Let NYC Study Pay-to-Drive Plan

It's a way to relieve traffic congestion

October 8, 2006

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/...
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Now we have an actual dollars-and-jobs estimate of what Manhattan traffic congestion is costing this region. It's so bad that an important business group suggests looking at, among other ideas, charging cars a fee to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan at the busiest times. So the City of New York should quickly apply for federal funding to study what can be done and how it might work in practice.

Earlier this week, the Partnership for New York City released a study estimating that Manhattan traffic congestion is a $13-billion a year hit on the region, including wasted fuel, lost productivity and other costs. It estimates that congestion results in a loss of as many as 52,000 new jobs a year. The study, based heavily on the work of two respected firms, HDR Decision Economics and the PB Consult unit of Parsons Brinckerhoff, merits serious attention.

If nothing is done, the flow of traffic into Manhattan will grow by 20 percent in the next 20 years. And if local politicians don't stand up, there's a good chance that nothing will get done. “Congestion pricing” took two decades to get going in London. Finally, Ken Livingstone ran for mayor in 2000, made it a key issue, and won. The city's camera-based system of collecting fees started three years ago, and since then, car-traffic and bus delays have declined.

Here in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not ready to push for congestion pricing. Fine, but that's no reason why the city shouldn't get federal money to study methods of curbing congestion and ways of mitigating negative impacts of the changes. A study does not obligate the city to adopt any plan. New York can't afford to stick its head in the sand and pretend that this problem is going to go away. A traffic-choked great city can't continue to thrive.