Finally!
I’m sure that the grin on the face of Aaron Naparstek and
other Streetsblog authors is going
to be very hard to wipe off today, in the wake of news that mayor Michael
Bloomberg has decided to stick his neck out and advocate
for a New York City congestion charge.
The details will emerge on Sunday, but according to the NYT, this morning,
the call for a congestion charge will be combined, sensibly, with many other
proposals in a far-reaching project with the rather cumbersome name of PlaNYC.
As the population of New York continues to grow, and as the cost of traffic
congestion (last estimated at $13
billion per year) continues to rise, doing nothing is simply not an option.
Congestion pricing is never popular before it is introduced. But if the experience
in London and Stockholm is any guide, people will learn to love it – just
as they learned to love New York’s smoking ban – once they see how much
better the city becomes as a result.