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New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson surveyed the old railroad town that was trying to revitalize its main street.

He looked at the renovated movie theater that attracts scores of families and at the refurbished building that serves as a practice center for Olympians on the U.S. table tennis team.

Simpson looked at Dunellen and saw the past — and the future.

"This is like old wine in a new bottle — all of the ingredients for success are here," he said last month at a ceremony to name the Middlesex County borough the state's 26th Transit Village, communities built around transportation hubs, making it convenient to get around without a car.

A report and database due out Monday by New Jersey Future — the result of more than three years worth of study — assesses development opportunities around New Jersey's transit stations and heralds the importance of transit-oriented development.

The report by the smart growth and transportation choice advocacy group shows that what is old is new again in New Jersey as towns look to the past — their train stations — to make them desirable for a new generation of commuters who have eschewed their cars.

"In particular, the ‘Millennial’ generation has expressed a preference for driving less and walking more, and employers are increasingly heeding the imperative to locate in places where they will be accessible to a young workforce that wants multiple transportation options," the report stated.

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New Jersey Future’s research director, Tim Evans, has spent 3 1/2 years assembling a database looking at New Jersey’s 243 transit stations, including 205 rail stations, 16 major bus terminals, 12 ferry terminals and 10 terminals that have more than one mode of transportation, such as Hoboken Terminal, which has trains, buses and ferries.

It’s the first time such a study has been done of New Jersey’s extensive network of transit stations, and suggestions were made for how to better use the vital asset in the future.

The report lists transit municipalities with the greatest number of jobs (Newark, Jersey City, Edison); station areas featuring the highest population densities (9th Street and 2nd Street stations in Hoboken on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and Hoboken Terminal); stations in neighborhoods where at least one-third of households do not have a vehicle (Warren Street and Washington Street on the Newark Light Rail); stations in neighborhoods having a median home value greater than 200 percent of the statewide median (Millburn, Summit, Peapack) and stations where fewer than one-third of parking spaces are typically occupied (Point Pleasant Beach, Florence, Cinnaminson).

The report could help policy-makers and developers put the right kinds of incentives — such as urban hub tax credits or Transit Village designations — in the right kinds of locations and help municipalities understand the strengths and weaknesses around their transit assets, said Elaine Clisham, New Jersey Future’s director of communications.

The report noted that 11.2 percent of New Jersey commuters use transit — a rate higher than any other state but New York.

"In absolute numbers, this is about 440,000 commuters who are not in their cars every day," the report states. "Anyone unconvinced of the value of transit should contemplate what New Jersey’s highway network would look like at rush hour with an additional 440,000 vehicles on it, on top of the more than 3 million people already commuting by car."

The report by New Jersey Future can be accessed at www.njfuture.org/research-publications/research-reports/targeting-transit/

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Related coverage:

• East Orange gains status as a transit village

• Dunellen becomes N.J.'s latest transit village

• West Windsor receives state transit village designation

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