Group Opposed to Drive Tax Sees Drop in Traffic
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Traffic in Midtown Manhattan has decreased over the past nine years, while the use of mass transit is on the rise, a new report soon to be released by a group opposed to Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal shows.
The Coalition to Keep NYC Congestion-Tax Free, a group of business, civic, and automobile associations that is funded largely by the Metropolitan Parking Association, finds that the number of automobiles and trucks driving into Manhattan each day declined by about 3.5% between 1998 and 2004, while the number of people using mass transit to travel into Midtown rose by 10%.
The number of cars in Manhattan is not rising, and the city should look at double-parked vehicles and poor construction site management as more practical and egalitarian ways to reduce congestion, according to the report by Appleseed, a research group.
The report concludes that the time motorists would spend paying their congestion fees or appealing their fines would cost the city about $100 million a year — another number that has not been accounted for.
The volume of traffic would likely increase on roads surrounding the tolled area of Manhattan, such as the Cross-Bronx Expressway, according to the report.
A number of members of the small-business community, health care service providers, and senior citizens who commute into Manhattan for specialized medical care are expected to joined the coalition in the next few weeks to express opposition Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal, according to the group’s spokesman Walter McCaffrey, a former Council member of Queens.
Proponents of Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal argue that traffic congestion is costing the region’s economy $13 billion a year, and that even small businesses would gain under the plan. “The devil’s in the details,” the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, said. “Until the negotiations take place about who would be exempt and who would have to pay, it’s easy to scare people.” Most business improvement districts in the city are also on board with the plan, she said.
