traffic

Commission Approves Congestion-Pricing

So, after much deliberation and a commendable public input process, the Mayor's Congestion Mitigation Commission has approved its recommendation.

For more details on how the voting went and a break-down of the press coverage of the plan, visit www.streetsblog.org.

From here, the City Council must approve the plan when it goes before them on March 28. The City Council must vote to approve the "Implementation Plan," send a home rule message to the state legislature. A home rule message is a request from a city or town council to the state legislature asking them to vote on legislation affecting only that town or city.
What do you think of the plan? Will it get approved by the council? But more importantly, will it actually cut congestion in Manhattan?

Mayor's Congestion Pricing Panel to Announce Recommendations Today

After a series of recent public forms and lengthy study of the plan, the Mayor's commission on congestion pricing will recommend today a plan that largely backs Mayor Bloomberg's original vision of the fee-based traffic idea, but does not include his proposed 86th Street boundary.

The recommendation would charge drivers entering Manhattan from above 60th Street $8 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Drivers traveling by car within the zone would be exempt from any fees, but a $1 taxi surcharge and higher parking rates would be enforced to decrease traffic below the northern boundary. The commission's recommendation must be approved by the state Legislature, the governor, and the City Council.

For more on the likely recommendations from today's NY Sun, click here.

Congestion=Good?!?

Andrew Wolf asks in today's New York Sun that the Mayor allow us to "enjoy congestion." In In Praise of Congestion he notes that in driving into the city he is contributing to the economy both in purchasing whatever he came into the city for and by paying the various tolls and parking fees, and that many like him might be dissuaded from entering the city if a congestion charge were imposed. Thus, the city, by being greedy, would be cutting off its nose to spite its face.

All of which might be quite logical, but he rather ruins it by throwing in a peculiar non sequitur. He admits that the stores he frequents have no parallels nearer to his home, and therefore, he will continue to shop in the city until such a time as "Mr. Zabar... open(s) a branch of his magnificent market" in Scarsdale, and then he wonders if the mayor should really be impeding "commerce among those of us who can point their cars in any direction?" Clearly, he is not amongst those who can point their cars any which way they like unless he is prepared to forgo his favorite Zabar's products. read more...