Overview

The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and NJ TRANSIT spearhead a multi-agency Smart Growth partnership known as the Transit Village Initiative. The Transit Village Initiative helps to redevelop and revitalize communities around transit facilities to make them an appealing choice for people to live, work and play, thereby reducing reliance on the automobile.

The Transit Village Initiative is an excellent model for Smart Growth because it encourages growth in New Jersey where infrastructure and public transit already exist.

Aside from Smart Growth community revitalization, two other goals of the Transit Village Initiative are to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality by increasing transit riders.

Studies have shown that an increase in residential housing options within walking distance of a transit facility, typically a one quarter to one half mile radius, does more to increase transit ridership than any other type of development. Therefore, it is a goal of the Transit Village Initiative to bring more housing, more businesses and more people into communities with transit facilities.