Walking Is Transportation

WILL NYC's FUTURE RESEMBLE ITS RECENT PAST?

Our garden, fall, 2008

WHAT DOES RECESSION LOOK LIKE?

Nobody knows two things: How long the recession will last, and how to fix it.

But some things actually are knowable. Like how the city looks when it's in the throes of a budget crisis (state government has its own, even more serious budget crisis as well).

We got to see what that looks like up close during the 1970s, when Republican President Gerald Ford famously dismissed the city's appeal for financial help, telling the residents of our nearly bankrupt city to drop dead. In time, we got used to inhabiting a common space that was unremittingly dirty, frequently depressing and often dangerous.

For years, as the city rebuilt its financial standing--decades in some parts of the city--public spaces like parks got only the barest upkeep. Some, like High Bridge Park in Upper Manhattan, were ceded to the elements and to an informally encamped homeless population. The best that could be said of the subways was that they functioned fairly well most of the time. We assumed high crime rates the way we assumed cold weather in the winter.

To live in New York was no longer to live at the center of the universe. To live in New York was to be a survivor.

Now it seems the grim set of New York survival skills we learned in the late 20th century will come in handy in the early 21st. Including the understanding that when desperately poor people are without hope, they do what they think they have to, in order to get by.

What's different this time is the possibility that Barack Obama may actually be able to achieve even some of the goals we associate with him and an Obama administration. Which includes helping people do more than just get by.

Part of what I voted for, a big part, was the ability to feel hopeful again.

Congestion Pricing, Take 3

Attic window transoms with stained-glass insets, St. George, Staten Island

LATER TODAY, Thursday, January 24, 2008, the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission will hold hearings in each of the 'outer' boroughs on five plans designed to reduce vehicular congestion in Manhattan's Central Business District while generating revenue for major mass transit improvements citywide.

I have submitted to the Commission written testimony about the plans, which appears later in this entry.

GO AHEAD, CALL ME A FLIP-FLOPPER

I know; I know.

First I supported Mayor Bloomberg's original Congestion Pricing plan and testified in favor of it at a hearing of the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission (TCMC) late last fall.

But even as one of the plan's ardent supporters, I had to admit it sounded awfully complicated and seemed pretty expensive just to implement.

Then I thought I liked the sound of tolling the East River bridges--a simpler means of discouraging private car commuting into Manhattan's Central Business District. Not only was the bridge tolling plan projected to yield greater income than the mayor's plan; it was also projected to yield greater reductions in traffic congestion as well.

But like the original, this plan had some serious flaws.

The bridge-tolling plan charges for all trips into and out of Manhattan all the time. So it cannot distinguish between trips when traffic is light from trips that occur when congestion is heaviest. And it fails to charge for trips that start and end within Manhattan, where congestion is greatest. Further, how ever unintentionally, the bridge-tolling plan tends to penalize particular classes of drivers and particular locations, some of them small commercial vehicle operators and many of them low- and moderate-income motorists, disproportionately from Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

I SUPPORT THE ALTERNATIVE CONGESTION PRICING PLAN

Of the three remaining plans being considered by the Commission, one fails to reduce traffic congestion adequately; the other fails to generate income for mass transit improvements. So neither of these can be considered viable. The remaining proposal, called The Alternative Congestion Pricing Plan, is a streamlining of the mayor's original PlaNYC proposal with significantly lower capital and operating costs. It also satisfies the revenue and traffic reduction mandates upon which funding by the Federal Department of Transportation depends.

Here's a profile of the Alternative Congestion Pricing Plan, taken from an interim report of the TCMC:

"The alternative congestion pricing plan is a modified approach to congestion pricing that eliminates the intra-zonal charge [$4] . . . charges inbound trips only, and moves the northern boundary of the charging zone to 60th Street [NOTE: The original plan's northern boundary was 86th Street.] Cars would be charged an $8 fee to drive into the zone on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Trucks would pay $21, except for low-emission trucks, which would pay $7. Under this fee-based plan, drivers would pay once upon entering the charging zone and would be able to make additional trips in and out of the zone at no additional cost. For E-Z Pass users, the value of all tolls paid on MTA or Port Authority bridges and tunnels would be deducted from the fee up to $8." [The alternative plan includes three additional measures affecting taxi/livery service vehicles, parking rates, and parking tax exemptions.]

MY WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO THE COMMISSION

Greetings to the Commissioners.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my views on this important topic. My name is Dan Icolari. I'm a 30-year resident of Staten Island; the founder of Walking is Transportation.com and a co-founder of the St. George Civic Association and the Preservation League of Staten Island. I've served on Community Board 1 and am a member of numerous Staten Island civic and cultural organizations.

As I did at an earlier hearing, I would like to declare support for the concept of congestion pricing as an approach with many benefits to offer residents of every New York City borough. Chief among these are (1)
Reduction of negative health and conduct-of-business impacts of traffic congestion; (2) Development of a new funding source for mass transit improvements; and (3) Positive impact on climate change--a global
problem with potentially life-threatening consequences for our city.

Of the several plans proposed by the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, I support The Alternative Congestion Pricing Plan. I base my support on the alternative plan's reduced complexity
lower cost and greater ease of implementation. I believe these attributes offset the alternative plan's various weaknesses, as enumerated by the Commissioners in their interim report.

Thank you for your consideration.