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Is Congestion Pricing An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
It’s been so widely reported, I hesitate to write about it, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the mayor I mostly prefer to hate, with much fanfare, proposed an interesting “congestion pricing plan†to charge autos and trucks for entering Manhattan below 86th Street during the hours 6AM to 6PM. The prize for clearest outline of the plan goes to Daily Politics newcomer Elizabeth Benjamin here. . Thanks.
See also this from the News print edition and this and this Monday Editorial from the NY Times as well as this Editorial from Monday's Daily News. In her comments (below) Ann Seligman of Environmental Defense, wisely suggests you & I review the Gotham Gazette article by Bruce Schaller . It's a good article with even better links; click away. Sewall Chan has a story at Empire Zone about a coalition of 70 groups -- including the NYC Central Labor Council supporting the proposal.
While I will write about my views of the plan after I understand it more, others (either quicker studies, more glib, more thoughtful) have written about it already at Empire Zone and here and here at Politiker.
The text of the Mayor’s plan is here .
Transportation Alternatives, my favorite transit advocacy group loves the proposal – even more than I do (I have significant qualms about which more later) and calls on supporters to rally on behalf of the Mayor’s plan Monday April 23 2007 at 10:30 AM at City Hall Park.
Here is a Streetsblog announcement of the rally call.
While I am attracted to the plan, the devil is in the details and (on first impression) one devil I see is that the burden of this program falls most heavily on ordinary people. The rich will be free to drive where and when they wish. The tax on truck delivery, similarly strikes me as a sales tax on the goods delivered which will also fall most heavily on low and moderate income New Yorkers. What do you think?
I think its a good plan
Your concerns about trucks are valid, but the plan might just shift more of them to night deliveries which makes more sense and wont require them to pay the fee.
Congestion Pricing
Yes, the devil is in the details, and that’s why a well-designed pricing plan is key so that the burden does not fall disproportionately on people who can’t afford it.
Manhattan-bound commuter drivers generally have higher incomes. For example, car commuters from outlying Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island earn 35 percent more than their public transit-using neighbors, and high-income people are twice as likely to drive into lower Manhattan. Remember, these are people who can afford to park and pay tolls (and remember any tolls to enter the city would be deducted from the $8). (For more details and a rebuttal of opponents' views,
Successful pricing plans also use revenues to fund mass transit, so commuters get better access to bus and rail. As for the point about delivery trucks being burdened by higher expenses, some of the biggest fans of congestion pricing in London are delivery trucks since they are so much more efficient and make more deliveries in the same amount of time. (More on congestion pricing.)
Ann Seligman
Environmental Defense
Outreach Coordinator, Living cities
Congestion Pricing
Yes, the devil is in the details, and that’s why a well-designed pricing plan is key so that the burden does not fall disproportionately on people who can’t afford it.
Manhattan-bound commuter drivers generally have higher incomes. For example, car commuters from outlying Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island earn 35 percent more than their public transit-using neighbors, and high-income people are twice as likely to drive into lower Manhattan. Remember, these are people who can afford to park and pay tolls (and remember any tolls to enter the city would be deducted from the $8). (For more details and a rebuttal of opponents' views,
Successful pricing plans also use revenues to fund mass transit, so commuters get better access to bus and rail. As for the point about delivery trucks being burdened by higher expenses, some of the biggest fans of congestion pricing in London are delivery trucks since they are so much more efficient and make more deliveries in the same amount of time. (More on congestion pricing.)
Ann Seligman
Environmental Defense
Outreach Coordinator, Living cities
Thanks, Ann for the links but,
the one to the Environmental Defense site seems broken. I will put the Bruce Schaller article from Gotham Gazette in the main post as well.
If we look at the record of Mr. Bloomberg and his fellow Republicans, Mr. Pataki and Mr. Bush, we can see that it is easiest for them to shift burdens of taxes and fees to poor and working people. Ensuring fairness will be essential here.