Newark Bus Rapid Transit: A Community Plan | Barbara and Leonard Littman Architecture and Design Library

These .pdf documents are intended to support the City of Newark and NJ TRANSIT in their effort to deploy Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) throughout Newark and its neighboring municipalities. It was written by faculty, staff and graduate students at both the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, and coordinates two years of academic research that included extensive community outreach, site visits, focus groups, design studios and other substantial efforts. Its publication is financially supported by members of the Newark Alliance with matching funds provided by the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. Its authors created it to communicate to all parties ranging from government officials to neighborhood residents.

Newark is ready for BRT. The City is a major transportation hub with an extensive transit system in place. One of the primary advantages of deploying BRT in Newark today is the City’s urban pattern of broad streets that evolved around the trolley network of the last century. BRT can be deployed on these streets and reach most of the City without costly infrastructure changes or undue traffic disruptions.

This report proposes a comprehensive BRT network for Newark that better connects it with its surrounding communities and integrates seamlessly with existing rail service. To show how this might occur in Newark, we showcase how four sites can develop around BRT, proposing phased development and projecting fiscal impacts. Each site is divided into separate .pdf’s to maintain high graphic resolution.

An implementation outline included in the final Airport Station Case Study calls for leadership and coordination between different constituencies.

The Transportation Research Board suggests that BRT have “a quality image and unique identity.” In working with a host of different communities, from neighborhoods to business boardrooms downtown, we heard one voice: BRT should be the best it can be and something that all the city’s residents can take pride in. These are the fundamental goals this report seeks to achieve.

Darius Sollohub
Martin Robins

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