Major Transportation Woes Predicted in Delaware Valley

New Jersey drivers might do well to just stay in the Garden State.

Among the transportation news coming out this week, very little of it is promising for New Jersey drivers who cross into Pennsylvania.

First there is the bleak outlook for highly trafficked roads in and around Philadelphia. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission projects there will be 600,000 more people living around the greater Philadelphia region—but the Schuylkill Expressway won’t be any wider to accommodate more cars on the road, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Maybe I’ll just bike to work, you think. Good luck. Of the 12 Delaware River bridges, just a handful have bike or pedestrian access, Plan Philly reports.

And when you do get over the bridge, watch out. Philadelphia has the second worst drivers of any U.S. city, according to Slate. The city ranks second in both collisions and pedestrian strikes, Slate reports.

Perhaps the perils of crossing the Delaware are already well-known to you. That might be why the New Jersey Turnpike is the most profitable toll road in the nation, taking in a staggering $992 million in tolls in 2012.

It’s possible that none of these problems could get any better any time soon. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, for example, projects a $64 billion transportation budget shortfall in its Connections 2040 report. That will coincide with $19 billion to $25 billion needed for transportation upgrades in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer counties, the Inquirer reports.

The commission, according to the newspaper, hopes that futuristic inventions, such as driverless cars, will help ease future traffic nightmares and bottlenecks. Think about that next time you’re stuck in an inexplicable 2 a.m. traffic jam on the Schuylkill.