Congestion Pricing

If you are planning to write a letter urging your local City Council Member to support Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, the chart below will be useful to you. Based on 2000 census data, it shows the percentage of New York City workers who commute to work by car into Manhattan south of 60th Street (also known as the region's Central Business District or CBD).

Inside City Hall, a daily political show on NY1, filed this report last night on congestion pricing, traffic enforcement, and PlaNYC. Their report highlights the flawed Quinnipiac poll and the mayor responded, "City government is supposed to lead, state government is supposed to lead, federal government is supposed to lead, not do polls and and do just the popular things. They are supposed to do what's right."

Mark Gorton, founder and executive director of the Open Planning Project, the publisher of Streetsblog, has agreed to match up to $250,000 in donations to a Transportation Alternatives campaign promoting Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030. Today's Crain's Insider reports:

The Campaign for New York's Future and The Partnership For New York City both disputed findings from a Quinnipiac University poll of New Yorkers on congestion pricing. Kathryn S. Wylde, President and CEO of The Partnership for New York City released this statement:

Quinnipiac has a new survey out this morning showing that 90 percent of New Yorkers feel that traffic is a "serious problem" but a majority of voters, by a 56 to 37 percent margin, oppose Mayor Bloomberg's plan to charge $8 to drive in to Manhattan south of 86th Street. The poll also shows a significant gap between Manhattan voters, who support the Mayor's plan by a margin of 62 percent, and survey respondents in the other four boroughs. 

By way of comment on Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal and, perhaps, in response to Transportation Alternatives' recent bike vs. subway vs. taxi commuter contest, the author of Queens Crap, a blog focused on local development issues, conducted his own rush hour comparison test. Here are his results:

One month after unveiling the specifics of PlaNYC in his Earth Day speech, amidst a public debate about his congestion pricing plan, the Mayor's approval rating is near his record high. Crain's New York reports:

State Assembly Member Joan Millman's Downtown and brownstone Brooklyn district includes some of the most politically progressive, environmentally-conscious and traffic-choked neighborhoods of New York City -- neighborhoods that have been clamoring for traffic relief for years. Yet, Millman is, for now, opposed to Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. In a letter sent to constituents who contacted her office Millman cites five concerns, summed up as follows:

As The Politicker's Azi Paybarah reported yesterday, the anti-traffic relief group, "Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free" re-released its report, "Congestion Pricing in the Central Business District: Let's Look Hard Before We Leap." Commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the study calls into doubt the benefits of Mayor Bloomberg's proposed congestion pricing scheme, with some revised numbers from an earlier version they put out a few weeks ago.