Nearly a year after Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a congestion pricing bill on Earth Day 2007, it was voted down during a closed-door meeting in Albany. Advocates of the defeated bill are still glad for the renewed debate about how to clear the  air and the city’s congested highways.

The bill was part of the larger PlaNYC 2030 scheme put forward by the Bloomberg Administration, intended to make New York City a greener, more modern and efficient urban environment.

But the traffic control bill wasn’t meant to be. Democratic Majority leader Sheldon Silver announced on April 7, 2008 that, despite passing New York City Council and receiving a stamp of approval from a special commission, the congestion pricing bill, designed to charge drivers entering Manhattan an $8 toll, was dead.

Leroy Comrie Jr., city council representative from Queens, never agreed with the plan.

“Our federal government has seen fit to bail out billion dollar Wall Street firms, while real families in this City are losing homes and jobs. And the message from this Council, in the midst of this crisis, is to impose another tax. I will not in good conscience vote in favor of this plan,” he stated in a letter to the speaker.

Walter McCaffrey, from the opposition group Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free, responded to the vote in Albany saying, “It is now time to consider real traffic mitigation alternatives that all New Yorkers can agree with.”  

In the latest PlaNYC progress report, the Bloomberg administration says at least they “engaged New York City in the most significant transportation discussion in a generation.”

The report says unfinished and unfunded projects like the 2nd Avenue Subway and the Fulton Transit Center may not be completed. It called the defeat a loss of, “a $4.5 billion source of capital for transit and the $354 million that the federal government had offered for short-term transit improvements.”

Rather than let this issue stay under the rug, environmental protection groups are proposing parking and bus solutions. Bike advocates are trying to convince more drivers to leave their cars at home. The New York League of Conservation Voters issued a report, “Building a Greener Future,” that offers numerous ways for citizens and government to work together to improve the city’s condition.

“Despite the Legislature's rejection of congestion pricing,” the report said, “the city can still take steps to reduce vehicle-related carbon emissions by creating a variable-price parking program to increase the rate for street parking in the Manhattan Central Business District during working hours.”

Wiley Norvell, Communications Director for Transportation Alternatives, said it’s about time a modern city like New York catches up with the rest of the world.

“It may seem revolutionary, but in the third world they’ve been doing things like this for ten years,” he said.

Produced by Annie Shreffler, graduate student at the CUNY School of Journalism May 2008