Congestion Pricing

Following a three day period that saw three pedestrian fatalities in Brooklyn -- preceded by two cyclist deaths in Manhattan one week earlier -- the Citizens Committee for New York City has released its annual "Speak Out New York" survey, citing pedestrian safety as one of two top concerns of city residents.

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This weekend, in a bizarre profile of congestion pricing's alpha opponent, Richard Brodsky, the New York Times did little to counter the Westchester Assemblyman's populist rhetoric. The piece, by reporter Joseph Berger, is full of odd editorializing, and appears to reprint some of Brodsky's talking points part and parcel without attribution:

Marc Shaw, former chair of the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, caused something of a stir in the local press on Friday, when he predicted that congestion pricing would "rise again" as a proposal to toll East River bridges and a cordon across 60th street. Speaking at a panel discussion at the RPA's Regional Assembly, Shaw said he had been told by Richard Ravitch, the one-time MTA head who's been asked by Governor Paterson to devise ways to shore up the agency's finances, that pricing is "on his agenda."

As former deputy mayor and Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission Chair Marc Shaw predicts that congestion pricing may re-emerge soon in the form a proposal to toll 60th Street and the East River bridges, the Daily Politics reports that Ted Kheel is planning to put up $1 million to promote his free transit plan heading into the 2009 mayoral election.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan gave a brief, clear-eyed overview of the city's post-pricing transportation agenda today at the Regional Plan Association's 18th Annual Regional Assembly. Speaking at a panel discussion called "Making Cars Pay Their Way," she rattled off a list of projects in the works, including some public space improvements that are certain to quicken the pulse of livable streets types.

We haven't really talked about it on Streetsblog, but when state lawmakers killed congestion pricing, they also nixed the city's proposed Residential Parking Permit program.

After nearly a year of personally advocating for congestion pricing, I shared my fellow Streetsbloggers' frustration as the current round ended not with a decisive vote, but with the clock running out on a federal funding deadline. As this great New York political battle fades into memory, I hope future historians will not remember this as a Bloomberg second-term failure along the lines of the West Side stadium fight with Speaker Silver and Assembly Democrats. Rather, I hope they recognize this as a case of Albany legislative dysfunction undermining pretty much all of the major civic, environmental, transportation and labor organizations. In fact, organizations like Transportation Alternatives, Partnership for NYC and Citizens for NYC lead this initiative from the beginning and got the mayor to sign on last year as part of PlaNYC.

What went on behind the closed doors of the Democratic conference the day congestion pricing died in the Assembly? According to a constituent letter from Binghamton rep Donna A. Lupardo, the "overwhelming majority" of New York City members were opposed to pricing, and upstate pols followed their lead.