NYC Hopes to Make Too Expensive to Drive

[devilgrrl]

Interesting.....

NYC Hopes to Make Too Expensive to Drive
By KAREN MATTHEWS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
June 07, 2007 4:17 PM EDT

NEW YORK - New York City, where tolls are $6 and putting your car in a parking garage for just an hour can run you $20, is already an expensive place to drive. Now the mayor wants to make it so costly some people won't even bother driving and will take mass transit instead.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing to reduce traffic and pollution by charging cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan.

New York would become the first U.S. city to adopt a "congestion pricing" plan of this magnitude. The proposal is similar to a system that London has used since 2003, and officials there say it has significantly reduced congestion.

The idea got a boost Thursday from U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who announced that New York is one of nine semifinalists to receive federal funds to fight traffic.

"This plan would keep the city that never sleeps from becoming the city that never moves," Peters said of the congestion pricing plan.

More:

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20070607/466782c0_3ca6_1552620070607-1027330373

[monktonman]

1. General Motors and Ford will never accept this.

then some Dem will turn around and write a bill
making what Bloomberg is trying to do illegal.
Just like the proposed emissions changes.

[Captain Angry]

2. From what I've seen in interviews with London's mayor...

The only people allowed to park their personal vehicle in town are handicapped people.

Otherwise, it's the bus. He rides the bus, others ride bicycles. He said the biggest problem was that if you want people to not drive, you need to give them amazing public transport. That means clean, reliable and safe.

I wish we had smarter busing where I live. For me to get 5 miles across town, I would have to leave by bus 2 hours early and switch 3 times. This, in a city of 120,000.

[aquart]

3. Well, that's not New York.

What this obscene charge does is clear the streets for the limousines, the Mercedes, BMWs, and all the other conveniences rich men drive. Trump will never be stuck in Manhattan traffic again. My white-haired mom, on a fixed income, however, will not be able to visit me in my home.

When you tell me the limos are gone, too, I'll go along with the charge. But this is just to push the peasants underground so the rich can drag race on Broadway.

[Book Lover]

4. Exactly!

If Bloomberg wanted to reduce congestion by reducing the number of vehicles on the roads of one of the five boroughs he's supposted to be responsible for, he'd try to ban them outright. This is just another rich man's tax on the little people.

[glowing]

5. And add costs to things coming into the city.

Trucks driving into the city...$21.00. How many come into the city for delivery of services and goods.. that will add to the cost overall.

[nerddem]

11. sweet, i wanted to take my z3 up to cruise around anyway.

but i'm certainly not a rich man, i just appreciate good engineering

[SOS]

6. Good news

The noise, air pollution and traffic jams are sickening.
New York surpassed LA last year for the title of "most polluted air in America".

Ride the subway, take a bus or hop on a bike.


(The rich/poor argument doesn't work in NYC. The Lincoln Tunnel is already $6. Under the new plan it goes to $8.)

[Book Lover]

7. So? The 59th Street Bridge is free

And under this plan, free jumps to $8/day. Now tell me again how the rich/poor argument doesn't work.

[SOS]

14. The traffic on the Manhattan side

of the 59th St. is outrageous. The quality of life around 59th and Second is drowned in a sea of cars and trucks.
60,000 daily bus riders on the First and Second Avenue M15 line are delayed by hours, due to the bridge traffic.
And why is it that public transit riders have to pay $4 a day to commute into Manhattan on the subway, while people rich enough to own a car in NYC drive in for free?
It's poor, working class and middle class people riding the train to work every day and they're all paying $4 a day.

At $3.75 a gallon it costs $90 just to fill the tank once. Insurance is $2,500 a year. Parking is $450 a month. Double parking gets a $110 ticket.

$8 doesn't seem excessive or unfair.

The argument isn't really between rich and poor.

It's between the 77% of New Yorkers who don't even own a car and their suburban counterparts who prefer driving to mass transit.

[Lorien]

8. I agree. Why anyone would WANT to drive there when such good public

transportation is available is beyond me. Gandhi's quote "live simply so that others may simply live" applies here. It's easier in every respect to take the subway/ metro in cities like NYC, Paris, London, Portland, etc. and once you've had a taste of it, you wonder why every other metropolitan area doesn't have a similar system. I sure wish that Orlando did; being stuck on the I-4 "parking lot" for two hours a day ain't my idea of fun. And I'm sure that asthma isn't fun for the millions that have it, either.

[jumptheshadow]

9. I support this plan 100 percent

It helps make our air cleaner and cuts down on noise and fuel consumption. One of the best things about it is that public transportation will be built to areas that currently don't have it before these laws go into effect.

I ride the subway twice a day. Other people can, too.

[Redstone]

10. I think it's fair, and I'd pay it if I wanted to drive in Manhattan. But how are they

going to collect it? Tollbooths on every street?

Redstone

[Firespirit]

12. It won't work

I'm truly astounded at how people have just adapted to $3/gallon gasoline without changing their habits -- in fact, by driving MORE. Those who are stuck in their habits will just budget the extra cost. Complain about it, yes, but budget it and adapt.

This will mean more revenue for the city, however, which could be put toward other pollution reduction measures.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Good.

The traffic in this city is sickening. Personally, I think they should make entire areas of the city completely traffic free except for service lanes.

And I am not buying the whole rich/poor argument either. If you don't have money, you really shouldn't be driving into the city anyway considering the price of gas, tolls, parking, tickets, etc. They should of course make exceptions for the disabled and elderly.