Streetsblog New York City

It’s too early to know if Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s answer to the Ravitch Commission MTA bailout plan, which includes $2 tolls on East and Harlem River bridges, will make it through the state legislature. But, despite raising less money and reducing traffic much less than congestion pricing or peak-hour tolling would, the plan is a big advance and would provide a number of benefits beyond raising funds for transit. Streetsblog will look at the implications of the bridge tolls in more detail, but based on public comments and the Ravitch Commission report, here's a quick summary of what's in the offing if the plan passes.

General details:

• New tolls on East and Harlem River Bridges equaling "a single ride subway fare," ($2 each way.*)
  
• Management, possibly ownership, of East and Harlem River Bridges transferred to MTA from NYC DOT
• Maintenance and operation of East and Harlem River Bridges transferred to MTA from NYC DOT
• Truck tolls pro-rated on "single subway ride fare" or based on other MTA major crossings:$10 to $20.25 for 18-wheelers
  

Revenue (estimates only, given unknown truck toll and cost of tolling system):

• $450 million to MTA operating and capital budget
• $50-$100 million savings to NYC DOT in annual bridge maintenance and capital costs 

Traffic Reduction:

• Major reductions in truck traffic on Manhattan Bridge, where trucks now constitute 25 percent of vehicle traffic
• Major reductions  in overall traffic on Canal Street due to reductions in truck traffic
• Modest traffic reductions in Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn, Northern Manhattan, South Bronx

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A reader forwards this email from Assembly member Jim Brennan's office, apparently sent in response to the "Keep New York Moving" petition in support of an MTA rescue plan:

Thank you for your email regarding the MTA. the Ravitch Commission has identified that that the MTA faces a combined capital budget and operating deficit shortfall of over $2 billion a year, to continue its construction program, eliminate service cutbacks, and mitigate fare hikes to the 8% range.

I support the proposed payroll tax and would certainly vote for a mix of taxes and fees related to vehicle ownership or use to raise the sums of money the MTA needs. I also agree that the Legislature needs to act as quickly as possible to address the problem.

It's not exactly getting out in front of the issue, but I suppose an indirect statement like this is the politically palatable way to say bridge tolls are a good idea. If you've received any constituent letters from your elected officials in Albany regarding their stance on funding transit, tell us about it in the comments.

We're hearing from advocates that the Ravitch Commission's package of recommendations is getting a warmer reception from state legislators than the congestion pricing proposal did last year, but there's still a lot of convincing to be done. One source in Albany tells us that the key to adopting Ravitch's MTA rescue plan, including bridge tolls, may lie with State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, and whether the Queens Democrat is willing and able to mobilize his conference in support of it.

Readers interested in helping out this weekend to drum up public support for the Ravitch plan are in luck. Transportation Alternatives is organizing six petition drives in Brooklyn and Queens starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and they're looking for a few good volunteers. Email wiley [at] transalt.org and specify where you'd like to pitch in: Astoria, Jackson Heights, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Williamsburg or Bushwick. Also, keep an eye out in your neighborhood paper for T.A.'s local ad campaign (posted after the jump).

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This afternoon, the State Senate is holding a hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall to review the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue plan. Albany has until March 25th to stave off major fare hikes and service cuts, a doomsday scenario that would spell disaster for transit riders and choke New York City streets with more auto traffic.

If you couldn't make it to the hearing today, the Campaign for New York's Future has an email action to voice support for a plan, like Ravitch's, that asks drivers and businesses to provide a stable funding stream for transit. An MTA rescue package that puts a price on free bridges would do far more to reduce traffic congestion than an alternative like Bill Thompson's proposal to raise vehicle registration fees, so I suggest a slight edit to the email script that will reach your state reps:

...riders cannot bear the brunt of this crisis alone -- we need contributions from all sectors, including businesses and drivers who currently commute via free bridges, because all sectors benefit when the trains and buses move millions of New Yorkers every day.

Tell us in the comments how you personalized your message.

Today Ted Kheel released a revised version of his plan to fund transit through a congestion pricing mechanism on motor vehicle traffic. Streetsblog spoke to one of Kheel's lead analysts, Charles Komanoff, about the updated plan (see the major components here) and why he believes it offers a more comprehensive answer to New York City's transportation problems than the MTA rescue package unveiled by the Ravitch Commission last week. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Streetsblog: What are the major ways that the second version of the Kheel Plan differs from the original version?

