Congestion Pricing

In a letter to Marc Shaw, Chairman of the New York City Traffic Mitigation Commission, the New York Building Congress urged the Commission to support a congestion pricing plan that dedicates all revenues to capital improvements for the city's transit system. The NYBC also indicated their support for the MTA's propsed fare hike "as merely one element of a long-term multi-layered response to the considerable financial challenges faced by the MTA." Download the letter and here's an excerpt:

We've heard plenty of congestion pricing complaints (and some kudos, too) from the Bronx, but what about the rest of PlaNYC? City Limits reports on a recent community summit where Bronxites said they are unhappy with how the Bloomberg administration composed its legislative centerpiece, among them some who might ordinarily support pricing but are put off by what they see as PlaNYC's top-down execution.

"Walking is Transportation" blogger Dan Icolari has extensive coverage of last night's seventh and final Traffic Mitigation Commission hearing on Staten Island. He reports "a notable unanimity" among Staten Island's elected representatives. "Even South Shore Republican Councilman Vincent Ignizio -- a reliable foe of government whose salary is paid by government -- said that despite great skepticism, he was determined to keep an open mind."

As if we didn't already know it, last week's Traffic Mitigation Commission hearings revealed that opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan among outer borough and suburban legislators may very well be intractable. Even in traffic-crushed districts where one would almost certainly find a majority in favor of some form of congestion pricing, we didn't see a single state legislator willing to stand up for the Mayor's plan. While support for congestion pricing was surprisingly strong among citizens and civic groups that showed up to testify, elected representatives' timidity was no surprise. As a Transport for London spokesman told me a while back, "If congestion pricing had to go through a legislative process it probably wouldn't have happened."

Council member Lew Fidler delivers his Tax & Tunnel plan to the Commission.

 

One of the most oft-repeated slams against congestion pricing we heard at this week's Congestion Mitigation Committee hearings is that congestion pricing would be a "regressive tax," an unfair burden to poorer New Yorkers.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will declare his support today for a national carbon tax, according to a report posted this morning on the New York Times City Room blog by metro reporter Sewell Chan:

Erik Shilling reports: