Congestion Pricing Dead on the Table

Oh, it is indeed a sad day for New York. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has officially pronounced the death of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's vaunted plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan south of 60th street, which the city council had just recently voted 30-20 to endorse.

The only legitimate complaint against the plan, as I see it, was Governor Jon Corzine's (D-NJ), who is right to be steamed when New Jerseyans are already getting charged ever-increasing tolls to come into Manhattan at any point. But he certainly doesn't have a vote in the New York State Assembly, so what gives? Transit access for the outer boroughs is only getting worse, especially as those areas untouched by New York City Transit grow ever denser. With higher federal subsidies a far-fetched fantasy and congestion pricing now deceased, city, state and federal officials ought to be scrambling for alternate sources of funding for an essential aspect of intra-urban infrastructure.