NJ Smart Choices

Building the movement for smart land use
and transportation planning in New Jersey.

NJ Funding Programs

Please send feedback, suggestions for improvements and corrections of information to Juliette Michaelson (jmichaelson@pps.org).

Search results for Travel demand management

Commuter Benefit Programs
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Commuter programs are based on significant tax benefits for employers and employees, as allowed by federal legislation.

Please visit the respective companies' websites for more information on their programs:

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program
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Note: New Jersey has three Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Click here to determine the appropriate one for your location.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds are focused primarily on transportation control measures (TCMs). TCMs are strategies whose primary purpose is to lessen the pollutants emitted by motor vehicles by decreasing travel demand (e.g., reducing motor vehicle trips, vehicle-miles traveled, and use of single occupant vehicles) and encouraging more efficient facility use (e.g., reducing vehicle idling and stop-and-start traffic in congested conditions, managing traffic incidents expeditiously).

In addition, CMAQ funds may be used for projects that reduce vehicle emissions directly through vehicle inspection and maintenance programs and fleet conversions to less polluting alternative-fuel vehicles. Intermodal freight facilities, strategies to reduce particulate emissions, and public education and other related outreach activities in support of TCMs are also eligible. The funds are intended primarily for new facilities, equipment, and services aimed at generating new sources of emission reductions. Operating funds that support these projects are generally restricted to a 3-year period. The CMAQ enabling legislation explicitly prohibits funding of construction projects that provide new capacity for single-occupant vehicle travel, such as the addition of general-purpose lanes to an existing highway or a new highway at a new location.

For more information - NJTPA Counties:

For more information - DVRPC Counties:

For more information - SJTPO Counties:

Job Access and Reverse Commute Grants
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Note: New Jersey has three Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Click here to determine the appropriate one for your location.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations / NJ Transit

The JARC program consists of two components, Job Access and Reverse Commute. The Access to Jobs Program provides competitive grants to local governments and non-profit organizations to develop transportation services to connect welfare recipients and low-income persons to employment and support services. Reverse Commute projects provide transportation services to suburban employment centers from urban, rural and other suburban locations for all populations. In all Job Access and Reverse Commute applications, applicants must identify non-US Department of Transportation funds to match JARC grants. These funds must be developed as to a 1-to-1 match.

For more information - NJTPA Counties:

For more information - DVRPC Counties:

For more information - SJTPO Counties:

Local Finance Tools
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Municipal Governments
  • Special (Business) Improvement Districts: SIDs assess residents within set boundaries for additional services, such as park maintenance and public safety. They establish a partnership between property owners and businesses in downtown or commercial areas for the purpose of improving the business climate in a defined area. Impetus for the SID generally comes from business and property owners hoping to attract new customers by cleaning up sidewalks, improving parks, increasing lighting, etc. These business owners want better city services and are willing to pay for it -- within their neighborhood. In some places, they are willing to take on nongovernmental tasks, such as marketing, to supplement city services. There are currently an estimated 70 SIDs in the state of New Jersey. Refer to DCA's "SIDs: Loans & Grants" program for technical and financial assistance.
  • Tax Increment Financing: Tax increment financing can be used for a variety of purposes, including acquiring property to be resold at reduced prices and on-site improvements such as utilities, lights, repaving streets, and restoring neighborhood parks. TIF works like this: When a TIF plan is adopted, the assessed valuation of real property within a designated redevelopment area is frozen. Taxes are paid on the property at this base level while improvements to the area are made, new businesses are attracted, and property values rise. Typically, any increase in the assessed value of the property or additional sales tax revenues makes up the tax increment, which is then used to pay project costs or repay the bonds or other obligations that helped finance the project. By investing in a designated area, the TIF technique has aptly been described as a means of borrowing against the speculative gain that a project should bring.
  • Impact Fees: An impact fee is a one-time charge that private entrepreneurs, often developers, must pay to the local government in order to undertake their projects. In turn, the revenue from the impact fee finances public goods and services associated with the project, but which the developer would not provide voluntarily. Water and sewer lines, streets and bridges, and parks and recreational facilities are typical impact fee-funded projects.
  • User Fee Financing: Parking fees, dog tags, community college tuition, water bills, and park and recreation fees are just a few of the many different kinds of user fees collected by local governments. These funds can then be used to pay for transportation improvements, park maintenance and other municipal services.
  • Property Tax Financing: Perhaps because it is paid in a large lump sum check as opposed to small additions to each purchase, the property tax is the least popular of all state and local taxes. Yet they are an important source of revenue for local governments because they provide a steady source of revenue, less affected by downturns in the economy than either the sales or the income tax. In addition, property taxes are relatively easily administered at the local level, revenues can be accurately predicted, and the tax burden is fairly equitably distributed.

