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The fate of the controversial plan to charge drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street lies with Albany, as state legislators must decide whether to approve the plan by midnight tonight. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said last night, "There isn't a groundswell of support for it" among other Assembly members. But most papers are saying the plan is effectively dead.
If Albany can approve congestion pricing today, then the city is eligible for $354 million in federal funds to implement the plan (if not, that money is directed to other cities). Mayor Bloomberg begged lawmakers to pass it, saying yesterday, "[Lawmakers] going to be responsible to their constituents as to why they don’t have buses. When we stop work on the Second Avenue subway, they’re the ones that are going to have to answer.”
Bloomberg also wants the Legislature to hold a vote, "The one thing they can't do is walk away without a vote. That would be unconscionable." (It would also help see where certain Assembly members stand on the issue, so congestion pricing opponents in the Assembly can be identified.) Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey even said on Fred Dicker's radio show, “If the leadership does put this bill on the floor in the Assembly or the Senate tonight, it will pass. I give you my thousand percent guarantee on that.”
If you support congestion pricing, you can call your representatives in Albany to let them know you do.
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The fact is that the transit system needs funding to keep NYC competitive as a global city. Congestion pricing is the only reasonable transit funding plan on the table. It seems so simple.
As for the regressive tax talking point that's tossed about; any cursory look at city demographic and commute data shows that wealthier people are the ones who drive into the CBD (i think the figure is on average 30K more a year), and that lower income new yorkers who live in the outer boroughs and are under served by subways stand to gain the most from pricing because the money will go to bus upgrades.
This is a city where most everyone takes the subway, and we deserve immediate improvements. I'm sick and tired of squeezing into packed subway cars or waiting for an empty one to come. I'm even more sick of coughing on exhaust and being scared of crossing the street.
New York City needs subway and bus improvements and extensions. We need safer streets and cleaner air. We don't need the tiny minority of car drivers preventing the vast majority of us from getting what we deserve.
Pass congestion pricing. It's the only sensible thing to do.
Bloomberg is being over dramatic. This tax won't raise enough money to do squat. Beside, who wants an inter-state, inter-borough, inter-county war.
If you don't support congestion pricing, tell your reps you don't.
Cities and cars don't mix. At least the current concept of the American car.
I agree Bloomberg is being a drama queen here. If the money needs to be raised, there are simpler ways to tax us without adding a bunch of cameras and zones. The cost of this plan will be passed on anyway, so why not just raise the parking tax, or the hotel tax, or the tax on goods... taxes are already in place, we don't need cameras/ez pass scanners that will break and need to be maintained, zones, people to administer the bureaucracy... there is a lot of waste built in to this. If you really need the money, just tax us and be done with it.
@ eyekantspel [5]
This is the only viable plan to raise fund transit for transit, reduce congestion and clean the air.
Safer streets, cleaner air, less congestion, more buses, better subways, smiling children and apple pie for everyone. The promises being made by people in favor of congestion pricing are empty. Any real New Yorker is skeptical enough to realize that.
How long did it take the MTA to break the promise that the fare increase would result in service increase? a week? How many millions wasted before the nice looking design for the Fulton St stop was tossed out as impractical? What about the Moynihan station?
A better way to lower congestion is start enforcing the don't block the box/no double parking rules we already have. Require cabs in heavy traffic areas to pick up in designated zones instead of just stopping short in the middle of the street. Eliminate street parking altogether, or restrict it to economy size or smaller cars in certain areas.
Not that the goal of congestion pricing is really to lower congestion. The goal is to increase tax revenues, some of which will go to feed the bureaucracy it creates, and whatever is left to fund public transportation. Nothing wrong with that, but call it what it is.
and apparently I need to check my grammar. whoops.
@ rabrams. nonsense. it won't do a thing to reduce congestion or clean the air. Even proponents project a decrease of only 5% in traffic.
You want cleaner air, raise emissions standards like in CA, and give incentives for electric/hybrid vehicles. You want to raise funds for transit, increase taxes on parking garages. There are more cost effective ways to raise revenues within the existing bureaucracy, instead of creating an entirely new system that will require upkeep and maintenance/
Well, according to the AP, congestion pricing is dead. looks like the debate can continue.
Lawmakers Reject NYC Traffic Fee
AP
Posted: 2008-04-07 15:00:26
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York lawmakers have put the brakes on a plan to charge drivers an extra fee to reduce traffic and pollution in Manhattan.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday his chamber is rejecting Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal for congestion pricing.
The concept was proposed to cut traffic and pollution by forcing more commuters onto mass transit. It would have charged most drivers $8 to drive below 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Truckers would have paid $21.
The vote after days of closed-door negotiations means the city will forfeit $354 million in federal money for kick-starting the initiative. The Legislature faced a Monday deadline to act on Bloomberg's proposal.
"You want cleaner air, raise emissions standards like in CA..."
Can't be done, at least not until a Dem is in the White House. The EPA is currently refusing to issue waivers to any state except California.
well, I don't think our air is so bad anyway.
Congestion pricing isn't going to eliminate the stench of garbage and piss from our streets, and those impact my air quality a lot more than a projected 5% decrease in traffic from 6am to 6pm M-F south of 60th street.
I'm going to parrot what eyekantspel said because it's what I've been saying and is so perfectly accurate:
Safer streets, cleaner air, less congestion, more buses, better subways, smiling children and apple pie for everyone. The promises being made by people in favor of congestion pricing are empty. Any real New Yorker is skeptical enough to realize that.
How long did it take the MTA to break the promise that the fare increase would result in service increase? a week? How many millions wasted before the nice looking design for the Fulton St stop was tossed out as impractical? What about the Moynihan station?
A better way to lower congestion is start enforcing the don't block the box/no double parking rules we already have. Require cabs in heavy traffic areas to pick up in designated zones instead of just stopping short in the middle of the street. Eliminate street parking altogether, or restrict it to economy size or smaller cars in certain areas.
Not that the goal of congestion pricing is really to lower congestion. The goal is to increase tax revenues, some of which will go to feed the bureaucracy it creates, and whatever is left to fund public transportation. Nothing wrong with that, but call it what it is.