Editorial
All backed up
June 3rd, 2007

Gridlock in the city has its match in Albany, where a congestion-pricing pilot awaits the legislative green light

Traffic congestion in Manhattan is strangling the whole metropolitan region. And political congestion in Albany is preventing us from taking the most logical step to fix it.

The State Legislature will head home for the summer soon. If lawmakers take no action before then to allow the City of New York to set up a pilot congestion-pricing program, the city will miss its chance to get hundreds of millions of federal dollars. That carrot alone should be enough to break up the Albany gridlock, but so far, legislators are unmoved.

The proposal is to charge a user fee of $8 to cars entering Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Long Islanders, take note: Those who already pay bridge or tunnel tolls to Manhattan won't pay twice.)

Similar programs have reduced traffic congestion in Stockholm and London. The case of London is relevant, because it competes directly with New York as a world financial capital. Anything that keeps New York from working as well as London threatens our economy.

There's no doubt congestion hurts. A study by the Partnership for New York City, a business group, estimates the cost at $13 billion in wasted gas, wasted time, lost output and lost jobs. The jams spill from Manhattan into busy neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn, and the effect slows the whole region.

More gridlock on the horizon
In the years ahead, it's only going to get worse. By 2030, the city's population is expected to increase by a million. Where will they live? How will they get around the increasingly backed-up streets? In a region where asthma is already far too prevalent, how will they avoid illnesses caused by more tailpipe pollution, a scourge that affects Long Islanders as well?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has tried to answer those questions with a smart, sustainable and comprehensive agenda for the years between now and 2030. Congestion pricing is only one among 127 initiatives in the plan, but it's the one causing the biggest controversy now.

The real tax
Opponents - including Long Island legislators - like to label the congestion pricing a new tax. But as the Partnership for New York City report shows, the real tax is congestion itself. Every day, it takes time and money from hundreds of thousands of us, all over the region.

To cite just one example, it saps the profitability of firms that rely on the cost-effectiveness of just-in-time supply chains. Sadly, "just in time" is a scarce commodity in Manhattan.

In contrast, the congestion-pricing fee would not be a true tax, simply because you don't have to pay it. You can avoid it by staying out of the most jammed part of Manhattan during those busiest hours. That's the whole idea: to fix what some economists like to call a "market failure" by applying market techniques. Don't ban people from midtown. Just give them an economic incentive to find a better way to get around.

Beyond curbing congestion, the new fee would provide a reliable revenue source to plug the yawning gap between the cost of the region's mass-transit needs and the funding available from more traditional sources. The money from the program would provide more mass-transit alternatives in the city and in its suburbs. Long Island Rail Road commuters would benefit directly.

Even before the first fee is paid under this pilot, the region could get federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation's "National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network." Over three years, the strategy holds out $1.2 billion in a variety of initiatives. The deadline this year has passed, but the department is believed to like New York's impressively comprehensive approach enough to entertain a late push for the funding.

The clock is ticking

So, if the State Legislature can summon up the will, there's still a chance for New York to get some of this money, to defray the cost of setting up the system and to make some early mass transit improvements that can help it work.

At the moment, however, prospects in Albany are poor. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has yet to elevate this to the short list of must-resolve issues in the closing days. He may feel that this is one heavy lift too many, or that he hasn't had enough time to study it. In any case, he needs to use his clout to help make this happen.

But Spitzer is not the only problem. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), whose district is in lower Manhattan, must get off the dime. And lawmakers from Long Island and the outer boroughs must look at the big picture, not the small number of their constituents who drive to work in Manhattan.

All it takes is a bare-bones bill giving the city a yellow light to proceed and Albany a right to review details later. That could get the city federal funds, the first big step toward fixing congestion.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-vpuno035239606jun03,0,6602859.story

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