[chris08876]

Cuomo's plan to ease New York City's gridlock should be the first of many

It is easy—and justifiable—to moan about how much control Albany has over the city's affairs. The state dictates nearly all of our tax rates. Our subways and buses are run by a state authority under the governor's thumb. The city can't even install red-light cameras without a green light from the state Legislature. Upstate and suburban lawmakers' agendas impede the city's interests in the best of circumstances, which these certainly are not, given upstate's economic struggles and Mayor Bill de Blasio's toxic relationships with Senate Republicans and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But none of that is going to change any time soon, so it behooves the city to cheer when Cuomo champions solutions to our problems—as he is finally doing to improve our traffic-choked roads and deteriorating subway system. Ten years after then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed congestion pricing, in 2007, the governor has declared it to be an idea whose time has come. From a policy perspective, that has been obvious all along, but Cuomo was referring to the political environment. In any case, his embrace of the concept, however belated, is worth celebrating.

Pricing, the bedrock of a free market, is the best way to apportion something valuable, such as the ability to drive into Manhattan's central business district. The lack of tolls on the East River's jam-packed bridges induces motorists to take irrational routes and clog Brooklyn and Queens streets. It makes no sense for those spans to be free while the parallel tunnels are $5.76 for cars and $10.40 for trucks, and subway rides cost $2.75. Pricing based on congestion also means lowering tolls on bridges such as the Verrazano-Narrows, which makes toll reform politically viable: Senators in both Staten Island's Republican and Independent Democratic conferences support the idea. And it speeds businesses' deliveries and service calls.

Cuomo has already improved traffic by introducing peak and off-peak rates on Port Authority tunnels, highway-speed toll collection on Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels, and half-price tolls on trucks making nighttime deliveries. To convince New Yorkers that he's not merely raising revenue to fix the subways, he could do more to get the change in behavior he is seeking. Staying open for nighttime deliveries costs businesses money. But it benefits the economy overall. The practice just may require further incentives for companies to embrace it.

=====================
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...ugh-congestion