Congestion Pricing

Rhetorically speaking, it's often easier to be against something than to stand in support of it. This could be why, with one or two possible exceptions, the political players in the MTA "doomsday" drama have so far gained the most media attention by, say, shouting down bridge tolls (Yay!) or getting a shoe shine (Boo!). Some prominent electeds, despite the grave importance of the issue at hand, have to this point largely stayed out of it -- even those who, when they had congestion pricing to kick around, could scarcely be found without a microphone or camera in spittling distance.

New Yorkers can expect more misery on the streets as well as underground if the MTA has to follow through on the austerity measures it unveiled yesterday. The transportation analysts behind the Kheel Plan -- the congestion pricing variant that balances higher driver fees with free transit -- calculate that the likely combination of service cuts and higher fares and tolls will put tens of thousands more cars on the road:

In today's Times, Richard Brodsky weighs in on the pitfalls of shortchanging capital needs in the face of the immediate MTA budget crisis.

The crack news team at Fox 5 has gotten to the root of the MTA's financial troubles: Chief Lee Sander's commuting habits.

Make drivers chip in for transit? OMG, right?

MTA chief Elliot Sander announced this morning that the city's transit agency is up against a $1.2 billion budget deficit, and needs government aid or new sources of revenue to avoid fare increases or service cuts. But an expected recommendation by the Ravitch Commission to toll East River bridges is already taking heat from the usual suspects.

A bit of pre-Election Day fun: Here's a mock state-of-the-union speech drafted for the next President by "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz. Combining some ideas from Barack Obama's platform with some that no candidate would utter during a presidential campaign, he lays out a plan for infrastructure investment and how to pay for it:

The Ravitch Commission, formed to recommend MTA funding sources for the next decade, has scheduled three public hearings later this month. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign's Mobilizing the Region has the scoop:

You know a city is getting serious about tackling traffic when a new report comes out measuring how much gridlock costs the region.