Metropolitan planning organizations of New Jersey


There are three metropolitan planning organizations in New Jersey. The organizations are the main decision-making forums for selecting projects for the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program in deliberations involving the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the New Jersey Transit Corporation, county and municipal transportation planners and engineers, other transportation implementing agencies, the public and elected officials at the state, county, and municipal levels.
The state’s three MPO are:
Projects that are identified as potential candidates for inclusion in the regional
transportation improvement programs of each of the three MPOs are subject to
intensive screening to verify project scope, status, schedule, and cost. The resulting “pool”
of projects is analyzed independently by NJDOT, NJ TRANSIT, and the MPOs to assign
each project a priority based on the extent to which it would advance identified regional and
statewide objectives, such as objectives set forth in the state and regional long-range
transportation plans, the New Jersey Capital Investment Strategy, air quality objectives, and
the broad social and economic goals of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan.

NJDOT develops and circulates revenue projections for planning purposes to each of the
MPOs, based on the best current assessment of available state, federal, and other funds.
NJDOT, NJ TRANSIT and each of the three MPOs after intensive discussions and forums
negotiate a list of deliverable transportation projects that best fit the composite statewide and
regional priorities within a financially constrained program.