Posted on 06/11/2007 10:08:07 PM PDT by neverdem
ALBANY, June 11 — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, in his strongest language yet against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge people who drive into the most congested parts of Manhattan during the day, questioned the health benefits of the proposal yesterday. He also suggested that many of the environmental goals Mr. Bloomberg has outlined could be accomplished without congestion pricing.
His comments suggested that two hours of testimony by Mayor Bloomberg at an Assembly hearing on Friday had not swayed the Democrats who control the chamber. Mr. Silver even seemed to outline new concerns, saying that the plan could actually hurt areas with high asthma rates.
“The children of the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Harlem, among others, are the ones who have been exposed to a lot of pollutants,” he said. Not only would those neighborhoods not benefit from the plan, he said, “some of those areas will become parking lots with people driving around the neighborhoods looking for parking spots in order to avoid congestion pricing fees.”
“There is a plan that can be put together that would obviously alleviate the environmental negativism of what takes place in Manhattan right now,” he said, but added that it could be done “with or without” congestion pricing.
Mr. Silver’s remarks came on the heels of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s endorsement of the mayor’s proposal last week. And it followed the Assembly’s first hearing on the matter on Friday, at which the mayor offered a lengthy defense of his proposal, though Mr. Silver himself was not present.
Congestion pricing is the centerpiece of Mr. Bloomberg’s wide-ranging plan to ease traffic and improve air quality over the next several decades. His plan would impose an $8 fee on cars and a $21 fee on commercial trucks that enter the part of Manhattan below...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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I think it would be a good idea to test. Congestion pricing, once started, may never end, like so many idiotic laws that never come off the books.
Good idea, but the biggest problem with a plan like that is the burden it places on a small retail operation that would be forced to pay staff to be on duty throughout the night to accept deliveries. The only practical way to do this is to build the delivery restrictions into the zoning law whenever a property owner applies for a variance or a change in zoning.
Last time I had to go (way) downtown starting from the GW Bridge I parked up at 96th street and took a subway down. It saved me maybe half an hour going in and over an hour getting out. Why not have subway Park & Rides at the boundaries of the city?
When I drive in NYC it seems a lot of the congestion is where someone, usually a delivery truck, has double parked. So two or three lanes squeeze into one and it backs up all the way into the intersections. If the ordinances against double parking were enforced the congestion would be greatly reduced. Maybe all the business districts would have to become loading areas but it would be worth it.
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