(NYC) Albany Rebuffs City Traffic Plan - NYT

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Albany Rebuffs City Traffic Plan

By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: July 17, 2007

ALBANY, July 16 — Lawmakers on Monday shelved Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg’s plan to charge a fee to drivers entering the busiest parts
of Manhattan, dealing a setback to the mayor as he tries to raise his
national profile and promote his environmental initiatives.

The State Senate, which had convened in a special session, adjourned
without taking up the plan after it became apparent that the votes for
passage were not there.

Meanwhile, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, proposed sending the
issue to a study commission that would also consider other ways to
reduce traffic, and giving the Legislature until next March to act.

The developments suggested that passage of the mayor’s plan, or one
resembling the original, was unlikely. Asked if congestion pricing was
dead, Senator Martin J. Golden, a Brooklyn Republican who supports
the plan, said, “It doesn’t sound like it’s alive, that’s for sure.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/nyregion/17congestion.html

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Source: Associated Press

NYC Traffic Fee Plan Takes a Beating

Tuesday July 17, 2007 5:31 PM

By SARA KUGLER

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg all but conceded defeat
Tuesday on his plan to reduce traffic by charging drivers extra fees,
saying the state Legislature's failure to act was a “terrible setback”
for the city.

“I can't ascribe motives to the lack of action in Albany, but I can
definitively say the environment and the future quality of life in New
York took a beating,” Bloomberg said in a statement a day after the
plan appeared to collapse at the state Capitol.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6785600,00.html

[rocktivity]

1. I'm glad--I wasn't crazy about it.

I've read the stats about how much less congested and polluted London has become due to congestion pricing. But funny, I haven't read anything about whether or not London's surrounding areas are less congested or polluted!

:headbang:
rocknation

[lurky]

2. I wasn't crazy about the network of cameras...

they were planning to deploy around the city. Thousands of them.

On the other hand, not a day goes by when some freaked-out suburbanite
in an SUV doesn't almost run me over when I'm crossing the street in
Manhattan. I want to shout, "Just take the train like everyone else, asshole!".

Couldn't they achieve the same goal by raising tolls from New Jersey and putting
tollbooths on the East River crossings (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Queensborough, etc)?
It seems like that would effectively achieve the same goal.