Anyone and everyone in New York City knows how horrendous traffic congestion can be. Thankfully I don't drive in the city but for the people I know that do, my deepest sympathies go out to them for braving the mess everyday. The situation seems hopeless, but there is a faint glimmer of hope if only Gotham could grasp it.
From Streetsblog:
As cars and trucks clogged the arteries of lower Manhattan on their way out of the central business district yesterday evening (right), Murray-Clark held forth to a capacity crowd at 7 World Trade Center. Sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences, the lecture also featured Stephen A. Hammer of Columbia University and CUNY’s Dr. Robert "Buzz" Paaswell, director of the University Transportation Research Center and former executive director of the Chicago Transit Authority.
From the start, Murray-Clark said, London Mayor Ken Livingstone pulled no punches regarding his intention to reduce auto traffic. In fact, Livingstone ran on a platform that included congestion pricing. And upon taking office in 2000, he got to work. Today, London is one of two major world cities experiencing a reduction in car trips (Paris is the other).
“It was a bold policy to embark upon,” Murray-Clark said, and one that proceeded through a combination of thoughtful planning and shrewd political maneuvering. Rather than wait years for upgrades to London’s already overcrowded subway system, for example, TfL leveraged congestion pricing revenue to invest heavily in new buses. In order to ease opposition in the early stages, Livingstone offered a 90 percent discount for residents of the congestion zone, and courted the trucking industry by offering it the same rate per vehicle as passenger cars.
Murray-Clark implemented a successful plan that is alleviating the traffic problems in London. The question is would it work in Manhattan? If only New York had a centralized agency that handled traffic concerns then all it would take to implement the plan is a simple action. However in New York, countless 'Authorities' govern various cogs of the New York traffic apparatus. To me, this all seems like a pipe dream in New York and a nice thing to see and visit while in London.
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