NJDOT Adjusted 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.新泽西州交通部（New Jersey Department of Transportation, NJDOT）已依据2020年美国人口普查（U.S. Census）的城市区域边界，更新了新泽西州的城市区域划分方案。美国人口普查将城市化区域（Urbanized Area）定义为人口≥5000的区域。根据2020年城市区域定义标准，城市集群（Urban Clusters）已不再作为独立分类类别。但美国联邦公路管理局（Federal Highway Administration, FHWA）对城市区域的判定标准存在细微差异：在FHWA的规则中，城市区域的人口门槛同样为≥5000，其中小型城市区域（Small Urban Areas）的人口区间为5000至49999，城市化区域则要求人口≥50000。本次城市区域更新工作中，NJDOT采用了FHWA的城市区域定义标准。为开展本次更新，NJDOT选取了2020年美国人口普查中人口超过5000的城市区域。由于普查城市区域边界基于普查区块边界划定，而普查区块边界往往不规则，因此NJDOT将城市区域向外延伸（即平滑化处理）至最近的道路、水系、行政边界或人工地物。当以道路作为调整后的边界时，将应用以下缓冲区规则以涵盖道路用地范围：无分隔带道路的中心线向外延伸50英尺，分隔带道路的双中心线向外延伸80英尺。若不存在可用于平滑处理的明确边界，则保留原普查区块边界。NJDOT同时将城市区域范围拓展至所有未被2020年人口普查城市区域覆盖的高密度开发区域。本次城市区域更新方案历经完整的公众意见征求与评审周期。NJDOT代表与3个大都会规划组织（NJTPA、SJTPO、DVRPC）在项目各阶段开展协同评审，对更新后的城市区域方案进行审核。所有公众意见均已录入《城市区域意见跟踪表》，并针对每条意见出具了NJDOT官方回复。后续NJDOT还依据FHWA的反馈意见对城市区域方案进行了小幅修订，本次修订范围有限，具体内容包括：1）在水体边界处向外平滑城市边界：沿海区域的辖区边界/海岸线向外延伸1000英尺，海湾区域的辖区边界/海岸线向外延伸500英尺。2）除沿海边界外，采用美国人口普查划定的州界作为州级行政边界。