52. 13 Ways To Improve Transit in Hunterdon & Somerset County NJ TODAY

#urbanism #publictransport #advocacy #hunterdoncountynj #somersetcounty #onedirection #njtransit
I concieved the idea for this video nearly a year ago in June, so its great to see it finally finished!
Today’s video talks about how public transportation could improve in Hunterdon and Somerset County, NJ, with policy changes and small-scale investments. Here are my suggestions in order, plus contact info for agencies who could implement these changes.
13. 1:29 NJTransit: Allow people to pay for train station parking with their phone, and replace some permit parking spots with daily parking spots (NJtransit customer feedback form: njtransit.my.salesforce-sites... Information on who owns the parking lot:www.njtransit.com/station-par...)
12. 3:56 Trans Bridge Lines: Allow people to get on the westbound NY-Quakertown Bus at intermediate stops. ([e-mail] )
11. 5:00 Trans Bridge Lines: Add more stops at New Jersey Transit train stations ([e-mail] )
10. 5:40 Hunterdon County Link Bus: Make it clear to the public whether you charge fares or not (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail])
9. 6:14 Hunterdon County Link Bus: Show the Rt 17 and 18 routes as one route since they serve the same corridor (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail])
8. 6:38 Hunterdon County Link Bus and Trans Bride Lines: Make your stops and schedules visible on Google Transit (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail]) ([e-mail] )
7. 7:16 Hunterdon County Link Bus: Allow people to get on and get off your buses at any point along the route (like a jitney) (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail])
6. 9:40 Hunterdon County Link Bus / Somerset County Buses: Create geographically accurate maps that show which specific roads bus routes take. (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail]) (www.co.somerset.nj.us/about/c...)
5. 10:56 Hunterdon County Link Bus / Somerset County Buses: Buses should make the same stops in both directions (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail]) (www.co.somerset.nj.us/about/c...)
4. 12:35 Hunterdon County Link Bus / Somerset County Buses: Allow demand response services (paratransit) to be scheduled through an Uber style app. (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail]) (www.co.somerset.nj.us/about/c...)
3. 13:12 Hunterdon County Link Bus / Somerset County Buses: Add real time GPS trackers on all buses and make information available online in a vain similar to the Rutgers bus system (Hunterdon County LINK Transportation Office, Erin Neukum, LINK Transportation Coordinator, Phone: [phone], [e-mail]) (www.co.somerset.nj.us/about/c...)
2. 13:43 Somerset County Buses: Join the Token Transit app to give customers more options to pay their fare, as well as to allow the county to sell fare options such as weekly and monthly passes. (www.co.somerset.nj.us/about/c...)
1.14:41: Local zoning boards need to upzone around major transit stations, notably train stations, to allow for more density. (too many local councils to list, sorry)
One Direction reference: 12:19-12:34
My inspiration for this video were the Transit Explained videos by @RMTransit, hence the format: explain the geography, explain the transit, discuss suggested improvements, both short term and long term.
However, I realized that I couldn’t reasonably pack that into a single video, so when it came time to actually work on the project, I decided to divide the topic into different videos as follows:
1. A video explaining transit in Hunterdon and Somerset County as it exists today (Already released, linked here: 42. Transit Atlas: Somerset and Hunterdon County New Jersey ( • 42. Transit Atlas of S... )
2. THIS VIDEO.
3. A future video (perhaps more than one), where I discuss what long term investments I think are needed to enable a serious mode shift in this region away from cars and toward transit, walking, and cycling. This will feature juicy things like restoring the West Trenton and Phillipsburg rail lines.
4. A video on how Branchburg and Bridgewater can be made more accessible to transit, walking, and cycling.