Deal finally reached to allow congestion price to proceed in New York City

New York's state legislative leaders, the state governor and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg finally reached agreement today on a deal which allows central area tolls (CAT) or congestion pricing to proceed. The deal is being interpreted slightly differently by the different participants and could still fall apart, but it is certainly a revival of what had looked dead on Monday.

Key provisions in legislation now supported by Republican and Democrat leaders in house and senate are:

- authorization for New York City to proceed with the Mayor's congestion pricing scheme up to the point where it is ready to begin charging tolls

- establishment of a 17 person New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission comprising representatives of the city administration, city council, the senate, the state house and the governor's office to review the plans and report

- following a City Council resolution in favor of tolling the legislature will then consider second stage legislation authorizing it

Mayor Bloomberg issued a statement suggesting congestion pricing is as good as done:

"This agreement to move forward with congestion pricing marks a critical milestone in our efforts to make PlaNYC a reality, and to provide a better quality of life for us and for future generations of New Yorkers.  By moving forward in our effort to clean our air and fight congestion, we will help our economy, improve public health and make critical improvements to our public transportation system.

"This agreement makes clear that delay was unacceptable and the need to protect our environment and fight congestion simply could not wait.  We will begin immediately to prepare for the installation of needed equipment to make our traffic plan a reality.    
 
"This agreement also creates a commission made up of representatives of our Administration, our partners in the City Council, Senate, and Assembly and from the Governor’s office to review our plans for implementation.  I am certain that through our work with the commission, our traffic plan will be implemented expeditiously."

Governor Spitzer's statement read in part:

"Governor Eliot Spitzer, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco and Mayor Michael Bloomberg today reached an agreement to adopt a statute authorizing a New York City congestion pricing plan to address severe traffic congestion in Manhattan and its related public health, environmental and economic consequences.

"The bill creates a 17-member New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission composed of appointees of State and City officials. The Commission will review the City’s plan as well as other congestion mitigation proposals, and will develop a plan for implementing the traffic mitigation proposals. That implementation plan will be subject to review and approval by the State Legislature, following receipt of a resolution by the City Council. Under the agreed upon legislation, the City can begin necessary preparatory steps, but cannot impose any congestion pricing fees until the implementation plan has been approved by the State Legislature."

USDOT support claimed

Spitzer said in comments to journalists that US transport secretary Mary Peters had said that the New York City proposal is the best and most comprehensive of the proposals around for relieving congestion. That makes him confident that New York will get some $500m of aid toward the project.
State senate leader Joe Bruno broke the news at 1:30pm saying "We have a deal." The governor's office and Bloomberg were working on the detailed wording with legislative leaders.

The scheme would impose a $8/day charge for car trips into Manhattan south of 86th Street, with larger charges for trucks. Entirely open road tolling the scheme will use E-ZPass transponder readers and video tolling. Motorists without a transponder will have 48 hours from the time of their trip to make arrangements to pay, before they become a violator.

Prospects

Given that the City will proceed to build the system it seems to us that a trial at least is nearly certain to proceed. Opponents and skeptics may ask for a referendum after, say a year of operation, on whether to make the scheme permanent - as was done in Stockholm Sweden.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-07-19