The big news in these parts was the third meeting of the Traffic Mobility Review Board, which is supposedly coming up with the pricing scheme for congestion pricing.
The top story was that without much discussion, the panel seemed to abandon any talk that taxi drivers would pay the full congestion toll like all other drivers and, instead, would simply pass along a small fee to each passenger during the day — a wise move, given that it is the passenger's choice to use a cab rather than transit that causes all the negative externalities.
It was weird how little discussion there was about it, given how much discussion there was about the topic a few weeks ago.
In other news from the TMRB:
- We still don't know what the toll will be — but drivers who enter the congestion toll via an already tolled tunnel will likely get some credit to eliminate toll shopping. (NYDN)
- The Post focused on the tunnel credits.
- Gothamist noticed a few new exemptions.
- Charles Komanoff live-tweeted it, with frequent links to his seminal Streetsblog archive:
In other news:
- Mayor Adams learned that maybe his predecessor wasn't so bad after all — at least on flooding. (NYDN)
- Meanwhile, the MTA is weak on climate, too. (Gothamist, The City, Crain's)
- But all of that shows the need for congestion pricing, argued two lions of transit advocacy, Andrew Albert and Lisa Daglian, in the Daily News.
- A Brooklyn man was fatally stabbed while waiting for a bus. (NYDN, NY Post)
- Apparently, there's a new beach in Manhattan, but you're not allowed to swim there. So how, pray tell, is that a beach? (Gothamist)
- Time Out New York loves the new wider sidewalk on Delancey Street.
- Finally, don't forget that today is the first of five consecutive Tuesday webinars from CIVITAS called the "Understanding Streets Academy." For info, check out the Streetsblog calendar.
