I appreciate your empathy because I take the same "failure of perspective" approach in not painting every congestion tax supporter with a broad brush that everyone is an "evil doer" or worse.

Corey, I was very disappointed to hear that Eric Gioia was booed at a recent Queens Civic Congress meeting for voting to approve congestion pricing. I hope you reprimanded those who showed such contempt for Western Queens and its representatives. Eric voted the way he did because he knows what's good for his district and what his constituents want.

Is it the Queens Civic Congress, or the Eastern Queens Civic Congress? Is there room for people who live in a city and like it that way?

Why should New Jerseyans pay anymore than the $8 we already pay 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with only a $2 EZ Pass discount for off-peak times?!?!

How much additional CP money that New Jersey drivers are expected to pay would go towards the new ARC Hudson River Rail Tunnels and Penn Station?!?!

Trust me I'm a CP supporter and my car has never seen a Manhattan street but this is still a bit of a rub.

Andy B

PS - My car doesn't have EZ-Pass. Big Brother already knows enough about me but then again I very rarely ever drive on toll roads to begin with. In fact, I barely drive at all as of late!

I'll tell you who doesn't have EZ Pass: people who rent cars, people who use Zip cars, people who share cars, transients and visitors (not all of whom are rich tourists to be soaked. In other words, people who only drive when they must.

Hilary, rental cars and Zipcars come with EZPass:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/03/travel_car_rentals.html
http://www.zipcar.com/help/during#tolls

I have no idea why people who share cars wouldn't share an EZPass - or own one themselves. I don't know what you mean by "transients." Visitors? From where? I thought we were trying to encourage car-dependent visitors to park at park-and-rides and take the train in.

EZPass is not really about rewarding driving more, it's rewarding saving the city money by using an automatic transponder. Systems like London that don't rely on an EZ-Pass end up having much higher administrative costs. Therefore there's less money going to transit from the congestion charge in London as there will be in NY. The greater the percentage of the people who use EZPass to enter the charging zone, the more money that goes to transit.

I would wager that the admin. costs for a non-EZPass user are MUCH higher than the EZPass user... Perhaps even more than the extra dollar that it will cost them (stamps for bills, someone to read/verify the license plates, etc). The EZpass transaction will probably cost the city a couple of cents to process.

Only the elite have EZPasses? I see them pretty well distributed in middle class neighborhoods... People who commute by car or go around in the region use EZPass because it COSTS LESS.

Also, an extra *$1* fee constitutes "soaking?" Really? It's going to cost a lot more in administration to charge the non-ez-pass holders. Isn't it fair that they should pay for this extra administration due to their Luddite views?

Why would ANYONE rent a car and bring it into the congestion zone when you could just take a taxi for less money and not have to pay for parking? That seems like a red herring to me.

Are we supposed to make policy decisions based on the behavior of "transients (hobos?)" and "visitors" who have enough money to park in the CBD? Is that what you're proposing?

I'll tell you who doesn't have EZ Pass: people who rent cars, people who use Zip cars, people who share cars, transients and visitors (not all of whom are rich tourists to be soaked. In other words, people who only drive when they must. Charging them more is as perverse an incentive as discounting for bulk use of energy.

Yes we want all vehicles to make use of the technology. Let its efficiency be its own reward. No discounts.

EZPass saves you money on all bridge and tunnel crossings... I don't know if any regular car commuters could afford NOT to have one.

No Mark, keep your understanding. It doesn't matter if some or even most of those people are nice individually. As a group, they seek the lowest common denominator of the most selfish interests of their most selfish members. For an explanation of this by someone smarter than I am, read the excerpts from R. Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society" I posted here:

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/spitzer_suozzi_and_reinhold_niebuhr.html

Between indivual niceness and the interest of unearned privilege lies a powerful capacity for rationalization, or simply for not considering the effect of oneself on others rather than vice versa. And a general lack of compassion.

Obviously I also think that they're wrong and we're right, but I think a lot of that is due to misinformation and failures of perspective - as illustrated by the shock and disbelief that many Queens politicians express when they discover that there are Queens residents who support congestion pricing. Some are cynical and calculating, but it seems clear to me that many really believe that they are fighting for the underdog, for the beleaguered middle class.

Feel free to fault them for their lack of vision, for their inability to empathize with transit riders, for their unwillingness to question their colleagues or take a stand. Especially, feel free to fault those who fight for their donors and friends over the interests of their constituents at large, or for their own generation over the generations to come. But don't lose sight of the fact that they're humans just like all of us. They made mistakes and bad choices. I have too, and I'm guessing you have as well.

Even the worst enemy can be on the right side of an issue. As was mentioned recently, Pataki vetoed right-on-red for Staten Island. Bruno supports congestion pricing. Silver vetoed the West Side stadium.

In the words of Mr. Spock, "There is the old Vulcan proverb: only Nixon could go to China." Maybe it will take Mayor Weiner to pass congestion pricing.

URL is too long to post.