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Circulation Report

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Background

The Circulation Report of the Trenton250 Master Plan addresses Trenton's transportation issues with strategies that will build on Trenton’s strengths. Trenton’s transportation infrastructure has grown and evolved over thecity’s long and productive history, leaving the modern city with a robust transportation system that can accommodate the city’s growth well into the future. The region has decentralized over the past few decades which has contributed to longer commutes, increased peak period congestion, and poor air quality. To grow more effectively and efficiently, Trenton’s downtown needs to reassert itself as a regional center and neighborhoods must be reinforced as high-quality places to live. To achieve this, the report outlines a four-part framework for improving transportation infrastructure:

Multi-Modal Transportation Network: expanding and improving the options and efficient movements of people and goods throughout the City;

Legibility: improving the ability of residents and visitors to understand and navigate the City;
Land-Use and Transportation Connections: improving land use around key transportation nodes while ensuring that transportation infrastructure supports desired land use; and
Access to Jobs: ensuring that residents have access to regional jobs
Though not without its flaws, Trenton’s multi-modal network is a significant resource that will be able to sustain redevelopment efforts in the decades ahead. To achieve its vision of becoming an economic and cultural hub, Trenton must create a public realm that encourages its residents and workers to be outdoors and actively participate in civic life, spending time on Trenton’s streets, plazas, and parks. With changing demographics and an increased interest in healthy and active transportation, Trenton is poised to take advantage of opportunities to improve conditions for bikers and walkers.
For too long, transportation decisions focused on accommodating the quick arrival of the automobile, with ample dedicated parking immediately adjacent to each land use. A prevailing mindset that institutional land uses were enough to sustain Trenton may have led to decisions that favored the quick arrival and departure of their workers. These decisions have resulted in roadways that have favored the automobile, severed the city’s connection to its waterfront, and produces an abundance of surface parking that discourages the impulse to spend time enjoying what the City has to offer.
The Circulation Report outlines strategies that will allow Trenton to improve connectivity and access at various scales and for all travel modes. These strategies focus on Highways, Transit, Bicycles, and Pedestrians, and encourages parking strategies that will support active land uses.

Goals

Multi-modal Transportation: Trenton residents and visitors will characterize the City as “bikeable” and “walkable.” Trentonians will be able to safely walk, bike, access transit, and share the streets with motorized vehicles. A high-quality, safe, and clearly navigable trail system and in-street network will form the foundation for a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian network. People and goods will efficiently move throughout the City and beyond its borders.
Legibility: Trenton will be a city that is easy to understand and navigate when driving, biking, walking, or taking transit.
Land Use and Transportation Connection: Trenton will have walkable neighborhoods and an active downtown that are supported by a multi-modal transportation system that includes, but is not limited to, high quality transit-oriented developments. Parking will no longer be a dominant land use in the City’s downtown and will be managed effectively to support active land uses, streetscapes and economy, in accordance with Trenton's multi-modal objectives.
Job Access: Trentonians will have reliable and affordable transportation options to local and regional job centers and destinations.