Bloomberg has enlisted diverse backers for his proposal to charge most cars (but not taxis) $8, and trucks $21 or more, to enter Manhattan below 86th Street each weekday between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Fees would be lower for drivers who start their trip within the zone or who pay a bridge or tunnel toll coming in. City Hall's roster of supporters includes business groups, environmental advocates, transit experts and even some elected officials whose constituents would pay the fees.
Disagreement over the plan has largely been depicted as another mano a mano affair between Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (The latter's approval is critical because the state has to sign off on any kind of tolling.) But it's not just those two butting heads – the state Senate, City Council and much of the business community also harbor opposition. A Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce survey released at Friday's forum at Polytechnic University, for instance, found that while almost all respondents thought congestion was a serious problem, fewer than half backed the mayor's solution. Even supporters say the mayor's plan is imperfect.
"If the question is congestion pricing versus an alternative plan that works better, I'll be for that [other] plan," Brooklyn Councilmember David Yassky told the forum. "But that plan is not out there. So if it's congestion pricing versus nothing, then I support it."
Indeed, no coherent alternative to the pricing plan has gained consensus. There are, however, a slew of other ideas on how to reduce the city's traffic and improve air quality. The question is whether they'd work.
Back in December, a City Hall spokesman said the mayor felt congestion pricing "probably won't pass in Albany," a statement that could prove prophetic—and may be why a list of other traffic-easing policies is part of PlaNYC, the administration's far-reaching urban planning blueprint that introduced congestion pricing. These include funding already-planned projects like the Second Avenue subway, offering more ferry service and launching new "bus rapid transit" routes that allow buses to move faster. But PlaNYC argues that mass transit improvements alone won't get enough tires off the streets.
Opponents of congestion pricing say there are even more options. Brooklyn City Councilmember Lewis Fidler argues that acting on a long-standing proposal to build a freight tunnel between New Jersey and Brooklyn could get a million trucks off New York City's roads each year. Better connecting Staten Island to mass transit and relocating the Gowanus Expressway underground would also help, Fidler adds. So could a serious effort by the federal government to end Americans' dependence on pollution-producing combustion engines – an ambitious idea, to say the least, given that the feds haven't even updated car fuel economy standards in 17 years. "It's a pretty grand scheme," Fidler admits. "Not any more grand than congestion pricing."
