Who says Shelly ever wanted his toll plan to come to a vote? He could have had the assembly vote on it a long time ago. The blame is on the Senate Dems but Shelly, the assembly and GOP have gotten a pass. Shelly, the man who killed congestion pricing, is getting rehabilitated by the newspapers without having to put himself or his caucus on record as voting for tolls. Bow to the master.

The same could be said last time when Bruno was talking big about passing it in the Senate while Assembly Dems were on the firing line over their opposition.

Two differences that I see:

1. Bruno was probably bluffing – he probably didn’t have the votes then, while Shelly would have been able to pass his plan (because it was his, not Bloomberg’s).

2. Shelly was primaried on this issue by Paul Newell and it made an impact. He also saw what happened to Marty Connor who’s district overlapped with his. His plan was not as good at Bloomberg’s or Ravitch on tolls, but he devised a potentially winning principle in my opinion. His plan was unique in that he tried to establish parity between transit fares and bridge tolls.

Silver’s plan is viable with some more pressure on Senate Dems. There are two routes – primary the Fare Hike Four, Five, Six, whatever…or open up the process to allow Senate Republicans (Bloomberg should be able to get 5-6 upstate votes on that side) to vote for a bi-partisan toll plan.

We’ll never know if Bruno coulda or woulda passed congestion pricing. We’ll probably never know if Shelly coulda or woulda passed his toll plan either. That’s the beauty of it.

As much as I’d like to change things so my Brooklyn neighborhood wasn’t a doormat for toll shoppers, I’m very much in favor of market rate street parking and more registration fees as a way to push more people toward a car-free lifestyle. We first got rid of our car because we couldn’t handle the hassle of parking. If we had to pay for on street parking and high registration fees, we would have gotten rid of the car much earlier.

Since getting rid of our car, we drive a lot less, and even joined transportation alternatives. A new plan that charges people who don’t drive, rather than tolls which only affect the few people who drive into the city, might have an even greater effect toward bringing sanity to our streets.

Despite all the depressing machinations, I will say I am excited at the prospect of a gas tax hike. Since there are quite a few states already mulling it, the more the better, the more the idea will appeal to other states.

If $2 bridge tolls pissed the motoring classes off, how do you think hundred dollar plus annual parking permits are going to go over? It ain’t happening. They are scrambling. The transit cuts are going to have to happen before these knuckleheads start feeling enough political pain to really act.

The second item on the Channel 11 news tonight was a smiling Kaity Tong announcing that drivers would be relieved to know that the proposed bridge tolls were dead.