TRENTON, N.J., October 22 – The state could soon have a new car insurance rating territorial map to replace the one that has been used for 60 years, and is a major factor in setting car insurance rates.

Insurance Advocate has learned that the recommended new map would contain 39 territories and replace the existing one of 27 territories.

The new proposal is now before Insurance Commissioner Steven Goldman for review.

The new map, along with a new subsidy plan will determine rates for years to come for the 5.1 million people who buy car insurance.

The details of how the districts break down were not immediately available, and there were no public announcements regarding the new territories by the department.

Key to the adoption of a new map is the companion proposal to create a special insurance exchange to keep rates from soaring in urban zones by subsidizing companies who write policies in high risk areas. That subsidy plan would be funded by a surcharge on all insurance policies.

Earlier this year, Goldman had said he wanted the new territories and the insurance exchange to be implemented at the same time and that could occur before the end of the year.

The latest car insurance law had removed the 35 percent cap on rates for automobiles in the urban areas, and the same law has decreed that even though the caps are removed from urban drivers, their rates could not be significantly disproportionate to those in the rural and suburban areas.

The high rates occur in Newark, Jersey City, Patterson, Elizabeth, Trenton, and Camden in particular. Without a plan to subsidize those high rates, they could skyrocket, lawmakers and regulators warned.

The plan, yet to be approved, is to establish a subsidy payments system to equalize the rates and reward companies for writing in the urban areas.

The department feels this could be achieved by a territorial equalization exchange that would allow fixed subsidies for coverages in the urban zones. That exchange would set the dollar amount the companies would apply towards premiums in the high-risk areas.

The subsidy, in turn, would be funded by a surcharge on every auto policy.

According to officials, the exchange plan would serve as a safeguard against excessive increases in the urban zones, as well as assuring the rates would not be substantially disproportionate.

The flip side of this is that safe drivers in the rural areas who have no violations or insurance surcharges would, in effect, be subsidizing the drivers in high-risk areas.

The proposed new map recommended by the study commission would change the dynamics of car insurance rates based largely on where a car is principally garaged.

The existing map was to have been replaced six years ago, but political changes in the Legislature as well as the governors office have caused the long delays.