2020 Urban Areas

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.NJDOT（新泽西州运输部，New Jersey Department of Transportation）已依据2020年美国人口普查都市区边界更新了新泽西州都市区范围。美国人口普查局将城市化区域（Urbanized Area）定义为人口≥5000的区域。根据2020年都市区定义，城镇集群（Urban Clusters）不再作为分类类别。不过美国联邦公路管理局（Federal Highway Administration, FHWA）对都市区的界定标准略有差异：在FHWA的标准中，都市区人口需≥5000，其中小型都市区（Small Urban Areas）人口为5000-49999，城市化区域则≥50000。本次都市区更新中，NJDOT采用了FHWA的都市区界定标准。为完成本次更新，NJDOT选取了2020年美国人口普查中人口≥5000的都市区。由于人口普查都市区边界基于普查区块边界，而普查区块边界往往不规则，因此NJDOT将都市区范围向外进行平滑延伸，直至最近的道路、溪流、行政边界或人工地物。若以道路作为调整后的边界，将应用以下缓冲区规则以纳入道路用地范围：无分隔带道路的中心线两侧各延伸50英尺，分隔带道路的中心线两侧各延伸80英尺。若无可用于平滑处理的明显边界，则保留原人口普查边界。NJDOT还将未纳入2020年人口普查都市区的高密度开发区域纳入都市区范围。本次都市区更新经历了完整的公众意见征集与评议阶段。NJDOT代表与3个大都会规划组织（NJTPA、SJTPO、DVRPC）在项目各阶段开展会议，对更新后的都市区范围进行评审。所有意见均录入《都市区意见跟踪表》，并针对每条意见出具NJDOT官方回复。FHWA的意见对都市区范围进行了进一步修订，此次修订范围有限，具体包括：1） 对水域边界处的都市区边界进行平滑延伸：沿海区域向行政区边界/岸线外延伸1000英尺，海湾区域向行政区边界/岸线外延伸500英尺；2） 除沿海边界外，采用人口普查州界作为州级行政边界。