Since February 2003 the city of London has charged a fee for driving private automobiles in its central area during weekdays as a way to reduce traffic congestion and raise revenues to fund transport improvements. This has significantly reduced traffic congestion, improved bus and taxi service, and generates substantial revenues. Public acceptance has grown and there is now support to expand the program to other parts of London and other cities in the U.K. This is the first congestion pricing program in a major European city, and its success suggests that congestion pricing may become more politically feasible elsewhere. (A report from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to institute a congestion pricing plan. New York is one of 9 cities competing for up to $1.2 billion in federal government funds to start pilot projects, and it could garner as much as $500 million to support its plan. Unfortunately, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver appears to be an “immovable force” in opposition to the plan. Unless he calls the Assembly into session tomorrow and it passes legislation supporting Bloomberg's plan, New York will lose its opportunity to compete for the funding.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
As the Congressional Budget Office pointed out more than three years ago:
It is unlikely that the United States could ever “build its way out of congestion,” even with massive increases in spending on highways. The reason is that greater road capacity – which initially permits greater speeds--tends to attract motorists who previously used other roads, traveled at off-peak times, took public transit, or moved farther out in the suburbs. Soon the road, despite its larger size, becomes as congested as it was before.
London, Stockholm, and Singapore have congestion pricing schemes. I.B.M. is managing Stockholm's. I.B.M.'s chief of congestion pricing says of the Stockholm system, “I.B.M. Stockholm runs the whole system.” Guess where I.B.M.'s corporate headquarters are – Armonk, New York. Guess what else I.B.M. says: “I.B.M. is in discussion with major cities worldwide [about setting up congestion pricing schemes], including some in China.”
By encouraging congestion pricing schemes in major U.S. cities we not only reduce carbon emissions, air pollution, and road congestion, we also provide opportunities for American businesses to develop technology and software that they will sell to customers worldwide.
So if you hear a politician say that we can’t afford to impose green standards because it will cost us jobs, tell them: “Hogwash.” The more we elevate, expand and globalize green, clean-power standards the more we play to the strengths of the American economy, American jobs and American-based companies. (Tom Friedman, “The green road less traveled,” The New York Times, 15 July 2007)
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