If we assume that our elected officials have a modicum of integrity and really do believe in what they do, it’s a fair assumption that they imagine that their constituents are like them, and depend on their cars.

The way to win this debate, I believe, is to help make our elected officials understand just how different they are from their constituents, that it’s abnormal to have a car in Manhattan or Downtown Brooklyn.

“I’ve been thinking about why congestion pricing is having more trouble in the Assembly than with the City Council.” Does anyone have a vote count in the City Council? Or does all the focus on Albany allow arms to be twisted and deals proffered in relative obscurity on the City Council? If that is the case Christine Quinn gets many props for political savvy in the face of obtuse obtructionism.

Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell said pretty much the same thing to a bunch of enviro groups when we pressed him on why he is so against CP. He literally said “I need a car in Albany”

This really blew me away when I found out about it: they commute to Albany. I figured they stayed there for a few days at a time, and I assumed that some of them took Amtrak. But in the Gerritsen Beach video, Senator Golden and another state official joke about speeding while driving home from Albany.

On the flip side he does have a lot of residents of NYCHA housing that have oceans of low cost parking around them – so maybe he feels he represents both the priviledged wealthy like himself and the entitled public housing residents. Funny how the middle class in Manhattan gets squeezed in that case – can’t afford a car, don’t qualify for nearly free surface parking

I don’t see why that’s the question at all. Congestion pricing is a system for regulating traffic generally, not a system for cutting it back in keeping with whatever rigged proportions exist at its implementation.It’s a bummer to someone who lives near a PA entrance, because your instantaneous benefit is not so large as those near bridges that are presently free, but please try to look at the larger picture.

We’re trying to decrease traffic from all sources, incrementally. The fee is starting off at $8. Eventually, (and this is something that support will have to build up to as the benefits are seen) we can hope to reduce traffic much more, maybe a 30% reduction. That’s going to mean a lot fewer yellow-gradient license tags bearing down on you in the crosswalks. (Hey, it they piss me off too.) Less traffic, less pollution, less noise, longer ped crossing times, busses that work. Please think a bit down the line when you ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?”

I’m usually against term limits, but in this case, I’m starting to see the benefits. Almost everyone who actually lives and works in the city realizes the benefits of congestion pricing, but if you work most of the time out of Albany, you have become dependent on your car. And you think your constituents are like you.

Similarly, too much time in government, and you stop taking transit, since you get a placard.

Killing the toll offset is just problematic – are you going to charge someone $16.30 for using tolled crossings and only $8 for using a now-free bridge? Say goodbye to your traffic benefits, Downtown Brooklyn! One way congestion pricing reduces vehicle miles traveled is by nearly equalizing the cost of using any crossing, stopping drivers from going out of their way to get a cheaper toll.

Even killing the offset just for the PA crossings doesn’t successfully put the burden on out-of-state residents; are there no New Yorkers who drive to work in New Jersey? And if one could manage to kill the offset only for non-NYC residents (a tax rebate, maybe?) it would just be unfair in my opinion, and politically poisonous unless you get rid of the offset just for NJ and the handful of CT drivers.

I understand your point about NJ’s Turnpike tolls, although that proposal looks dead at this point. But an argument that they want to gouge us, so we should gouge them, is not a very good one.

Congestion pricing makes sure that everyone entering Lower Manhattan pays at least $8. It’s the status quo that is unbalanced.

And, can i point out, no NY poll will lose his job by taxing a NJ commuter, so why doesn’t the proposal exempt NJ commuters from receiving the offset? They use NYC services just like everyone else without contributing in kind.

While this idea of reduced traffic and a corresponding reduction in air pollution in our neighborhoods is appealing, congestion pricing is especially important because the residents of New York City should not carry the burden for the entire metropolitan area while others use our bridges and tunnels without having to pay a fee.

Fixed that for you, Denny.