New Jersey

Advocates Demand New Jersey Agencies Cough Up Congestion Pricing Data – Streetsblog New York City

Published

9 months ago

March 21, 2025

Advocates Demand New Jersey Agencies Cough Up Congestion Pricing Data – Streetsblog New York City

Open your hearts and open your data.

NJT and the Port Authority need to cough up some actually useful post-congestion pricing travel data so the public has a full picture of the new toll’s impact on the region, advocates on both sides of the Hudson River said on Thursday.

In a pair of letters sent to the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and NJ Transit, the so-called “Sunshine Coalition” of more than 30 organizations from both the Garden State and Empire State asked agencies under control or partial control of Gridlock Gov. Phil Murphy for data on travel patterns since the toll launched in January, including:

Daily and weekly ridership data from every NJ Transit train, bus, and para-transit line — including crossings into the congestion relief zone, ideally broken out by hour.
Daily and weekly vehicle use on the mainline of the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, broken down by type of vehicle, exit and time of day.
Daily and weekly revenue data for the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, broken down by toll plaza and exits.
All available vehicular-caused air pollution data statewide, broken out by county.
Daily and weekly ridership data on PATH trains, buses and para-transit for 2023, 2024 and 2025, separated out by line and by time of day.
On-time performance for PATH trains and buses and customer journey and travel times for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Daily and weekly vehicle crossing data, broken down by type of transportation and hour, from every Port Authority bridge and tunnel for 2023, 2024 and 2025. This data should include crossings into the Manhattan congestion relief zone.

The data is more necessary than ever as officials seek to evaluate the impact of congestion pricing on travel times and travel patterns in the New York City region. The MTA, which operates congestion pricing, has filled much of that picture on its own — the data under New Jersey’s control is the missing link.

“We’ve been hearing a lot from commuters traveling from New Jersey into Manhattan about their commutes, but we don’t have the full picture because we don’t have all the data,” said Tri-State Transportation Campaign Director of Climate and Equity Policy Jaqi Cohen.

“We have a lot of data from the MTA, and we know that [the Port Authority and NJ Transit] are collecting this data,” Cohen said. “Obviously, it’s early in the program, but we still think that having that data can better inform transportation decisions that are made across the state.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy opposed congestion pricing at every step of the way until its launch in January. Murphy lawsuit to stop the program on environmental impact grounds failed. Since its launch, he has sided with President Trump’s extra-legal effort to kill the toll.

Despite that, several New Jersey groups were among the 30 signatories on the letter calling for transparency — including New Jersey Policy Perspective, Make the Road NJ, NJ Sierra Club, New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, Environmental New Jersey, League of Women Voters NJ and more.

Other signatories included Reinvent Albany, Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Regional Plan Association.

NJ Transit and the Port Authority do publish some user data, but it’s not shared in a way that anyone would call “open data” or classify as “ongoing” or “timely,” as the letters demand.

The Port Authority, a bi-state agency jointly run by New York and New Jersey, publishes average PATH train ridership by hour for every month, but on a delay in PDF form. Port bridge and tunnel crossing volumes are also eventually published, but also only in PDF form and on a delay.

The agency says this is in order to better reconcile the data. Advocates say that the agency needs to speed up the process.

“I think it’s a matter of priorities.The MTA has actually been releasing the crossing data for a long time, this isn’t some new effort,” said Reinvent Albany Senior Policy Advisory Rachael Fauss. “It’s just a matter of publishing it. Whatever reconciling needs to be done shouldn’t take months.”

NJ Transit fares even worse. The agency buries its ridership and revenue figures in a single annual report, while its “Performance by the Numbers” page only shares on-time performance by mode rather than route.

The MTA, in contrast, has been pumping out extraordinarily specific open data sets since congestion pricing began, including an interactive website that shows how many vehicles enter the tolling zone, broken down by type of vehicle, entry location and time of day. The MTA also publishes many more open data streams — including one that lists bridge and tunnel traffic broken down by crossing, time of day and vehicle type.

It wasn’t always that way at the MTA, however. The authority yielded to public pressure to allow for a more thorough look at what was going on, Cohen said.

“The MTA didn’t always release this data, there was a lot of advocacy around getting them to be more transparent in their operations, and they were pushed in the right direction,” she said. “I think that the agencies on the other side of the river need to be pushed in the right direction as well.”

More transparency at the agencies would also prevent concern-trolling stunts like Murphy’s recent letter to the Port Authority demanding the agency — which, recall, he half-controls — provide data to show that congestion pricing was hurting the agency.

“Murphy asked for all that data and it was ridiculous, because you control the Port Authority. So it’s just the basic principle that the MTA has daily ridership and bridge crossing data. Why doesn’t the Port Authority,” said Fauss.

Port Authority spokesman Seth Stein said the agency is reviewing the letter. Reps for NJ Transit did not return a request for comment.

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New Jersey

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Published

3 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Trees were blown down. Electrical poles were snapped. And Christmas decorations went flying off lawns.

All thanks to Friday’s intense storms, which generated wind gusts as strong as 63 mph at the High Point Monument in Sussex County, 60 mph at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County and 60 mph in Belleville in Essex County.

Those were among the highest gusts clocked across the Garden State, according to the National Weather Service and the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.

