Weprin, Sears Pan Mayor's Congestion Pricing Plan
BY JOHN TOSCANO

City Councilmembers David Weprin and Helen Sears vigorously opposed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial congestion pricing plan at a recent hearing by a special legislative commission.

Weprin (D- Hollis) attacked the mayor's proposal as a "regressive tax that punishes the middle class and working families and would hurt more than it helps".

Sears (D- Jackson Heights), citing the negative impact the plan would have on her district, urged: "It needs to be reexamined to properly represent the nature and needs of our communities and the city as a whole."

Weprin, the chairman of the council Finance Committee, pressed the point that New Yorkers are already struggling to survive here and the situation could get worse, as Con Edison is seeking higher rates and transit fares will probably be increased.

Weprin said the proposed plan will charge $8 for any car to enter the area below 86th Street in the Manhattan Central Business District (CBD). This will hurt people who must go there for business and other purposes, such as seeing doctors or visiting hospitals.

Besides that, Weprin said, the $8 fee will probably go higher, judging from London's experience with a similar plan.

Weprin proposed a 10-point alternative plan which, he said, "punishes individuals who violate current traffic laws, not those who are trying to make a living". His plan calls for incentives to business and commuters in hopes it will change their daily commuting habits. The plan would not jeopardize the $354 million federal grant that the mayor hopes to secure for his proposal.

Weprin's alternative plan includes several changes that more stringently enforce traffic laws and will lead to more fines, which would discourage driving in the city. Other proposed, similar changes in the CBD would add more red light cameras to record traffic infractions, enforcement of the "block the box" law to cite more violators and the hiring of additional Taxi and Limousine Commission code enforcement officers to nab Weprin (D- Hollis) attacked the mayor's proposal as a "regressive tax that punishes the middle class and working families and would hurt more than it helps".

Sears (D- Jackson Heights), citing the negative impact the plan would have on her district, urged: "It needs to be reexamined to

properly represent the nature and needs of

our communities and the city as a whole."

cabs for picking up fares in the middle of the street.

Two other proposed changes would be to charge higher bridge and tunnel tolls at peak hours to discourage driving and lowering subway and bus fares to encourage more mass transit use and less car driving.

Another Weprin change would add more parking meters inside and outside the CBD to prevent surrounding boroughs from becoming parking lots. Also, Weprin would build more municipal parking garages for commuters to make driving to these facilities and then taking mass transit more enticing.

Finally, Weprin would give tax incentives to commuters who switch from driving to mass transit and to employers who subsidize their workers' mass transit costs and companies that switch their deliveries from peak to off-peak hours.

Sears told the commission that under the mayor's proposal, "The streets of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Corona and Woodside will become free parking lots for [commuters] who drive from areas with poor public transportation to the communities [like those in her district] which surround large public transit hubs."

Municipal parking lots are not an option in Western Queens, said Sears, and residential parking permits would do little to curtail the effects of commuter parking on residential streets.

Sears pointed out that the impacts of congestion pricing will be felt on streets in her district immediately. To offset this she called for reducing the number of trucks on residential streets in her district while speeding up commerce in the city.