Congestion Pricing

McCaffrey: The Subway is Crowded. Let’s Keep it That Way.

Walter McCaffrey's Committee to Keep New York City Congestion Tax Free has torn a page from StreetFilms' book and put out its very own propaganda video.

By Aaron Naparstek

1:40 PM EDT on July 10, 2007

Walter McCaffrey’s Committee to Keep New York City Congestion Tax Free has torn a page from StreetFilms’ book and put out its very own propaganda video.

The quiet, elegant two-minute SubFilm shows crowds of people using New York City’s subway system with quotes like, “Here come the sardines,” mixed in.

The producers clearly intended this video as an argument against Mayor Bloomberg’s traffic relief and transit improvement proposals but it’s hard not to come away from it thinking: Yes, subways are crowded. Let’s get congestion pricing up and running to pay for new transit capacity.

Clarence, you might want to call Walter and offer your services.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.