There are two good things I draw from the poll results: First, around thirty percent of Brooklyn and Queens residents and 26% of Bronx and Staten Island residents support congestion pricing. The opponents have a 2:1 majority in this poll, but they can't say that this is purely a Manhattan vs. the other boroughs issue when over a quarter of non-Manhattan residents support it.

The second is that less than half of the respondents reported having heard or read "a lot" about congestion pricing, and more than twenty percent of outer-borough respondents said they'd heard "Not much" or "not at all" about it. Outreach efforts by proponents could help change the minds of those people.

Some of the lines are wretchedly overcrowded, which makes for miserable commutes at times. While major capital improvements like SAS are vital, I think its also important to allocate some of the funds to whatever cheaper, "quick-fix" improvements can be implemented fast to ease some of the pain.

In any event, I'm 100% in favor, and happy to spread the gospel far and wide. I've contacted Millman and DeBlasio already.

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The best officials to write to now are those that directly represent you - City Council and State Legislature. http://www.nypirg.org has a "who represents you" section where you can type in zip code for a list of all your elected reps.

1. Only 41% say they have read or heard "A lot" about congestion pricing. This suggests that many people can be educated about how this will benefit them.

2. Anytime you ask about a negative like a new tax, you get a negative answer. When you explain how that tax money will be used or put the negative in light of the positive benefits the results can change dramatically. In an ideal world, congestion pricing wouldn't be needed, but in the real world trade-offs need to be made. Quinipiac is a good polling organization, but they should have put this into the context that the collection money would pay for transit improvements.

3. The fact that mass transit commuters are against congestion pricing at the same level as car commuters shows this lack of understanding. This is the low hanging fruit to generate support for congestion pricing: Outerborough mass transit commuters.

4. Let's look at the question that was posed to the respondents of this survey:

Some have suggested using congestion pricing to help relieve traffic in Manhattan. Do you support or oppose charging vehicle owners a fee to drive into Manhattan below 86th street on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM?

My mentor, Prof. Jon Krosnick would have a field day with this question.

First the only proposed benefit in the question is relieving traffic congestion in Manhattan, not in the outerboroughs that feed all that traffic into Manhattan. This pretty much explains the geographic imbalance of support. Future polls on this should incorporate the proposed use of the money collected for bus and train service into Manhattan.

Second, it does not accurately explain how the congestion charge would actually work. The highways would still be free. The tolls would be deductible from the charge. Both of these facts need to be included in future polls.

5. There is lots of good news in here:
- 59% of people think that traffic congestion is a major problem in the city and another 31% think it is somewhat serious.
- 34% of drivers like the idea of congestion pricing even with the poll's limitations that I have explained above.
- 45% think that congestion pricing would be good for the economy

Do not despair. Any good political pollster will see through these results. The Crain's poll was a better phrased question that received 45% approval earlier this month.

But the pressure is on the Bloomberg Administration to explain the outerborough benefits of the plan: More mass transit, Less traffic flowing through their congested areas, better travel times when you do need to drive, a more balanced allocation of cars across all of the east river crossings, etc