Any tolling system needs a system for visitors or a 'guest pass' system. Ours is no different. We simply offer a better, more flexible and cost effective 'backbone' to the congestion pricing scheme.

In Stockholm, visitor passes can be purchased from 7/11. A similar approach, plus online and text registration for guest passes could be used in New York City.

Also, we are not a bus-type 'tracking' system that uses real-time information - which causes the difficulty around signal loss. In fact, our system uses a patented 4-step error-removal process to accurately record when a vehicle has been in the pricing zone, where it has parked and what the resultant charges are.

In terms of PAYD Insurance, the suggestion of odometer use becomes overly bureaucratic and does not do anything to adjust rates according to the risk of road use. For instance it is much riskier to drive down Broadway at noon than it is at 4am. Premiums could differentiate based on Time, Distance and Location. But hey, if you don't want to save money on insurance, this is an optional add-on enabled by our system - not a mandatory approach.

Our technology enables an entire paradigm shift akin to the one created by the introduction of iTunes and iPods. By connecting road use to payment, we offer the ability for motorists to realize the savings connected to better, more efficient, more optimal transportation choices.

Other fees can be changed to a Pay as You Go basis - from leasing and maintenance plans to vehicle registration fees, licensing and of course, Gas Taxes.

If we are not smart enough as a species to rationalize transportation economics, perhaps we don't deserve to survive too much longer!?

In addition I want to second the comments of Sproule Love on these pages regarding Mr. Brodsky's behavior at this hearing. I'm glad someone else noticed. While he had the decency to show up his insouciance on the dias was disturbing at best and downright insulting at worst. He literally was doodling on the backs of presentation summaries for the length of the proceedings. The only time he could be bothered to look up was when Mel Peffers donning a grim reaper costume began to address the panel.
I can only hope that the outfit she was wearing serves as a harbinger for Mr. Brodsky's reelection hopes.
While I wasn't close enough to notice exactly what he was sketching I'd like to think it was one of his constituents driving their Escalade into the CBD during peak hours and being forced to fork over their 8 bucks. Ahhh dare to dream.

In addition, New York has had poor experience with GPS systems to monitor buses in the past, allegedly because of the tall buildings.

And why do we need GPS for pay-as-you-drive insurance? My car has this nifty device called an odometer, that works something like a unifunctional cyclecomputer without the "reset" button. I could imagine buying insurance in 6,000 mile blocks just as today I buy insurance in six-month blocks; say, insurance from 34,000 miles to 40,000 miles, instead of from January through July.

This drives home the point that the neighborhoods that benefit from Pricing aren't just the ones in the zone, but those on the way TO the zone.

While the sentiment of the plan and it's goals are laudable, it's just unfortunate that it calls for antiquated equipment that other Cities are roundly rejecting for its high capital and operating costs. The brutish, ugly gantries will have anyone who cares a lick about urban design suffering nightmares while the high operating costs won't deliver nearly the quantity of benefits that would be conveyed to the citizens of New York with a more modern, Satellite-based system that charges for distance, not just for entering a certain area.

It seems that EZ-Pass has the DoT convinced that their market share should dictate that New York use its' last-century tolling system instead of the best new systems available for road and parking pricing (not to mention Pay As You Drive Insurance!)

I imagine that sitting through these meetings is tedious for members of the commission, but everyone else on the panel was clearly paying at least some attention. Watching Brodsky ignore Sandy Noel discuss her concern for her children's heath made my stomach turn. If there are any members of Brodsky's constituency reading this, please consider withdrawing your support for this guy. His indifference really stood out.

Add this insulting display of nonchalance to Brodsky and other’s misguided contention that CP hits the middle class unfairly and I'm left feeling very disillusioned about this process. Why don't Brodsky and Corey Bearak of Keep NYC CP Free acknowledge Bruce Schaller's studies that confirm the TSTC.org statistics that Erik Shilling’s posted above. Schaller’s work shows that only 5% of New Yorkers drive to work in Manhattan, and those that do drive in have higher incomes than transit riders. Bearak’s ignorance of Schaller's work on this issue is particularly irksome considering that the recent report put out by his group cites no fewer than three Schaller studies (see p. 37).

Regarding the testimony we heard in the Bronx, Richard Gans also made a great point that drivers should not consider driving into Manhattan for free to be their right, when buses and subway trips are not free. He also urged the panel to consider Bloomberg's smoking ban as an example of another crucial health policy initiative that was previously thought to be politically impossible but has since proven to be a success.

As a Harlem resident, I agree with the proposal that Curtis Still of CB 10 put forward to extend the CP zone above 86th St., but I acknowledge that this may not be feasible in the pilot program. The experience in London shows that traffic outside their CP zone didn't appreciably increase, demonstrating once again the reverse of the "if you build it they will come" principal that has reigned supreme in U.S. transportation circles for decades. If you make it harder to drive, people will drive less overall.

I encourage anyone interested in congestion pricing to attend one of the remaining meetings. It is an illuminating experience to say the least.