Charles Komanoff: The major difference -- and it's kind of profound -- is the time of day and also weekend versus weekday pricing for both motor vehicles and the subways. A very cool result is that the average cordon fee under our plan would work out to be around $16, so we’re matching the number we had before, but we're doing it with a range from $5 to $25 that is geared to the amount of congestion that the trip causes. Which makes much more sense because the city gains a good deal more from eliminating a cordon car trip at eight in the morning on a Tuesday than from three in the morning on a Sunday.

A second difference is that we don’t have 100 percent free subways anymore but we have something that is in some ways better, which is peak pricing. This will spread the peak load in the subways so that 22 out of 24 hours of the day -- and all the hours on a weekend -- there will be more subway use than there is now. During the two peak hours -- 8 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. -- there will be considerably less subway use than there is now, which means not only do we address the concerns that people had previously -- “My goodness the subway is so crowded now at rush hour, you’re going to make it worse!” -- we’ve defused that argument because during those two worst hours there’s going to be less subway use than there is now. And I should make clear the six hours a day in which we're going to charge on weekdays are 7 to 10 in the morning and 4 to 7 [in the p.m. rush].

There is a third important change. The taxi surcharge is now 50 percent; previously it was 25 percent. Now remember that medallion taxis under our plan are not going to pay a cordon fee. You couldn’t do it because they’d be going back four or five times. I wish we could charge for Manhattan residents who have cars that are just going to be driving within the CBD and not breaking the cordon. We can’t get to that and that’s got to happen in the future, but at the very least we can charge a healthy surcharge for medallion taxis and that accomplishes three things. One, it generates almost $700 million and the system needs money. Second, it acts as somewhat of a break on what could otherwise be a big boom in taxi use as the streets get less congested... And third -- and this is where the politics come in -- who is going to pay the lion’s share of this taxi surcharge? It’s going to be Manhattanites, so we are really trying to balance the equities geographically.

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Ted Kheel and his band of transportation analysts are releasing an updated version of their low-cost transit proposal, which they are pitching as an alternative to the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue package. The revised Kheel Plan retains the original's congestion zone cordon, charging vehicles to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street. The major twist is that drivers and subway riders would be charged variable-rate fees depending on the time of day (straphangers would only pay a fare during the morning and evening peaks).

I spoke to Kheel Planner Charles Komanoff about the new version, why politicians in Brooklyn and Queens should embrace it, and how it stacks up against the Ravitch Plan. We'll post the interview later today. Follow the jump for the major points from Kheel Plan 2.

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Brad hit the major points from today's Ravitch/Paterson/Bloomberg press conference. Here are some more details on the MTA rescue plan they unveiled. (The whole Ravitch Commission report is available as a PDF.)

• Bridge tolls would be cashless, using E-ZPass and license plate capture technology, not toll booths. The city would transfer ownership of East and Harlem River bridges to the MTA. Ravitch described this process as "very complicated" and said discussions were ongoing, but did not specify which legislative approvals would be required.
• The payroll tax, expected to generate $1.5 billion yearly, would be used to finance bonds for the MTA capital program. Ravitch described this as a lockbox structure that would keep farebox revenue separate from capital funding. (The underlying principle is that straphangers should pay for operating the system, not the capital program.) An exception would be made during the first year the tax is in effect, when it would be used to stave off deep service cuts and hold down the fare hike to eight percent, as opposed to the 23 percent hike that was unveiled last month. The state legislature will have to approve the tax.
• Bus service would be extended before the bridge tolls take effect. Ravitch endorsed BRT as a vital component of the rescue package, but did not give specifics about the number of lines to be added. He referred instead to the city's plan for pilot routes in every borough. "The more we're able to demonstrate to the public that this is a good thing, the better," he said.
  
• Expect action in the state legislature soon. "Time is critical because the MTA is required by law to adopt a balanced budget in December," Ravitch said. The fare increase process will start in January if the legislature does not act by then.

Paterson and Bloomberg gave the plan full endorsements, with the governor portraying its release as a day of reckoning. "The delays, the ways in which responsibility has been shirked if not just ignored in the past, to live for another day -- that day has come," he said.

