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Driving in N.Y. could take a bigger toll

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 8, 2007

NEW YORK - New York City, where tolls are $6 and putting your car in a parking garage for an hour can run you $20, is already an expensive place to drive. Now the mayor wants to make it so costly some people won't even bother driving and will take mass transit instead.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing to reduce traffic and pollution by charging cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan.

New York would become the first U.S. city to adopt a "congestion pricing" plan of this magnitude.

The proposal is similar to a system that London has used since 2003, and officials there say it has significantly reduced congestion.

The idea got a boost Thursday from U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who announced that New York is one of nine semifinalists to receive federal funds to fight traffic.

"This plan would keep the city that never sleeps from becoming the city that never moves, " Peters said of the congestion pricing plan.

It is part of an ambitious series of environmental measures that Bloomberg has been announcing in recent months. The city is converting all taxis to hybrid vehicles, and the Republican billionaire businessman is proposing to replace conventional light bulbs with more efficient ones and cut New York's carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030.

Under the traffic plan, motorists would be charged extra to drive into Manhattan below 86th Street.

Backers say the plan would cut traffic jams and pollution by discouraging driving, and would also generate nearly $400-million in just its first year - money that could go toward buses, subways and other mass transit.

The mayor's office projects that traffic in the restricted zone would decrease 6.3 percent.

Environmentalists have embraced the plan, but it would need approval from state Legislature, and many lawmakers from the city's outer boroughs and bedroom communities are against it.

The other cities competing for a total of $1.1-billion in federal funds are Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Peters said up to five cities will split the money, and the winners will be announced by mid August.

There would be no toll booths under the plan, just a network of cameras that capture license plate numbers and either charge a driver's existing account or generate a bill to be paid each time. Trucks would be charged $21 a day and cars would pay $8 to enter the restricted zone on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Commuters who already pay a toll to come into Manhattan via tunnels and bridges could apply that against the new fee. For example, a person already paying a $6 toll to go through the Lincoln Tunnel would be charged an extra $2 under the plan.

[Last modified June 8, 2007, 01:20:13]