Congestion Pricing Commission’s First Meeting

The Congestion Pricing Commission will meet for the first time next week, bringing together the 17 people who must choose between Mayor Mike Bloomberg's traffic mitigation plan and some other program. To qualify for a $354.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, a plan must involve a pricing component and must yield a reduction in traffic similar to the mayor's 6.3% estimate. Those are the terms written into a deal Albany leaders sealed in July.

Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver's office called to correct the name of the group that is considering traffic-reduction projects in Manhattan: It's the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, not the Congestion Pricing Commission, as the Insider wrote Wednesday. Clearly, the speaker prefers to de-emphasize congestion pricing. Silver's office also noted the commission can consider options that do not involve pricing.