Jam Session

October 8, 2006

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/...
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A leading business group has tallied the costs of traffic, and they're doozies. Economists hired by the Partnership for New York City concluded that congestion carries an annual price tag of $13 billion in added expenses, reduced productivity, lost commerce and wasted fuel. Those burdens cost at least 37,000 jobs. And with the city's population projected to grow by 1 million over the next 25 years, gridlock will only worsen, according to the number-crunchers.

The partnership did the calculations to support a call for transportation planning. The solution is to get people out of cars by increasing the availability of reliable, affordable mass transit. And, possibly, by boosting the cost of driving into Manhattan's business district to the point that some motorists switch to public transportation.

This is called congestion pricing, and they have it in London. There, drivers are charged about $15 a day to enter the central business district from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays. Traffic volume has fallen by 17%, and the average speed has climbed from 8.5 to 10.1 mph. And the partnership says London may serve as a model for New York.

While the idea is politically dead on arrival, a serious study would shed light on the value of congestion pricing here. Would benefits of speedier traffic outweigh the pain of hammering thousands of drivers, many of whom lack viable public transit, for, say, $75 a week? We're skeptical, very skeptical. But let's have a look.