Fierce gusts also were whipping down in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore, and triggered more than 40,000 power outages across the state Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

Here’s a look at the highest wind gusts reported in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties on Friday:

Atlantic County

52 mph at Atlantic City International Airport
51 mph in Forsythe
48 mph at Atlantic City Marina
47 mph in Brigantine
45 mph in Pleasantville
44 mph in Pleasantville Point

Bergen County

56 mph at Teterboro Airport
47 mph in Lyndhurst

Burlington County

52 mph at McGuire AFB
48 mph at Coyle Field
47 mph at South Jersey Regional Airport
46 mph in Moorestown
41 mph in Tabernacle
40 mph in Silas Little
40 mph in Medford Village

Camden County

52 mph in Pennsauken
41 mph in Blue Anchor

Cape May County

50 mph in Avalon
49 mph in Cape May
49 mph in Cape May Harbor
46 mph in Wildwood
46 mph in Ocean City
42 mph in Woodbine
41 mph at Woodbine Municipal Airport
40 mph in North Wildwood

Cumberland County

48 mph in Fortescue
47 mph in Upper Deerfield
45 mph in Millville
44 mph in Greenwich
39 mph in Vineland

Essex County

60 mph in Belleville
59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
45 mph in Caldwell

Gloucester County

60 mph in Logan Twp.
45 mph at Kingsway Regional H.S.
42 mph in West Deptford
41 mph in South Harrison

Hudson County

41 mph in Bayonne
40 mph in Jersey City

Hunterdon County

47 mph in Pittstown
44 mph in Teetertown
40 mph in Milford

Mercer County

52 mph at Trenton Mercer Airport
48 mph in Hopewell Twp.
44 mph in Woodsville
43 mph in Ewing

Middlesex County

51 mph in Perth Amboy
47 mph in Carteret
47 mph in Deans (South Brunswick)
42 mph in East Brunswick
40 mph in New Brunswick

Monmouth County

56 mph in Sea Bright
56 mph in Keansburg
54 mph in Sea Girt
51 mph in Monmouth
46 mph in Cream Ridge
43 mph in Millstone Twp.
43 mph in Oceanport

Morris County

49 mph in Pompton Plains
46 mph in Morristown
41 mph at Pequannock Twp. High School
40 mph in Randolph

Ocean County

57 mph in Mantoloking
55 mph in Surf City
54 mph in Harvey Cedars
53 mph in Beach Haven
52 mph in Toms River
50 mph in North Beach Haven
49 mph in Berkeley Twp.
49 mph in Seaside Heights
49 mph at Rutgers
48 mph in Seaside Park
47 mph at Trixies Landing
46 mph in Tuckerton
46 mph in North Beach
43 mph in South Seaside Park

Passaic County

44 mph in Charlotteburg
30 mph in Little Falls

Salem County

52 mph in Lower Alloways Creek
44 mph in Mannington Twp.

Somerset County

47 mph in Franklin Twp.
44 mph in Somerville
41 mph in Hillsborough
41 mph in Manville

Sussex County

63 mph at High Point Monument
50 mph in Hardyston Twp.
41 mph in Sussex

Union County

59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
49 mph in Linden

Warren County

47 mph in Stewartsville
40 mph in Blairstown
39 mph in Hackettstown

Current weather radar

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New Jersey

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

Published

15 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Devils spent much of the night against the Utah Mammoth searching for answers on the power play, watching chances come and go, starting the game 0-for-4 with the man-advantage. That frustration finally broke when Stefan Noesen planted himself in the crease and finished in tight on Karel Vejmelka to give New Jersey the breakthrough they desperately needed.

“Great road win,” Brett Pesce said. “Didn’t have our best, myself included, felt like I hadn’t played in two months,” Brett Pesce said. “You know what, we got a win, we grinded it out, good teams find ways to get to two points.”

Noesen’s conversion provided a much-needed release on an ailing power play, and the timing made it even more significant. Not only did it snap the drought, but it also handed the Devils their first lead of the night against the Mammoth, one they would hang on to win 2-1 in Utah.

Not to be outdone, Jacob Markstrom was rock solid, allowing just a single goal to Utah, in the first period. As the Devils tried to find their footing in the game, with failed power play opportunities, and Utah pressing hard, Markstrom held the fort.

“This one is on him tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We don’t get the opportunity to hang around in the game and have big moments like we did in the third with the penalty kill and power play, if not for Marky and how held us in. We were outplayed for long stretches of the game, but it’s going to happen from time to time.”

The Devils had a gut-check moment at the end of the third period, when Dawson Mercer took a penalty in the dying minutes of the game and the Mammoth pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4. New Jersey came up with the clears and the blocks to hang on for the victory.

The Devils weren’t going to be denied the opportunity for a win, as Connor Brown explained:

“Marky deserved the win at that point, it was a bit scrambly, maybe a bit more scrambly than we would have liked but they got two extra guys on the ice, so it was nice to gut one out.”

Utah opened the game scoring with a first-period power-play goal by Daniil But, before Connor Brown tied the game in the second period, his second goal in as many games and his third in four.

“I’m playing my brand of hockey,” Brown said. “I’m being empowered a little more, playing a little more minutes than typically have over the last couple of years and it’s leading into a little bit more confidence, little bit more plays, so just kind of running with it.”

The Devils have started to find some more stride in their game and are winning four of their last six, including two straight on the two-game road trip through Vegas and Utah.

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New Jersey

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Staff report
| MyCentralJersey.com

A Piscataway man who works as a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer in the state’s prison for sex offenders has been charged with sexually assaulting two inmates.

Anthony Nelson, 37, was charged with sexually assaulting the inmates at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced.

Nelson was arrested without incident on Dec. 15 and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, Ciccone said.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office was alerted by New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division on Dec. 1 that two inmates reported they were sexually assaulted by a correctional police officer over that past weekend, the prosecutor said.

An investigation led by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit along with the New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division determined that Nelson allegedly sexually assaulted two inmates under his supervision, the prosecutor said.

Nelson was lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center awaiting a preliminary hearing before a Superior Court judge.

The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detectives Christopher Van Eerde or Tammy Colonna at 732-745-3300 or Investigator Sean Smith at 856-812-3310.

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