Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In

Yesterday, Theodore "Ted" Kheel's traffic plan was officially unveiled with a 52-page report (pdf) outlining his proposal to make transit free via a round-the-clock $16 congestion charge for cars ($32 for trucks) entering Manhattan below 60th Street. The report says Kheel's "Bolder Plan" would cut CBD traffic by 25 percent, and traffic citywide by nearly 10 percent, all while increasing mass transit funding and decreasing the number of overcrowded trains and buses.

Skeptical? So was lead author Charles Komanoff, he says, until he delved into the data. Not only do the numbers add up, Komanoff writes, the Kheel plan offers an irresistible political hook:

Don Shoup wrote recently that the dilemma confronting congestion pricing is not that opposition is too high, but that support is too low. Free transit resolves this dilemma by offering as tangible a benefit as one can imagine. As I said last week to a legislator from Central Brooklyn who has lined up against the mayor's congestion pricing plan, "Are you really going to tell your constituents that you walked away from a plan that would let them ride the trains and buses for free?" I wish you'd seen his double-take, followed by: "Um, okay, what's this Kheel Plan again, and how exactly is it going to work?"

A highlight of the Kheel plan is the Balanced Transportation Analyzer, an interactive spreadsheet that lets users compare the different congestion pricing proposals (download it here). "Unlike the opaque 'black box' models used throughout the Transportation-Industrial Complex," writes Komanoff, "the BTA reveals its hundreds of underlying assumptions and their interrelationships. It is a true citizen's tool."

Whether this is all too much, too late, considering the Congestion Mitigation Commission's January 31 deadline, and whether or not it's conceivable that the city and all affected bureaucracies would tolerate such a tectonic shift regardless of potential upsides, by leading with the carrot of free transit and following with the stick of congestion pricing, the Kheel planners have shown how Mayor Bloomberg's proposal could have been promoted from day one. On the other hand, it also makes one wonder what might have been if they had brought that approach to the mayor's plan, and pushed along with everyone else.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

‘Treated and Streeted’: How The City’s Safety Net Fails Homeless People in the Subway

The Big Apple’s $30-billion social safety net cannot reliably get a homeless person in psychiatric crisis out of the subway and into a hospital bed, a Streetsblog investigation has found.

September 23, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines: ‘Not In My Back Yard’? ‘Yes, In Your Back Yard’ Edition

Our editor-in-chief joins the expert panel at the popular Upright Citizens Brigade's political comedy roundtable on Wednesday night. Plus other news.

September 23, 2025

How Trump’s Latest Multimodal Clawbacks Are Different — But They Could Still Devastate Communities

The latest attack on multimodal transportation is more brazen and destructive than ever before; the Trump administration is no longer hiding its disdain for walking and biking projects.

September 22, 2025

Agency Needs More Funding To Expand Delivery Worker Protections

The agency tasked with protecting city workers needs more money to implement recent laws passed to expand protections for delivery workers.

September 22, 2025

Zohran Mamdani On E-Bike Safety: Regulate App Algorithms, Not Workers

The presumptive mayor is joining the war against e-bikes ... on the side of the e-bikes.

September 22, 2025
See all posts