‘Growth or Gridlock?’

While we share the goal expressed by Kathryn Wylde in her op-ed piece “Growth or Gridlock?” [June 12, 2006] to alleviate traffic in New York, her solution of imposing congestion pricing misses the mark. Contrary to the claims of Ms. Wylde, congestion pricing does not alleviate traffic nor does it promote economic vitality.

Recently, the Queens Chamber of Commerce sponsored an economic impact study and found that congestion pricing would be devastating to the city’s economy, causing a loss of $2.7 billion in economic output, 23,100 jobs, and $235 million in city and state taxes.

Particularly hard hit would be the working people and small businesses (taxing each driver approximately $3,500 a year) in Queens and the outer boroughs. It also divides the city and favors the residents of Manhattan below 60th Street, and discriminates against the residents of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, and in Manhattan above 60th Street.

Studies have also shown that congestion pricing shifts the congestion to the outer perimeter of the congestion pricing zone, which in this case would be Queens, Brooklyn, and above 60th Street in Manhattan, turning those areas into huge parking lots for commuters dropping their cars off and transferring to mass transit to enter Manhattan’s central business district, further damaging our local businesses.

We believe that the primary solution to the goal of alleviating the flow of traffic is to improve the already overtaxed mass transportation infrastructure and improved traffic management.

Currently, the mass transit system is ill prepared to absorb the additional 164,500 riders that would seek to avoid the congestion pricing fee and flock to the subways and buses during rush hour. Many residents and businesses in Queens have no readily accessible bus and subway service and would be crippled by the additional tax of congestion pricing ($3,500 per year). The astronomical cost of gasoline has already resulted in reduced commercial and private use of vehicles, is already serving as a congestion pricing mechanism, and is having a staggering economic impact on the middle class.

Rather than bludgeoning our already overtaxed residents, Ms. Wylde’s organization would be better serving our community by publicizing and promoting the bold initiative of Mayor Bloomberg, who implemented an innovative traffic management initiative in Staten Island. That plan, which includes stricter traffic enforcement, i.e., illegally parked vehicles, more traffic agents, modifying the flow of traffic and traffic signals, and greater use of the rail system to transport commercial goods, has been a success.

Other ways to alleviate traffic without harming the economy include greater use of information technology to manage the flow of traffic, better coordination of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, reviewing existing city policies governing the pricing of on-street parking in the Central Business District, improved management of construction activity throughout, and incentives for businesses to schedule deliveries in off-hours.

Ms. Wylde’s argument is flawed because it fails to recognize the economic and quality-of-life cost resulting from the implementation of a congestion-pricing scheme. Perhaps those in ivory towers who are driven around town in limousines are out of touch with the real world and fail to grasp what our elected officials understand: that those least able to afford these schemes will bear the burden.

Those “fortunate” enough to afford the congestion “tax” will have $3,500 less in disposable income. Real people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and small-business people with razor thin profit margins will feel the pain. The less well off who can’t afford the additional $3,500 in tax will be forced onto overcrowded busses and subways, many already so overcrowded as to be packed like sardines.

We have a well-balanced transportation system; one-third of all people in the entire United States who use mass transportation live in the New York metropolitan area. Why resort to congestion pricing schemes, which economists predict would have dire economic consequences and would upset our delicate equilibrium, when we have so many practical solutions that have been embraced by our mayor?

Fortunately, our mayor and other elected officials see congestion pricing for what it is: another tax on the already overburdened working people and small businesses that, with the skyrocketing cost of gas, are struggling to make ends meet.

RAYMOND IRRERA
President
Queens Chamber of Commerce
Jackson Heights, N.Y.

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