The Oil Drum

What a week we have had in New York politics! On Monday the Mayor went to Albany to try to forge a deal with the state's power brokers to get approval on his congestion pricing plan (as well as many other environmental initiatives). With neither legislative branch even holding a vote on the matter and a Federal deadline for $500 million passing by, it seemed that the whole ambitious plan may have crumbled under the weight of Albany's inertia and political wrangling.

But lo and behold, there is some sort of deal that is shaping up to let the Mayor's congestion pricing initiative live to fight another day. Streetsblog has a good summary of where the politics stand:

There still may be some flexibility for a few days extension by the Feds, but for now it looks like the Albany political gridlock has once again kept the state from enacting good public policy supported by nearly all the good government groups, all the major newspapers, health and transportation advocates here in the city. It had the support of all the citywide elected officials - the Mayor, the Speaker of the City Council, the Comptroller and Public Advocate. It even had the support of the Governor and the leader of the State Senate, Joseph Bruno.

So that's probably it. There are talks of a compromise sometime in the distant future, but for now, the momentum is completely lost. New York's Albany politics have conspired to condemn another generation to higher transit fares, less service, more traffic congestion, lower air quality and encouraging more people to drive into the city. July 16th should now forever be known as "Congestion Day"

To further explain my perspective on the benefits of congestion pricing, here's a video I did with Streetfilms about congestion pricing standing at the border of where it would be implemented.

Congestion Pricing remains a hot topic in the power corridors of New York City and State politics with a looming Monday deadline on Federal aid to help finance the start-up costs. As usual, a hard fought issue campaign in New York comes down to the Governor (Spitzer-D), the Speaker of the State Assembly (Silver-D) and the President of the State Senate (Bruno-R).

In New York, this is known as the three men in a room situation. It means that at this point it really doesn't matter what each individual legislators think because the leader of each branch of the legislature knows that they can swing enough votes to make whatever compromises they want happen. I spoke to two of these frustrated legislators yesterday and today that it's pretty much out of their hands and they will see what the final legislation is probably within an hour before they are forced to vote on it. Such is the poor state of our great democracy here in New York.

Update 6/22: It's official, no congestion pricing agreement was reached before the end of the Spring legislative session and none of the state legislation needed to enable & fund much of Bloomberg's sustainability plan was enacted because of disagreements between Albany's power brokers.

Update 6/21: I'm getting numerous reports in the local news that Congestion Pricing is alive for today pending a compromise bill being debated today.

It seems for now that Congestion Pricing is dead (for now) in the NY State Assembly despite the support of: Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer, NY State Senate Leader Joseph Bruno, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Comptroller Bill Thompson

Major NYC Newspapers:
NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Staten Island Advance

And many community organizations, civic associations, business groups and environmental organizations

Sustainability and transportation advocates are now gearing up for a long hot Summer here in NYC to push for congestion pricing. Sheldon Silver will have to be dragged back for a special session. Line up the School buses, we're going to Albany in late July.

It stands up well as a good synopsis of how congestion pricing will improve NYC's sustainability. Bloomberg is on a roll lately as he unveils his environmental initiatives and explains how in reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gases we can also improve quality of life for millions of people in NYC. It shows how reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gases can be win-win instead of a sacrifice.

Mayor Bloomber formally unveiled his proposed legislation that needs to be passed by the NY State legislature and signed by the Governor to take effect. It is rare that the stars align for many grand proposals of this magnitude, nor that they align so fast. In just 6 weeks since the Mayor announced his PlaNYC initiatives, he has gained the support of all the city's environmental groups as well as many civic and business organizations.

It also now seems that the Mayor has 2 of the 3 pieces he needs at the state level - State Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R) and today, Governor Elliot Spitzer (D). The missing piece at this point in Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver. Silver has scheduled hearings for tomorrow at the NYC Bar Association HQ at 42 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. Stay tuned for the latest on how congestion pricing progresses. It is one of the more controversial pieces of the Mayor's plan, but it is also one of the most important and symbolic pieces. There is generally broad agreement on the other pieces about cleaning up water & land, creating more parks and green buildings.

Go below the fold if you are local.

With all the talk about congestion pricing that's going on in New York the last couple of weeks, momentum is building to do something other than continue to talk about it. And from the first reactions of the political establishment, you can break down the reaction to basically Manhattanites favoring the idea and folks from Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island opposing it.

But based on the chart above, 39% of the total number of people and 606,000 people by car entering the Central business district enter through 60th Street from either the Upper East or Upper West Sides. This includes the all the traffic that enters the CBD from Northern Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester/Rockland Counties, Northern New Jersey GW Bridge) and Connecticut.

What if that's where we start with Congestion Pricing? What would the political landscape look like if we just started with all vehicles going over the strip line at 60th street going south in the morning and north in the afternoon / evening?

The report, titled "Growth or Gridlock" estimates the cost of traffic congestion at $13 Billion and states that "Every year, these losses will grow if something is not done to reduce the number of vehicles moving through the region during the peak periods."

We have written alot about congestion pricing here at NYC:TOD and I strongly believe that this is one of the best ways we could tame oil consumption and dependency in the city.

As usual Streetblog is also on the case tracking this and has a nice history of congestion pricing in NYC.

In New York City, one of the heights of futility is sitting in traffic, no matter if you are in a car, a bus or a taxi. But this week, there is some hope that the tide is turning in reducing traffic congestion through basic incentives that make mass transit more attractive and driving or taxi riding more expensive. While they have not been touted as the start of a cohesive plan to turn the tide against traffic, they may in retrospect be seen as an opening act in taming NYC traffic.

As Enrique Penalosa stated at the Borough President's Transportation Forum, "Transportation policy today means how to reduce car use".

Congestion pricing is often thought of as the single best way to reduce the use of automobilies and create better incentives for mass transit and other means of transport. However last night at a transportation forum hosted by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Councilmember Dan Garodnick it seemed that the debate over congestion pricing was fairly done in Manhattan. BP Stringer called it an "applause line" in Manhattan. But he added that it was something that was very much feared and opposed in the outer boroughs, particularly by powerful interests in Brooklyn and Queens.

And so the stalemate over congestion pricing continues and even if Bloomberg were to vigorously fight for it, he might find his efforts go down in flames much like his West Side Stadium effort. This leaves the balance of the debate to the outerboroughs. What's their plan to reduce traffic congestion? or more to the point, What would they need as a sweetener to make congestion pricing worthwhile?