| I'd thought that the brilliant point of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing approach was that it would put more folks coming in from suburbia on trains for their long journeys into Manhtattan. Today, we have a reply from Assemblyman Brodsky (D-Westchester), who seems intent on putting Manhattan pedestrians on the subway so that his constituents can drive more cheaply to work.
How? Start cab fares at $6.50, a $4 increase. Then reduce the fees for extra distances, so that cabs would get more use for destinations like JFK - places where we should probably be encouraging people to take public transit instead.
He'd also jump up a lot of fines, require less idling in public places (that part's worth doing anyway), and hope that the federal government didn't realize just how strange a plan this was when considering eligibility for traffic congestion grants.
One of my favorite jokes about New York City is the small army of designated-drivers at the ready in yellow cars, but generally, despite their being cars, the taxis are a necessary supplement to a system that lets people be pedestrians most of the time. I have a hard time seeing how Brodsky's vision can do anything but damage that key advantage to Manhattan's pedestrian culture.
I know, I know - it's all about constituent service, and Brodsky's constituents have lots of cars. So do lots of Assembly members. (And so do Dryden residents - but I take the bus to NYC these days!)
It could, of course, be worse. |
