The New Jersey Office of Information Technology (OIT), Office of GIS (OGIS) has enhanced the previously published NJ Department of Transportation (DOT) Roadway Network GIS data set to create a fully segmented Road Centerlines of New Jersey feature class. This dataset includes fully parsed address information and additional roadway characteristics. It provides the geometric framework for display and query of relevant non-spatial data published as separate tables that can be joined to the feature class. The enhancement process included integration of multiple data sets, primarily those developed and maintained by county agencies in New Jersey and the US Census Bureau.At the present time, there are known issues with the linear referencing systems contained within this data. The most prevalent issues appear to be with the Parent linear referencing system. It is strongly recommended that users utilize the NJDOT Roadway Network data for linear referencing at this time. The NJ Office of GIS is currently working to correct the linear referencing issues.

Both the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) track pavement conditions as required by federal regulations for state-maintained and National Highway System (NHS) roadways. NJDOT and PennDOT maintain data on the condition of all federal- and state-owned roadways.

States and the Federal Highway Administration use a number of different methodologies for classifying pavement conditions. A common measure of road condition is the International Roughness Index (IRI). The IRI determines pavement roughness conditions based on total inches of surface variation per mile. IRI is one of the pavement condition measurements that PennDOT uses. New Jersey integrates two condition measures, IRI and its Surface Distress Index (SDI), into condition ratings. SDI was developed by NJDOT based on the size of cracks, holes, and ruts in a roadway. Therefore, when segment miles (see below) or percentage of segment miles are added up for the region, note that these are aggregations combining two different classification methods.

Segment miles are used in the pavement conditions graphs, as both states provide data to calculate this metric. Segment miles measure the roadway length. Length is doubled for divided facilities. Unlike lane miles which fully account for pavement width, segment miles underrepresent the pavement conditions of wider roads and highways, with more lanes. About 4,200 segment miles of road are tracked in Pennsylvania and about 1,600 are tracked in New Jersey. These roads are primarily those owned and maintained by each state DOT, though they include some locally maintained roads that are a part of the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is a federally designated network of roadways important to the nation’s economy, defense, and mobility. Section 1104 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) expanded the NH) by including all principal arterials in existence on October 1, 2012. adding 60,000 miles to the NHS. This is the reason for the increase in NHS segment miles in 2013 in the charts below, along with the decrease in non-NHS segment miles.

NJDOT has revised the New Jersey urban area based upon the 2010 U.S. Census urban area boundaries. The U.S. Census defines an Urban Area as any area with a population >= 2,500. Under the Urban Area definition, Urban Clusters contain a population of 2,500-49,999 and Urbanized Areas are >= 50,000. FHWA, however, has slightly different criteria for what defines an urban area. Under FHWA, an Urban Area is >= 5,000, with Small Urban Areas 5,000-49,999 and Urbanized Areas >= 50,000. NJDOT followed the FHWA urban area definitions for this urban area update. To perform this update, NJDOT first combined the 2000 NJDOT urban area with the 2010 US Census urban areas greater than 5,000 in population. Since census urban area boundaries are based upon census block boundaries, which can be irregular, NJDOT extended outward the urban area ("smoothed") to the nearest road, stream, political boundary, or manmade feature using the 2012 NJ orthophotos as a base map. Where there was no obvious boundary to smooth to, the census boundary was retained. NJDOT also expanded the urban area to include any densely developed areas not included in the 2000 NJDOT urban area or 2010 Census urban areas.The urban area update underwent a thorough public review and comment period. Representatives from NJDOT, all 21 counties, and the 3 metropolitan planning organizations (NJTPA, SJTPO, and DVRPC) met during various phases of the project to review the updated urban area. All comments were logged into an Urban Area Comment Tracking Form, and an official NJDOT response was provided for each comment.In 2017, minor revisions were made to the urban area based upon comments from FHWA. These revisions were limited in scope and consisted of the following: 1) Adjusted boundary breaks within the urban area so that each Census urban area was only within one NJDOT urban area. 2) Delineated the Poughkeepsie--Newburgh, Mystic Island, and Newton urban areas within the NJDOT urban area. 3) Removed the Belvidere, Milford, and Maurice River urban areas. 4) Merged Upper Greenwood Lake urban area with Poughkeepsie urban area; merged Laurel Lake urban area with Vineland urban area; and merged Woodstown urban area with Philadelphia urban area. 5) Added small portions of the Census urban area (previously omitted from the NJDOT urban area due to smoothing), to the NJDOT urban area to ensure all Census urban areas with a population > 5,000 within the official NJ state boundary were included.

NJDOT has revised the New Jersey urban area based upon the 2020 U.S. Census urban area boundaries. The U.S. Census defines an Urbanized Area as any area with a population >= 5,000. Under the 2020 Urban Area definition, Urban Clusters are no longer a classification. FHWA, however, has slightly different criteria for what defines an urban area. Under FHWA, an Urban Area is >= 5,000, with Small Urban Areas 5,000-49,999 and Urbanized Areas >= 50,000. NJDOT followed the FHWA urban area definitions for this urban area update. To perform this update, NJDOT used the 2020 US Census urban areas greater than 5,000 in population. Since census urban area boundaries are based upon census block boundaries, which can be irregular, NJDOT extended outward the urban area ("smoothed") to the nearest road, stream, political boundary, or manmade feature. When a roadway is used as the adjusted boundary, the following buffers will be applied to include the right of way of the roadway: 50’ from undivided roadway centerlines (single centerline) and 80’ from divided roadway centerlines (dual centerline). Where there was no obvious boundary to smooth to, the census boundary was retained. NJDOT also expanded the urban area to include any densely developed areas not included in the 2020 census urban areas. The urban area update underwent a thorough public review and comment period. Representatives from NJDOT and the 3 metropolitan planning organizations (NJTPA, SJTPO, and DVRPC) met during various phases of the project to review the updated urban area. All comments were logged into an Urban Area Comment Tracking Form, and an official NJDOT response was provided for each comment. Further revisions were made to the urban area based upon comments from FHWA. These revisions were limited in scope and consisted of the following: 1) Smoothed the urban boundary outward at water boundaries: 1000’ from corporate boundary / shoreline for coastal areas and 500’ from corporate boundary / shoreline for bay areas. 2) Utilize Census State Boundary for the state boundary except for coastal boundaries.