Thanks, Assembly
Great news - the NY State Assembly has refused to hold a vote on congestion pricing. This guarantees that congestion pricing will not be coming to a congested downtown near you anytime soon. So we can all go back to sitting in traffic, wasting time and money and energy. Our deliveries will continue to take that much longer (and cost that much more). Our bus rides through midtown will continue to be slower than the average walking pace. Our city, which has the greatest public transportation system in the world, will retain its car-centric transportation policies. Its in the constitution, or something.
Oh, and all that money that was going to go toward improving our transportation system? Hello, Peoria:
After Mr. Silver announced the plan’s demise, a statement was released by Mary E. Peters, the federal transportation secretary, indicating that her department would now seek to distribute those funds ($354 million) to traffic-fighting proposals in other cities.
The Mayor is not pleased (we share his displeasure):
It takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience on an issue that has been debated, and amended significantly to resolve many outstanding issues, for more than a year. Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air.
