Congestion zone could shrink

As the commission charged with studying traffic congestion in the city continues to hear testimony and examine recommendations, it appears that the original area for a congestion-pricing proposal may shrink by more than 25 blocks.
Marc Shaw, who is the head of the New York City Traffic Mitigation Congestion Commission, recently told Crain’s New York Business that the area proposed for a congestion pricing plan could begin at 60th Street instead of 86th Street.
“Because of the public hearings and the issues raised by the Assembly and others, a whole range of issues is being looked at,” Shaw told Crain’s.
However, some groups that have opposed any congestion pricing plan from the beginning said that any change in applicable zones would not do anything for the residents who drive into Manhattan from the other four boroughs.
“To soak the working and middle class and leave the super rich to run around scot-free smacks of a Manhattan-centric bias towards the four other boroughs that must end and end now,” said former City Councilmember Walter McCaffrey, who is a spokesperson for the Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free Commission. “The [Traffic Mitigation] Commission needs to reject any talk of plans that exacerbate unfairness and inefficiency.”
Discussions about a congestion pricing plan began earlier this year when Bloomberg announced a proposal that would charge car drivers $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan south of 86th Street on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in order to decrease congestion in the central business district as well as improve air quality in the area.
Members of the Bloomberg administration continue to trumpet the need for a congestion-pricing plan in the city.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel Doctoroff, said at a recent breakfast at York College that the city needs to implement a plan and that the Jamaica community would benefit from congestion pricing. Doctoroff said that only 4.5 percent of the people that live in Jamaica drive into Manhattan for work, and the other 95.5 percent of the people would benefit from the plan.
“Every single one of them will be benefited by the enormous investment in mass transit including express buses and ferry service, bus rapid transit and major mass transit projects like the Lower Manhattan-Jamaica rail line,” Doctoroff said. “We need to make those investments, and we believe we have a sensible plan to do that.”
The Traffic Mitigation Congestion Commission has until January 31, 2008 to present its recommendations to the state legislature, who has until March 31 to vote on the plan.