Without Fee, City Drivers Unlikely To Change Habits
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Most New Yorkers have access to mass transit and drive by choice, not by necessity, a new survey by the Partnership for New York City shows. While they acknowledge that traffic is a serious problem in the city, those drivers would be unlikely to change their commuting habits unless a charge to use the city’s most overcrowded roads were imposed, the poll of 500 driving New Yorkers shows.
About 46% of New York City residents who drive into Manhattan south of 86th street would switch to mass transit options if there were an $8 charge to use those streets during peak hours, as Mayor Bloomberg has proposed.
The survey also finds that New Yorkers are almost evenly split on the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan: about 45% of New Yorkers said they supported the concept, and 47% said they opposed it after they were informed of the potential economic and environmental benefits of reducing the number of cars on the roads.
