From WCBS-TV via Second Ave. Sagas:

The pressure has been mounting on the legislature to pass the mayor's [congestion pricing] proposal, but when lawmakers are under pressure they tend to get creative ... CBS 2 HD learned that a number of alarmed lawmakers are floating creative ways to ease traffic and reduce pollution without charging a congestion fee.

The first idea would involve dropping the price to ride the bus or subway during rush hour from $2 to 50 cents.

The second idea is to increase bridge and tunnel tolls to $6 between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., as well as 3 p.m. through 7 p.m. Under that plan, tolls would be reduced to just $2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A third idea is what one lawmakers calls "Odds Your In." That idea proposes odd number license plates can enter the business district on odd number days and even number plates can enter on even numbered days. The odds and evens system would also work for truck deliveries, who could also limit deliveries on certain streets to certain days of the week. Deliveries could also be limited to the nighttime only.

Writes Second Ave. blogger Benjamin Kabak:

As the point of the congestion fee is to discourage driving while taking in money to improve the city’s infrastructure, it doesn’t make any sense to cut the fare by, in effect, 67 percent at peak times. The MTA would have to triple its ridership just to meet its current fare revenues. And tripling the ridership, besides being impossible, would overwhelm the subway system well beyond the point of collapse.

The toll plan suffers from the same lack of foresight. Tolls are already pretty expensive; a bump to $6 wouldn’t do much. But the rebound -- $2 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. -- would simply push more people to drive when tolls are dirt cheap. I’m not even going to mention the even/odd license plate proposal. That solves no problems, and good luck enforcing it.

In the end, none of these proposals approach the subtlety and thoroughness of Mayor Bloomberg’s original idea.

Photo: Gak/Flickr