More important, if you raise the cost of merely owning a car, the owners may feel more impelled to drive it because they want to get use from it. And I don't really object to people owning cars: it's over-use that bothers me. I still think the bridge tolls and "congestion" (badly needs a new name) charge are the best ways to go.

Planning Service Guidelines were instituted to assure that each route is provided with adequate levels of service. The MTA would use these guidelines to justify existing service levels when responding to claims that lines were underserved and to justify past service cuts.

Now that ridership is at a 40 year high, and service cuts cannot be made under existing off-peak guidelines of a 100% seated load, the MTA arbitrarily changes the guidelines to 125% seated load which means that there will be four seats for every five people riding, on average. In other words, there will be a 20% chance you will have to stand for most of your trip during non-rush hours.

Changes to these guidelines should require approval of the State Legislature, providing an incentive for the MTA to first remove its inefficiencies before taking such drastic actions as cutting service and raising the fare. These actions will chase away the new riders that it took so long to attract. We must never get back into that downward spiral of higher fares and less service resulting in fewer riders, less revenue and less maintenance before the cycle starts all over again.

To be fair, I guess Marty Markowitz (to use one example) is doing his job by opposing measures that would cost his some of his constituents money, but this just reinforces the need for leadership from Bloomberg and Paterson.

Through his near total silence on these issues today, we now see that Brodsky never had any intention to try to address these problems or address transportation policy and financing in any substantial way. Brodsky's only objective was to stick a thumb in the mayor's eye and save his Westchester, car-commuting constituents a few bucks.

But the game of chicken has gone long enough, and the debt are retiree obligations are so great, that it may be too late. It is likely to go to its logical conclusion -- bankruptcy and shutdown -- or the MTA is likely to limp along doing worse and worse until most agree that a bankruptcy and shutdown would have been preferable. The most selfish members of their generations have won.

I stand next to a bicycle.