Will a Greener New York Help or Hurt the City's Working Poor?

April 24, 2007— -- The mayor of New York City hopes a proposed tax on commuters will reduce congestion and help make the city greener, but it's the loss of green in commuters' wallets that has some drivers and their representatives worried.

In an ambitious speech made to mark Earth Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined 127 proposed environmental projects for the city's transit, water and energy sectors. But the proposal that's surely the most controversial would impose a tax on motorists when they drive through the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan.

Under the three-year pilot program, which is similar to projects in London, Stockholm and Singapore, motorists would be charged $8, and trucks $21, to enter Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays during business hours.

City officials said the "congestion charge" would reduce traffic and pollution, and the money collected -- an estimated $400 million in the first year -- will go toward public transit projects.

"Let's face up to the fact that our population growth is putting our city on a collision course with the environment, which itself is growing more unstable and uncertain," Bloomberg said.

But commuters and politicians said the toll, collected electronically and without the use of tollbooths, penalizes drivers from the outer boroughs and suburbs, and ignores other measures that could reduce congestion.

"We don't like it," said Robert Sinclair Jr., manager of media relations for the Autombile Association of America's New York chapter. "There are lots of other things that could be tried, like bus rapid transit, stricter enforcement of double-parking regulations, and signal timing to make traffic move more smoothly.

"Motorists are already overburdened by fees, surcharges and tolls," Sinclair said.

Bill Gould, the marketing director for a jewelry company in midtown, said his daily commute from Long Island can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and half, and he questioned the mayor's timing.

"I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for having a long-range program, but he needs to slowly deploy different elements in his plan. Until additional elements are completed, like staging areas for parking, or the Second Avenue subway, I think it is ill advised to start the program."

Commuters from the suburbs, like Gould, however, will not feel the effects as much as those who live in New York City's outer boroughs.

More than half of the more than 250,000 motorists driving into the city every day come from Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and, according to the AAA's Sinclair, are working class. "More than half come from the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, and have an average income of $43,000. You need to make $75,000 to be considered middle class," Sinclair said.

"People who most need to drive are the ones who are least served by subway. For most people living in Southeast Queens the closest subway is 4 miles away."

Bronx borough resident Adolofo Carrion raised a number of questions regarding the proposal's effect not only on the working class but on small-business owners.

"The goal of reducing traffic and all of its impacts on our central business district is exactly right. We must explore whether or not congestion pricing makes sense for New York City. The important considerations are, does this unfairly burden and indirectly tax working families? Is the projected $500 million in revenue offset by a loss of business activity," said Carrion.

But according to Bruce Schaller, a transportation consultant, the tax will ultimately help poor commuters, not hurt them.

"There are not that many poor people driving into Manhattan for work. … The money earned will benefit poor people by improving public transit for them," he said.

"I've thought about this question a lot," Bloomberg said Sunday. "I was a skeptic myself. But I looked at the facts and that's what I'm asking New Yorkers to do. And the fact is, in cities like London and Singapore, fees succeeded in reducing congestion and improving air quality."

But the London program has its detractors too. Some, like John McGoldrick of Britain's National Alliance Against Tolls, said the system is prohibitively expensive, that the worst sorts of pollutants have increased in the atmosphere, and that drivers of little means have been effectively forced off the road.

Last June, Angie Bray, a conservative member of the London Assembly, said of the congestion tax, "Londoners have been badly let down. Mayor Ken Livingston's congestion charge is a charge on congestion that we once got for free."

Other projects Bloomberg proposed include a tax exemption for hybrid vehicles, funding for new parks and school playgrounds, and the planting of 1 million trees over the next 10 years.