NYC congestion proposal to charge truckers $21 to enter Manhattan

By ADAM GOLDMAN
The Associated Press

2/1/2008

NEW YORK — A commission’s recommendation to charge drivers for entering Manhattan’s most traffic-clogged areas marks a significant step toward enacting the first-in-the-nation plan.

But its ultimate test will come in the City Council and state Legislature, and a key state leader is calling for more information before considering the idea.

The commission, charged with tackling the city’s chronic gridlock, on Thursday endorsed a scaled-down version of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s original proposal for the traffic fee. The Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission embraced the mayor’s suggestion of an $8 fee for cars, but the panel shrank the zone in which drivers would be charged.

Some other cities around the globe have started similar “congestion pricing” systems. The goal is to get more people to take mass transit, easing gridlock and reducing pollution.

Mass transit advocate Gene Russianoff said the commission desperately needed to take action. “The city is drowning in traffic,” he said.

But the idea received a frosty reception from some drivers.

“I think it’s a horrible decision,” said Jason Allison, 29, who said he occasionally drives into the city from White Plains. “They are taking away from middle-class people. You’ll have to be rich to drive into the city.”

Bloomberg’s original plan called for charging cars $8 to enter Manhattan anywhere below 86th street, along with a $4 fee for travel within the so-called congestion zone. The new plan shrinks the cutoff line to 60th Street and eliminates the $4 charge within the zone.

Instead, taxis would be hit with a $1 surcharge for trips that start and/or end in the zone. Parking meter rates in the zone also would increase.

Trucks would have to pay $21, with an exemption for those with low emissions. The fees would apply from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

Two of the commission’s 17 members voted against the recommendation, raising questions about how it would be implemented and denouncing it as a regressive tax on poorer people who live outside Manhattan.

“Segregating public spaces by income is nothing I will support ever,” said state Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky.

Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr. also said he had reservations about the plan.

“I’m very concerned that we accomplish what we are really about, which is to make sure we have additional transportation created so people will have an option,” he said.

The commission says the plan will generate about $491 million a year for transit enhancements and will cut down on traffic in the entire region. The panel’s final report says that “vehicle miles traveled” — an important traffic indicator — would drop by nearly 7 percent in the area of Manhattan below 86th street.

The plan’s success in the Legislature could eventually rest with Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who said in a statement Thursday, “I believe the commission’s work is not done.”

Silver said the Legislature needed more assurances that congestion fee revenues would be dedicated entirely to transit improvements. He also called for a plan to give poor households state and city tax credits for the congestion fees and details on how the additional parking meter revenues would be spent.

The commission recommended the city provide wide-ranging payment options, including the electronic toll collecting system E-ZPass, kiosks, Internet and phone payment systems and designated retail stores.

Bloomberg introduced his congestion pricing plan as part of a wide-ranging environmental initiative last year. The federal government has pledged $354 million toward the plan.

Besides the fees, the commission looked at such ideas as creating tolls at all the East and Harlem river crossings, raising prices for garage parking, and banning vehicles from entering part of Manhattan on certain days based on a digit on their license plates.