City Room has a good run-down of the press event and some early reactions from advocacy groups and local pols. Looks like many of our electeds see the commuter tax and car registration fees as their preferred alternatives to bridge tolls.

Former MTA chief Richard Ravitch stood with Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning to discuss details of his commission's plan to keep the cash-starved MTA afloat both in the short-term and in years to come. Streetsblog's Ben Fried attended the news conference and will have more later. For now, here are a few highlights:

• The Ravitch plan would bring a "mobility tax" of 33 cents per $100 that would be levied on payrolls across the region, expected to raise $1.5 billion annually.
• As expected, the proposals include tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges, projected to bring in net revenues of $600 million per year.
• Ravitch described the plan, to be translated into legislation immediately by the governor's office, as "a major stimulus bill for New York State," which would generate up to $15 billion in wages.
• The plan recommends the MTA be allowed to impose fare increases not more than every two years, pegged at the rate of inflation, without public hearings. 
• Ravitch described his commission's work as "an effort to spread the burden among the largest group that one possibly can." 
• Governor Paterson expressed full support for the recommendations. Echoing Ravitch, Paterson described the proposals as "holistic." Said the governor: "The ways in which responsibility may have been shirked, or ignored, in the past, to live for another day -- that day has come, and we're going to have to make those tough choices."
• Oddly, perhaps, MTA head Lee Sander did not participate in the announcement.

 

The much-anticipated report from the Ravitch Commission is scheduled to be released within the hour. The report is expected to include recommendations for an eight percent increase in transit fares along with tolls on East River and, possibly, Harlem River bridges -- measures deemed necessary to avert the MTA "doomsday" scenario of a 23 percent fare hike and massive service cuts. And yet, in this morning's media coverage, we couldn't find one quote from a politician other than Governor David Paterson who was willing to keep an open mind on the idea of new bridge tolls.

Here's some of what was said in advance of the report's release.

From the Times, "Paterson Voices Support for M.T.A. Rescue Plan": 

The governor said he was still reviewing the plan, but was "quite pleased with what I see so far." "As an alternative to a fare hike,” he said, "I think it’s very viable."

The governor said at a news conference in Manhattan, "The message we keep trying to deliver is that we are in a very difficult fiscal time, and so it’s either going to be fare hikes or it’s going to be tolls and a combination of payroll taxes, but it’s the only way."

"Those who are upset about this, what I would urge them to consider is, it’s the inaction in the past that’s led to this overwhelming deficit," he said. "This is a very difficult endeavor, but we are trying to show leadership."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said that he had not seen the final report, but that he favored keeping the fare affordable. "I am not afraid of reasonable tax proposals that will provide the revenues that are necessary to do that," he said.

"Even the businesses that might be called upon to pay it would be better served by having that affordable revenue stream there, and an affordable fare," Mr. Silver said. "We can’t afford service cuts that make the subways and buses inaccessible."

Asked about tolls on the bridges, however, he reiterated that he was waiting to see the report.

Some of the difficulty that proponents will face in winning approval for the plan could be seen at a meeting of Democratic members of the Assembly in Brooklyn on Wednesday, some of whom voiced misgivings about both tolls and taxes.

"This proposal is the beginning, not the end, of a process, and there’s going to be a tremendous amount of deliberation before a final product is acted upon," said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. "We have to make sure that the outer boroughs don’t bear a disproportionate share of the pain."

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Mobilizing the Region has scooped up some interesting nuggets about the Ravitch Commission's soon-to-be-released report:

...insiders tell MTR that Ravitch is likely to recommend improved bus service, including increased investment in bus rapid transit and the establishment of a MTA Regional Bus Authority. The latter would take control of suburban bus systems like Long Island Bus and Westchester's Bee-Line Bus, potentially ending the annual battles over funding and resulting in substantial service improvements for bus riders. The former could offer near-term improvements in transit service for many outer borough residents out of the subway's reach...

Improved MTA oversight, transparency and strengthening of governance may also make the short list of recommendations, according to those who have seen the report.

When the commission held its first public hearing this September, there were still a lot of unsettled questions about its exact purpose. Several speakers asked Ravitch to extend the scope of his recommendations beyond how to fund the MTA -- to examine the agency's operations and identify reforms that can build its credibility. Looks like that testimony will be reflected in the final product.

Photo of Select Bus Service: Brad Aaron