Wonder what’s the most dangerous stretch of the Garden State Parkway? Check out CrashDataNJ, winner of Best Overall Project at the first ever Hack Jersey, is a tool that analyzes car accident data along New Jersey’s major highways (130 to 140 has the highest number of accidents). Other winners include:
Best Design – Cost of Radiology in NJ, a website that looks at the cost of different medical procedures by county (on this team, Baristanet’s own Jenn Schiffer!).
Best Story – The Feed, an app for LGBT communities in New Jersey to report bias and harassment.
People’s Choice – Because of Us, a website that examines gun violence data and gun laws for local areas in New Jersey and enables the user to tweet at their local legislators.
Best Project Relating to Superstorm Sandy – Hack Sandy NJ, a program that analyzed average property values, taxes and population of towns hit by Superstorm Sandy.
New Jersey News Commons director Debbie Galant and Hack Jersey co-founder Tom Meagher, data editor at Digital First Media, conceived the idea for Hack Jersey. More on Hack Jersey from the Montclair Times.
Congratulations to our girl Jenn Schiffer! I knew you would represent.
And congratulations to Deb for a successful event!
Congrats to you both! Sorry I was not able to attend.
Interesting, I would have thought our section of the Parkway was the most dangerous as it’s more narrow and twisty, but I guess the wider, straighter sections are the dangerous ones. Here’s a listing of mile markers (aka exits) 130-140:
140A Jct Route 22/Route 82 East (exit only NB)
139A Chestnut St. (exit only NB)
139B Route 82 West Union (exit only NB)
138 Route 509 Kenilworth/Roselle Park
137 Route 28 (entrance only SB)
136 Linden/Roselle/Winfield Park
135 Clark/Westfield
131A Metro Park
131B Gills Lane, Middlesex/Essex Turnpike (exit only NB, entrance SB)
131 Route 27
130 US 1 (no exit NB)
My rather unscientific guess is that the area between 130 and 140 is by far, the most traveled portion of the GSP. I think there are 6 lanes in each direction on that portion. Outside of the divided portion(local/express), there are almost always 3 lanes in each direction. And the divided portion really only backs up during the warmer months from the mad dash of the Northerners to the Jersey Shore. Statistics are a funny thing. You need to examine all of the variables prior to making a conclusion. Chances are, the curvy portion of the road is more dangerous, but without looking at the quantity of drivers on each section, the data tells us little about the odds of being in an accident on a particular portion. Of course, if I was a tow truck operator, I would focus on miles 130 to 140.