For more information:

NJ Transit Sales and Employer Services
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NJ Transit

The Sales and Employer Services Division of NJ TRANSIT assists both public and private sector employers and employees with their transit needs and concerns. Through the following products and services, NJ TRANSIT seeks to address problems and offer solutions to traffic congestion, cleaner air, increased employee productivity, awareness of available commute options and access to safe, affordable and reliable transportation.

  • BusinessPass is the NJ TRANSIT commuter pass program that offers pre-tax savings on commuting costs. For more information, call (973) 491-7600 or e-mail businesspass@njtransit.com.
  • Get A Job Get A Ride/Corporate Partners: Employers participating in BusinessPass are eligible to become Corporate Partners with NJ TRANSIT. Under this arrangement, they may submit an application for new hires to receive a free monthly pass, provided they meet the program's criteria. For more information, call (973) 491-7600 or e-mail cplnsale@njtransit.com.
  • WorkPass offers qualifying social service and non-profit agencies the opportunity to purchase NJ TRANSIT monthly commuter passes and tickets. Agencies distribute these passes and tickets to program participants for use in their job related activities. For more information, call (973) 491-7600 or e-mail cplncad@njtransit.com.
  • The Air Quality Partnership is comprised of over five hundred corporations, government agencies and other organizations, working to reduce ground-level ozone. NJ TRANSIT supports this effort by offering the Air Quality Partnership members a special discounted round-ticket, OzonePass, for their employees' commute on designated "ozone alert days." For more information, call (973) 491-7600.
  • Vanpool Sponsorship Program: Vanpools are voluntary ridesharing arrangements, especially useful for travel patterns and areas not well serviced by traditional public transit. NJ TRANSIT provides financial assistance up to $150 per month to help vanpools offset their costs. For more information, contact your local Transportation Management Association at 1-800-245-POOL.
  • Relocation Services: NJ TRANSIT can help companies and their employees make the move from one worksite to another, including educating employees about public transit options. For more information, call (973) 491-7600 or e-mail cplnsale@njtransit.com.

For more information:

Transportation, Community, and System Preservation (TCSP) Program
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Federal Highway Administration

The Transportation, Community, and System Preservation (TCSP) Program is a comprehensive initiative of research and grants to investigate the relationships between transportation, community, and system preservation plans and practices and identify provide sector-based initiatives to improve such relationships. States, metropolitan planning organizations, local governments, and tribal governments are eligible for discretionary grants to carry out eligible projects to integrate transportation, community, and system preservation plans and practices that:

  • Improve the efficiency of the transportation system of the United States;
  • Reduce environmental impacts of transportation;
  • Reduce the need for costly future public infrastructure investments;
  • Ensure efficient access to jobs, services, and centers of trade;
  • Examine community development patterns and identify strategies to encourage private sector development patterns and investments that support these goals.

For more information:

Transportation Improvement Program
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Note: New Jersey has three Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Click here to determine the appropriate one for your location.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations

Each of New Jersey's three MPOs is responsible for preparing a Transportation Improvement Program, a list of all transportation projects and programs of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the New Jersey Transit Corporation, and individual counties and municipalities, to be funded in the next three fiscal years. Together, the three TIPs form the STIP (Statewide Transportation Improvement Program).

In order for a local transportation project to receive federal or state funding, it must be included in the TIP.

For more information - NJTPA Counties:

For more information - DVRPC Counties:

  • Visit DVRPC's TIP Webpage.
  • Contact Charles D. Dougherty, Associate Director for Transportation Planning, (215) 238-2863.

For more information - SJTPO Counties:

Transportation Management Associations
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Transportation Management Associations are nonprofit membership associations that are supported by and work directly with area employers, developers and the public sector to solve transportation and commuting problem. In New Jersey, TMAs receive substantial funding assistance through the Department of Transportation. In recent years, these funds have been from federal sources (CMAQ, or STP) although in the past, funding came from state sources.

TMAs have considerable latitude in developing annual work programs to implement Travel Demand Management strategies. Services include information on Park-and-Ride, ridesharing and transit, advice on local and corridor traffic, telecommuting advice, guaranteed rides home, networking sessions, development of bicycling suitability maps, promotional efforts aimed at increasing bicycling and walking, effective cycling presentations and other activities. This program is administered by the NJDOT Division of Transportation Systems Planning & Research.

For more information: