackettstown, Phillipsburg, and Washington as well as providing transportation within these centers. This bus only provides 48,144 trips a year to the residents of Warren County covering around 470,000 miles. The average trips are just over 15 minutes and it travels at an average speed of nearly 40 miles per hour. The roads in Warren County are mostly rural farm roads that lace across the county connecting small towns. They are lightly traveled on and only 3% ever reach any state of queuing and driver frustration.
To improve the current lack of intra county transportation, a PRT network could be used. I designed such a system that would provide service to over 90% of residents in Warren County. The first step in creating my network was in determining where to locate the stations. I placed a station at every school and hospital. I also placed stations at all major places of employment, ranging from the Mars M&M factory to the local Wal-Mart. Malls, shopping outlets, and large consumer venues were also given stations. The PRT system should mesh well with the current transportation service so as to compliment the already existing infrastructure. To meet this need, I placed stations at the local airports, train and bus stations. After all of these were in place, I sought out the places of residence, which consisted of the majority of the stations. In total, I located 341 stations, which is one for every 323 Warren County residents.
The next step in creating Warren County’s PRT network was creating a network that would link the stations optimally. For this I created a grid pattern (See Figure 2.) which minimizes track as well as travel time. It consists of alternating parallel lines that link at intersections. In this way, a passenger must only take the line he is on until he reaches the intersecting line that his destination station is on. If the track does not go in the direction he desires, then he must only go on to the next intersection and then loop around back to his destination. This configuration avoids the problem that a large loop creates in which the traveler would have to go far out of his way before he could find a line traveling in the direction he so desires..
The grid varies in tightness depending on the density of the servicing area. Figure 3 shows this grid network in action in a rural setting. This is taken at an altitude of 25,000 feet and the links between intersections are roughly 1.75 miles. In the figure, the blue circles with cars are stations and the yellow cross signs are intersections. Green lines are outgoing paths (from a station) and red lines are incoming paths.
Compare this to Figure 4,
which shows the grid pattern in an urban center. This is an aerial view of Hackettstown, which is the second largest urban center in Warren County with a population of nearly 9,000. This photograph is taken at an elevation of only 7,000 feet and the distance between intersections has decreased to only .35 miles. This tighter gird allows for much quicker transportation in the areas that have the most traffic.
In total the PRT system would consist of 341 stations connected by 265 interchanges and 269 miles of track. Roughly one fourth of the lines are located within urban areas while the majority of track is found in a rural landscape. To estimate a cost for this network we will assume that each station would cost one million dollars to construct. Also each mile of rural line would cost one million and each mile of urban line roughly two million. Under these assumptions the total cost of Warren County’s PRT network is estimated to be 665 million dollars. This comes out to be roughly $6,000 per person in the county. If used by the majority of the population, I have estimated that there would 250,000 daily round trips used on this system each day. If charged $2 per round trip, Warren County could pay for this infrastructure after only 4 years of operation.
The PRT network would benefit Warren County for several reasons. Primarily it would ease intra county transportation from its near non-existent state. It would also allow those commuters who travel to either New York or Philadelphia an easier pathway to the train station in Hackettstown. It would entirely eliminate the need for cars, which would save money in the form of automobile costs as well as gas and maintenance. The community would enjoy the extra benefit of fewer emissions and fewer fatalities due to auto accidents.
Although there is considerable upside, the downside must also be evaluated. The PRT will cost over $6,000 per resident of Warren County. The median household income in the county is $56,000. We will assume there is an average of 3 residents in each household so that the total cost of the PRT network per household is $18,000. That is nearly one-third the annual income. However the $6,000 is a one-time cost of the infrastructure and the residents would save money in that they would not need to own a car. There is also the question of the extent that this system would be used by the community. Most trips in Warren County are a short walk to the grocery store or the long commute to NYC. Both of these would not involve the PRT network. In the end it is ultimately up to the taxpayers to decide if such a plan should be implemented.
Northern Region
The Northern region consists of the five counties of Warren, Sussex, Morris, Passaic, and Bergen. This region is primarily made up of rural agricultural based communities sprinkled with small urban townships. This is especially true as you progress towards the Northwest corner of the region, which includes Warren, Sussex and parts of Passaic County. However, the far eastern area of this region, in parts of Passaic but especially Bergen County, that borders New York City has a very dense and urban landscape. This contrast can be seen by comparing the 110,000 residents of the larger Warren County to the 900,000 of Bergen County, which is the most populous county in the state.
The entire PRT system in the Northern Region contains 1,198 stations and 1,184 miles of track. This system would service a total of 1.6 million residents with a frequency of a station for every 1,400 residents. The total cost of the entire Northern Region network is estimated to be 3.05 billion dollars.